Re: Printing 3-D

[P3D <PTWW@xxxxxxx>]

I brought up the Alps printers a while back and Peter Davis was the
only one to respond.  Hmmmmm.  Does that mean most everyone had me
on their filter list?  :(

A couple points to reinforce, add, and ask about:

As Peter mentioned, the sample *plain paper* 600x600 output in their
brochure looks really good.  They undoubtedly selected an image that
would show it at its best, quite naturally.  What I don't understand is
that last fall's PC Magazine review of color ink jets included this model,
but did not rate its photo ouput capabilites at the top of the heap.  
IMO, the small sample ouput they included in the magazine does not look
anything like the excellent quality of the sample in the sales brochure.

The print speed is not good.  The manufacturer's rating is 3 to 5 minutes
*per page* "depending upon image" for color; 2 pages per minute B/W.  I
don't know how this compares to dye-sub print speeds.

It seems to me that the separately replaceable color cartridges would
give the Alps an enormous *real-world* cost-per-page advantage over
printers that require you to replace a $30 3-color cartridge every time
any one color runs out.  (May be less true for photos than for business
apps such as Excel charts or PowerPoint slides, however.)

The "features" list states: "Deep, rich, fully saturated, photo-realistic
images in 16.7 million colors."  I know what color depth specs mean for
a video card and monitor, but being quite the novice in color printing,
I don't know how to interpret this.  Is this spec any different from
that of a traditional color ink-jet?

As I mentioned in my first post about the Alps, there are horizontal
bands in the output.  How noticeable they are varies with the angle
to the light and the color (or patterns?) of the underlying image.
My guess is that the size of each band is the same as the height of
the ink ribbons.  I don't yet know whether this will be a significant
problem if the printer is used to ouput stereo images.

I would like to know where Gavin saw the printer for "about $400."  It
is a $499 list price printer, but the few places I've seen it have not
offered more than about $50 off list.

Finally, there is also the model MD-4000 that includes an "integrated
600 dpi one-pass, 24-bit, TWAIN-compatible color scanner" for $200 more.
Do the scanner-knowlegeable folks consider this good value, or would a
separate scanner be a better choice?

Paul Talbot


------------------------------