It’s often forgotten that Hewlett-Packard Co is a major player in the peripherals market in its own right as well as in connection with its systems business, and this week, the company issues a gentle reminder with the launch of a colour graphics printer exclusively for use with the Apple Computer Inc Macintosh. The $3,000 HP PaintWriter XL is designed to be shared by Macintosh users on an AppleTalk network. It prints a page of colour graphics in 90 seconds and has a dual AppleTalk/RS-422A interface. The Mac also supports the HP PaintJet and HP PaintJet XL colour printers when used with the HP Color PrintKit for Macintosh. All three printers use QuickDraw-compatible software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel; Claris MacWrite II and MacDraw II; Aldus Persuasion and Freehand; and Ashton-Tate Full Impact. They enable users of Macintosh II series computers to print up to 16.7m colours and Macintosh Plus, SE and Portable series users print up to eight colours, and use scalable outline fonts. The PaintJet with Mac interface kit is $1,520 and the PaintJet XL similarly kitt ed out is $2,620. Hewlett also now has Mac PostScript versions of the HP LaserJet III, IID and IIP printers; and an improved HP DeskWri ter which can be connected on Apple’s AppleTalk nets.
