Toshiba P321SLC: for IBM PCs and compatibles. $949. From Toshiba American Inc., Information Systems Division, 9740 Irvine Blvd., Irvine, Calif. 92718. (800) 457-7777.
H-P PaintJet: for IBM PCs, compatibles and Apple Macintosh. $1,395; extra ink cartridges $35 each. From Hewlett-Packard Co., 16399 W. Bernardo Drive, San Diego, Calif. 92127. (800) 752-0900.
Summary: The H-P PaintJet is the best inexpensive color printer you can get for graphics and charts. It is supported by many programs and is able to quietly and quickly print 330 tones at 180 dots-per-inch resolution. The P321SLC is a 24-pin dot-matrix printer capable of fast text printing on fanfold or single-sheet paper. It boasts special “font cards” for adding more fonts to the original set and has an easily handled front control panel. The SLC can produce up to seven colors, but the results aren’t very good. For adding color highlights to spreadsheet values, the SLC is nice, but for graphics and general color use, the PaintJet is much better.
On a scale of one to four, with one indicating poor and four indicating excellent, here’s how the Toshiba rates:
Performance: 2
Ease of use: 3
Value: 2
Here’s how the Hewlett-Packard rates:
Performance: 3
Ease of use: 4
Value: 4
