2 ms·

There were printers that used seectric balls and also printers that used daisy-wheels. Early dot-matrix printers had large dots and only so-so precision for pl

There were printers that used seectric balls and also printers that used daisy-wheels. Early dot-matrix printers had large dots and only so-so precision for placing them so they were not "letter quality" if you see an old dot-matrix labled "NLQ" that's "near letter quality" and was accomplished by using overlapping dot-strikes to significantly improve the quality. You could still tell it was printed on a dot-matrix though; I had one that was 360x180dpi and from a distance it looked fine, but up-close you could tell it was dot-matrix. The ability to print multiple fonts without stopping for far cheaper than a laser printer was nice though.

acomjean 4y ago
>"NLQ" that's "near letter quality" and was accomplished by using overlapping dot-strikes to significantly improve the quality.0 We had a panasonic printer that had the NLQ switch. It worked, but would print each line twice (with a slight offset on the overlap). It was pretty good but really 1/2 the speed.
mcguire 4y ago
Goofy story that is unrelated to anything. UT Austin CS dept. used Apple LaserWriters as department printers for years. IIRC, they were 300x300dpi. Then one day, we upgraded to 600x600dpi laser printers (I forget the brand). I was on staff at the time, and I didn't know it was going to happen. The next day, E. Allan Emerson, professor and Turing Award winner, showed up at the door of the software staff's cave, very upset. His papers were looking very different even though they were formatted in LaTeX which claims to always produce the same output. (LaTeX was doing its job, BTW; the spacing was identical.) It turns out that Computer Modern Roman at 300x300 is a pretty reasonable font. At 600x600, it is a thin, spindly looking thing. I think we dredged up a spare LaserWriter and put it in his office for him.

2 ms·

There were printers that used seectric balls and also printers that used daisy-wheels. Early dot-matrix printers had large dots and only so-so precision for pl

by aidenn0 4y ago

acomjean 4y ago
>"NLQ" that's "near letter quality" and was accomplished by using overlapping dot-strikes to significantly improve the quality.0 We had a panasonic printer that had the NLQ switch. It worked, but would print each line twice (with a slight offset on the overlap). It was pretty good but really 1/2 the speed.
mcguire 4y ago
Goofy story that is unrelated to anything. UT Austin CS dept. used Apple LaserWriters as department printers for years. IIRC, they were 300x300dpi. Then one day, we upgraded to 600x600dpi laser printers (I forget the brand). I was on staff at the time, and I didn't know it was going to happen. The next day, E. Allan Emerson, professor and Turing Award winner, showed up at the door of the software staff's cave, very upset. His papers were looking very different even though they were formatted in LaTeX which claims to always produce the same output. (LaTeX was doing its job, BTW; the spacing was identical.) It turns out that Computer Modern Roman at 300x300 is a pretty reasonable font. At 600x600, it is a thin, spindly looking thing. I think we dredged up a spare LaserWriter and put it in his office for him.