AGOCG Technical Report 2

Colour Printer Evaluation

The first AGOCG Colour Printer Evaluation took place in 1990/91 and resulted in a CHEST deal for the QMS ColorScript wax thermal transfer colour printers. Although a considerable number of academic and research community sites took advantage of this deal, later developments of colour printer technologies prompted AGOCG to commission another colour printer evaluation to be carried out jointly by the Computing Services of the Universities of Edinburgh and Kent.

Initially AGOCG felt it necessary to produce a review document prior to the evaluation to assist those sites contemplating purchases before the start of the 1992 academic session. The AGOCG Colour Printer Review was produced in August 1992. Information from that document is included in this report.

A comprehensive survey of the colour printer market was carried out and only those printers and technologies considered to be appropriate to satisfy a variety of applications and budgets relevant to the academic and research communities were included in the review and this report.

Wide bodied output devices were excluded from the review, thus concentrating on the majority requirement for A3/A4 paper and A4 transparency colour hard copy devices.