Citizen printers

ZX Computing

ZX TAKES AN EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK AT CITIZEN'S NEW PRINTER - THE LSP10. Citizen £266 FIRST IMPRESSIONS The LSP-10 is a medium sized machine in an off white/cream finish which gives it a classy, professional appearance. A control panel is set at the front on the right and LEDs indicate power, paper out and ready, following this are the three control buttons and they are clearly labelled on line, LF, FF/auto sheet load. In a separate section in the box is the Tractor Feed unit which can be attached if you want to use continuous paper, the manual and the printer ribbon. I am a great advocate of reading manuals, some can be so literally translated as to be incomprehensible, but are good for a laugh. Others, such as the old Epson ones were so technically detailed that you needed to be an expert to understand them. The LSP-10, as I suspected from reading the 120D manual, is written with a non computer specialist in mind. It is well written and not a rough translation, clearly set out with the intention of getting the user operating it with the minimum of fuss. I set the printer up in less than ten minutes and such details as being fitted with a standard mains plug helped a lot. So, we were off to a great start. TECH SPECS So that you can compare its features with those of other printers I will give you the technical specifications at this stage (CPS = Characters Per Second, NLQ = Near Letter Quality). 120 CPS in draft mode and 25 CPS in NLQ. Bidirectional print in text mode, undirectional in graphics. Dot Matrix printer, 9x9 dot character form, but 8x9 in practice. Print density is 60, 120 or 240 dots per inch in graphics mode (producing 480, 960 and 1920 columns per line with corresponding densities in iBM mode). The LSP-10 is Epson and IBM compatible. Centronics is fitted as standard and RS232 is available as an option. There are user defined graphics plus built in Epson and iBM graphics set as well as 11 international character sets. All the usual print modes are provided, pica, elite, proportional, compressed, emphasized, doublestrike, expanded, italics, underlining, reverse (inverse), superscript, subscript and an unusual option of overscoring. As you can see the LSP-10 provides all the features of other printers of its type and a few extra as well. The next step, and possibly the most important, is how easy is it to use these features. IN USE To start with, several operations are accessible from the front panel, these are pica, NLQ for correspondence quality as they insist on calling it), italic, emphasized, reduced and the beep disabled/enabled function. The positioning of these features is ideal it like most people you position your printer slightly higher than your computer. Accessing these functions is done by putting the printer on line (the only instruction omitted in the manual that I could find!) and then holding the FF button and pressing the on line button. Each subsequent press of the on line button steps through the modes. Once selected you exit this operation by pressing FF and then LF. Yes, I thought this sounded confusing when I read it, but in practice it was pleasingly simple and easy to master, a lot better than the usual rigmarole of sending 57 varieties of control codes. Of course you can always change fonts that way if you want to be awkward! All the normal ESC + codes are supported and these can be sent as per the usual system to access the other operational modes. I used it with Tasword 2, the ZXLprint 3 Centronics interface and the Kempston E Centronics interface and it worked perfectly, first time. I tried it with graphics utilities such as Tasprint and Cap Software's Designer and it worked away happily. When plugged into the Technology Research Ltd Centronics interface and the QL it operated perfectly with the Quill and produced superb prints from Graphiql screens. FINAL COMMENTS The NLQ, oh all right, CQ mode produces print of a very high quality and even draft mode is more than acceptable in quality. There is a 4K buffer built in which, though not capable of holding more than a single page, can be very useful when writing several short letters or pages. The noise level is acceptable and speed was very fast, even at 25 CPS in NLQ it is not too slow. I have known some printers where to change the settings on the DIP switches (used to set the power up stage - ie. IBM/EPSON slashed/non slashed zero etc) you have to dismantle the printer and use a special device available only at a certain shop situated 500 miles away. But. this printer uses the Centronics/RS232 interface card which simply plugs into the RH side of the printer. Why don't all manufacturers design things so simply and logically! OVERALL I can only assume that this printer is intended as an alternative to the 120D, it is similar yet has subtle differences that makes spending the extra few pounds very worthwhile. In fact I cannot see anyone buying the older machine. Save up, borrow or beg the extra cash and get this one, you'll probably never buy another.

