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TOSHIBA-P1351 [05-May-85]

 In May 1984, I bought a Toshiba P-1351 dot matrix printer for use on my
 IBM PC.  At  the time,  the printer listed  for around  $2200, but  the
 price has now dropped  to around $1250  from discount suppliers.   This
 printer has a  24-pin print  head, yielding 180  dots/inch in  graphics
 mode.  I have  developed both a  <PLOT79> device driver  and a TeX  DVI
 translator for it.   It has resident  Courier 10 cpi  and Elite 12  cpi
 fonts, which print at about 100 cps, plus a draft mode which prints  at
 195 cps.   Samples of  print  with the  Courier  and Elite  fonts  have
 recently been approved by  the University of  Utah Graduate School  for
 theses.  Printers  of  similar resolution  and  speed have  since  been
 introduced by Fujitsu, NEC, Epson, and AMT.

 A year  ago, this  printer  was very  attractive  because of  its  high
 resolution, and at  today's discount  price, probably still  is a  good
 buy.  It  is  a poor  second  when compared  with  the  Hewlett-Packard
 LaserJet, which is faster and quieter, and has sharper graphics output.
 Its one advantage over the LaserJet is that when it is used for printer
 output on the IBM PC, it is possible  to see each line as it is  typed,
 rather than having to wait for the entire page to be printed.  Its main
 misfeature is the extreme difficulty of changing options like data bits
 and baud rates; the switches are buried deep inside the printer, and it
 is a fifteen  minute disassembly job  to get at  them.  This is  really
 dreadful, and I would  suggest that anyone  contemplating a printer  of
 this type  look seriously  at offerings  from the  other vendors  noted
 above.