Printware 720 IQ. (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations of plain-paper printers)

PRINTWARE IS A mid-size, privately held company with about 120 employees, headquartered in St. Paul, Minesota. It was founded in 1985 by a group of former Sperry employees with the financial backing of Deluxe Check Printers and 3M. They used part of some imaging technology licensed from 3M to get going and have made pretty good progress. Since the company is privately held, financial figures are hard to come by, but we do know that the company's sales doubled from 1988 to 1989.

Until recently, its product fine consisted of just two output devices: the 720 IQ plain-paper printer and the 1440 Platesetter. Two months ago at Drupa the company announced a third member: a Platesetter similar to the 1440, but capable of producing both paper and metal plates.

The product. The 720 IQ Professional Laser Imager was first shown in early 1988, making it one of the first nonAdobe, medium-resolution plain-paper devices. We have followed the product for some time; we even tested it for the first of our printer speed test issues (see the Seybold Report on Publishing Systems, Volume 19, Number 1).

It consists of a controller unit about the same size as a full-size PC chassis with cover and an 8-ppm Toshiba laser print shell. Printware buys the shell and paper handling mechanism from Toshiba and replaces some of the plastic with metal. The engine itself is assembled in the company's plant in Minnesota and fitted into the shell. All …