ZX Computing

Ray Elder

The Citizen 120D is a dot matrix printer with a 6x9 character matrix. It prints at 120 CPS in normal mode and this decreases depending on how many and which of the print styles are used. There is a NLQ print style built in and this operates at 25 characters per second. The printer is fitted with a Centronics interface as standard and RS232 is available as an optional extra for £28. ASCII characters are standard in both normal and italic and eleven sets of special international characters plus the Epson and the IBM graphics sets are available. A 4K buffer is fitted and text can be printed in all the usual formats, expanded, compressed, Elite, proportional, emphasised, double-strike and italics. PLUS underlining, over-scoring, reverse (inverse), vertically enlarged, subscript and superscript. Paper feed is either by tractor or friction. As you may gather, this is a printer overflowing with options. The manual takes the approach that buyers are not computer literate and may simply want to use their printer. It is therefore written in a step by step, easy to understand manner. Although it needs some mental alertness, it is the best printer manual I have seen so far. There are also advanced sections for experts and all the relevant information I could think of seemed to be provided. Setting up was reasonably easy. I set it to operate with a Spectrum on Centronics, and then on RS232 with a QL. To use it with a Spectrum you will have to have either a Centronics or Sinclair Interface 1 (RS232) attached. Using Tasword II the printer produced text perfectly, no problems and the NLQ (Near Letter Quality) mode impressed me. The normal mode was great, producing fast checking drafts first, then switching - either by software or from the printer's front panel - to NLQ for the final copy. Listings were also coped with without hitch, the interface switching between Bit Image mode and text mode without difficulty. Screen dumps were performed without problem. Using a QL the printer's maximum baud rate of 9600 BPS was slowed by the 120CPS (and slower when in Double strike plus Emphasised mode) however it chuntered away and no unexpected problems arose. Quill text has never looked better and the same system as for the Spectrum was adopted. No problems were experienced. This printer probably has more features than you'll ever need, but at a price of £235 it is worth every penny and you'll probably never need to buy another. The design shows Citizen's experience and expertise, rear or bottom paper inlets. Centronics and RS232 interfaces on interchangeable cartridge like boards with DIP switches built in for extremely easy access, front panel front switching and software page formatting. Noise is acceptable and my only adverse comments are that the 4K buffer is not really useful for anything other than a single page, and I wonder why they do not give an initial choice between the Centronics and RS232 cartridge. All round though, this is a superb machine at a very reasonable price. Citizen UK can be contacted on [redacted].

