Posted By
Chicken
on 2009-01-17
08:45:16
 |  Re: Is anyone still printing anything on the original hardware (e.g. MPS 801, SP 180 VC)?
Hi MMS,
of course, in the very early days besides printing out listings I used my printer to be productive (homework assignments, letters etc). But I wasn't blind  I could easily see that this was not up to anything that could be done with 24pin printers or ink jet ones. So I never tried to keep up with something that was way too far ahead. I used my printer because sometimes it's nice to have something in your hand. Not just "virtual" bits and bytes.
Here in Germany, there had been a strong followership of the plus/4 program "page setter". (Similar to the "page fox"/Geos followership.) On the one hand I understand their opinion "Yes, it's possible to do 'DTP' with such limited equipment!". On the other hand, I had seen Ventura Publisher and the like running on (even back then obsolete or entry level PCs) and yield much better results and incorporate a much better workflow.
On a side note, the page setter followership caused quite some trouble in the plus/4 community because they disliked the real scene-ish things like demos. They considered themselves to be "serious" computer users. Whereas, in their opinion, the demo-coders were just wasting their time with useless stuff.
I always liked the plus/4 and it's still my favorite system of all times and everytime I see something new achieved my heart jumps in joy However, the plus/4 is just not made for DTP.
Nevertheless, I think that the dot matrix printers have their own aesthetics (Much like the overused pixelated graphics in contemporary graphic design.) And not just because it's "retro" (overused, too  ).
Furthermore, it's still nice to be able to print out something on the real machine. And improving the printing quality - even if a hardcopy routine is totally useless nowadays - can be a fun challenge. That's what I've been toying around a bit. Don't know, yet, if this will ever make it's way to a useable program (and even then it will work only on the Seikosha SP-180VC).
I have a (smaller than your DIN A3 monster ) STAR LC20 (came with a used PC I bought) but I never used it on my plus/4 because I don't have a userport-centronics cable. Plus, I was always happy with my Seikosha (Yeah, first love kinda thing )
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