Common Sense and Low‐Cost Printers; or, Does Your System Have Impact? Available to Purchase

While a printer may be the most important accessory in a personal computer system, it can also be the most annoying and disappointing part of a system. Printers can be noisy, difficult, and expensive. Their quality ranges from intolerably poor to better than typewriter output. Tastes and expectations for printed output have changed in recent years, making low‐cost printers more widely acceptable. Some of the issues involved in choosing and using a printer are discussed. A recent survey article is cited as a source of further information. Based on personal experience, the author describes and compares two low‐cost printers: the Star Micronics Gemini‐Wand Hewlett‐Packard's ThinkJet.