A BYTE SHORT TAKE: OkiLaser 400
 
A Slightly Different Laser Printer
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
When is a laser printer not a laser printer? When it's a new
low-price compact LED printer from Okidata. The new OkiLaser 400
is very similar to a standard laser printer except that it's
smaller and less expensive. And one other thing: it doesn't
happen to use a laser.
 
How does it print? The OkiLaser is the latest of a small group of
page printers that uses an array of light-emitting diodes rather
than a laser to produce a print image. The advantage of the LED
array is that it allows the printer manufacturer to use a much
simpler -- and more reliable -- design.
 
In a standard laser printer, a complex system of lenses and
moving mirrors cause a laser beam to scan across a rotating
light-sensitive drum inside the printer. The laser beam must scan
the length of the drum hundreds of times a second.
 
An LED printer is very similar to a laser printer except that it
replaces the laser and its complex lenses and mirrors with a
simple linear array of LEDs. This array is approximately 8.5
inches long, and consists of two rows of 1,270 LEDs that are
offset with each other, yielding a total of 2540 pixels at a
density of 300 per inch. The LED array remains completely
stationary while the drum rotates just below it. Since there are
fewer moving parts and the parts are simpler, an LED printer can
be made smaller than a corresponding laser printer.
 
It is no surprise then that the OkiLaser 400 is much smaller in
the vertical direction than any laser printer. In fact, it is no
higher than one of the low-priced daisy wheel printers that were
pushed into obsolence by laser printers. Unfortunately, whereas
the OkiLaser is shorter, it is also somewhat wider than the new
breed of laser printers such as the low-priced HP IIP or the
high-speed IBM LaserPrinter. Nevertheless, the OkiLaser's low
profile is much less imposing on your desktop.
 
Besides small size, perhaps another result of the very simple
optics in the OkiLaser is its very sharp pixels. Under
magnification, the OkiLaser appears to produce pixels that are
exactly square. By contrast, most laser printers produce pixels
that have more rounded edges.
 
In speed tests, the OkiLaser performed as might be expected for a
4-ppm printer. In straignt text printing, it was a slight bit
slower than what I expected. In graphics, it was a little faster.
 
One of the nice advantages of this new printer is its assortment
of extra fonts. A total of 21 fonts are resident in the printer,
including a nice 14-point Helvetica and a set of 10-point Roman
faces. Four of the fonts are in the landscape mode. The printer
is compatible with HP LaserJet downloadable fonts and with HP-
compatible software.
 
As in a small number of other printers, the OkiLaser's toner and
the print drum are separate units, so you can replace toner
without having to replace the expensive drum. Installation of the
drum and the toner can be a bit tricky, however.
 
If you want to have laser quality output without going into major
debt and without giving up the air rights over your desk, the
OkiLaser 400 may be an excellent choice. The HP LaserJet IIP will
give it strong competition--and rightly so. But the OkiLaser uses
much more interesting technology.
 
 
The Facts:
OkiLaser 400, $1395
 
Requirements:
Personal computer with parallel or serial interface.
 
Okidata
532 Fellowship Rd.
Mount Laurel, New Jersey 08054
(609) 235-2600
 
                              --- Rich Malloy
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