Sinclair User

John Lambert

SINCLAIR QL PRINTER John Lambert compares Clive's new printer with the competition and finds it lacking. At last, I thought, Sinclair has finally got it right. Its new QL printer is a good product at a good price. I decided to compare it with two other new printers in the same price bracket... SINCLAIR PRINTER The Sinclair printer - SP1000QL - looks like a professional printer. Black to match the QL, with a built-in tractor feed for continuous paper, and even a cable to plug straight into the QL. If you prefer using single sheets of paper there is a plastic guide to feed the paper in, and a switch on the side which automatically feeds it through and lines it up. The SP1000QL is basically a badged Seikosha 1000 with an RS232 port as standard and a new ROM which contains the QL character set. Not having to worry about control codes and DIP switches makes using the printer very simple. There are buttons on the front for On Line, Line Feed and Form Feed and you can use them to set NLQ - Near Letter Quality. If you want to be adventurous there are a host of control codes to give different character sizes - enlarged, condensed, elite, italics, subscript, superscript and you can even set it to give proportional printing. All these different codes can become a little overpowering so I was pleased to see a new one - ESC ! n - which allows you to set a combination of modes in one instruction. Each mode corresponds to one bit in the n byte. For graphics the printer uses the standard Epson control codes. Overall a nice, friendly printer. At a shade under £250, compared to an Epson, it is good value. Ideal for people who don't really understand printers. CENTRONICS GLP The Centronics GLP has been around for a while and has proved popular at the lower end of the market. The reason for this was the price, around £150, because it had both parallel - Centronics, and serial - RS232 ports and because it could do NLQ. The only problem was that it was rather slow. The old model has now been discontinued and a new one will be released in April at twice the speed and for only £50 more. The new Centronics GLP has a number of features over the old one. All those found in the Sinclair printer plus a built-in printer buffer, the facility to download characters and 12 different national character sets. Normally a computer can send characters to a printer faster than the printer can print them. This means that when printing a computer spends a lot of time waiting. A printer buffer is an area of RAM inside the printer which stores the characters to be printed. Both the Sinclair printer and the GLP took about the same time to print the sample text, but with the GLP the computer was free 45 seconds sooner. If you were printing only a single page the computer would be free almost immediately. Part of the RAM in the GLP can be used to download characters. You can design your own characters, send them to the printer, and they will be printed instead of the normal character set. One use for this would be to design a character set which matches that of the QL, you would then have your own Sinclair printer. The GLP - which stands for Great Little Printer, and rightly so - has a lot to recommend it. I find it difficult to reconcile a GLP at £200 plus £15 for a tractor feed, but compared to the Sinclair printer it is very good value. The problem is that it doesn't look like a £200 printer. It will do all that the Sinclair printer will do for less money, but many people tend to buy on looks and the Sinclair badge. If you are looking for a reasonably priced printer with all the facilities then buy a GLP. After all, Centronics invented the standard. CITIZEN 120D Having been agreeably surprised by the GLP I was not prepared for the new Citizen 120D. Although Citizen has been making printers for a long time, it has always been badged by other companies and so I didn't expect too much. The printer does not look special - a standard printer shape which stops short at the back of the tractor feed. The clip-on tractor is supplied as standard as is a plastic guide for single sheets of paper. The socket for the lead from the computer is quite novel in that the lead plugs into a cartridge which then plugs into the printer. It is supplied with a Centronics cartridge as standard, with an RS232 cartridge available as an optional extra. Having plugged everything together, I started the computer printing, stop-watch in hand. I turned round to look at the printer, turned back to the computer and found that it was already free. I had to print the sample again to get the timing. It's fast. A quick flick through the manual revealed that the 120D has a 4K buffer, twice the size of the GLP. Even so, the overall time spent printing, for instance, when the buffer has emptied was three-quarters of that of the GLP. Only in NLQ did it slow down. A further look through the manual revealed an amazing array of features. Although I had fed in the paper at the back of the printer in the normal way you can also feed it up through the middle of the printer from underneath. This makes arranging the printer on the desk much easier. The buttons on front, nominally titled as those on the Sinclair printer, can be used to select one of eight print styles without having to worry about control codes. If you want to twiddle with DIP switches, the ones on the cartridge allow you to set up the optional sheet feeder, select one of three Epson configurations or IBM, start up in NLQ mode and set the character style. Depending on which Epson mode you select you can also select one of eight national character sets. The 120D can do everything the Sinclair printer and the GLP can do and more. Proportional printing, proportional spacing, and automatic justification to centre, left, right or both; underline and over score, perhaps a line over the top of words; different styles - any style can be printed in reverse, white on black and/or double height. The list goes on. Graphics, tab channels, you can even take the printer off line with control codes. One very useful feature - for code freaks - is that the printer can do a hex dump. Not just the normal page after page of figures, but 32 bytes at a time with the corresponding ASCII characters being printed separately on the right, in a similar manner to the screen display of Cartridge Doctor and QDoctor. The 120D is an excellent printer. The only other surprising thing about it is the price £235. If you wanted to run it from the QL you would have to spend another £30 on the RS232 cartridge plus a tenner for a cable, or use one of the many RS232 to Centronics converters. SUMMING UP So much for the Sinclair printer. It is a good printer in many respects and deserves better - if it gets discounted then it's a reasonable buy. The GLP is good, and cheap, and if you don't go for looks and don't want the tractor feed it is also a good buy. For the money, slightly higher in total than the other two, the 120D is the best buy. I can't think of anything I would want to do with a printer that it can't do already, and it can do things I'd never dreamed were possible at the price. Anybody want to buy a second-hand Epson? The sample text used for the timings was the first chapter of Genesis typed in using the power-up default settings. The QL was fitted with a 512K memory board from Sandy and a CSTdisc interface running a 5.5in Viglen drive. Timings were taken from pressing Enter in response to the printer's prompt until the prompt line was removed. SINCLAIR Time For Test Computer Free: 1.38 In NLQ: 5.52 Printer Free: 1.38 In NLQ: 5.52 Features Centronics: N RS232: Y Tractor: Y Nominal Speed: 100 In NLQ: 20 GLP Time For Test Computer Free: 0.47 In NLQ: 2.41 Printer Free: 1.33 In NLQ: 4.24 Features Centronics: Y RS232: Y Tractor: Option Nominal Speed: 100 In NLQ: 25 CITIZEN Time For Test Computer Free: 0.20 In NLQ: 0.25 Printer Free: 1.00 In NLQ: 3.55 Features Centronics: Y RS232: Option Tractor: Y Nominal Speed: 120 In NLQ: 24

Centronics GLP Printer

Citizen 120D Printer

Citizen Ordinary Typestyle

Citizen near letter quality

GLP near letter quality

GLP ordinary typestyle

Sinclair Ordinary typestyle

Sinclair QL Printer

Sinclair near letter quality