Tektronix Inc has launched Phaser II PXi, which it claims is the first thermal wax colour printer to incorporate a PostScript Level 2 interpreter. The new printer, says Tektronix, takes advantage of the enhanced colour-imaging features of Adobe’s PostScript Level 2 language. PostScript Level 2 software supports device-independent colour, supposedly making it easier for computer users to create, exchange, view and print colour documents containing contain text, line art and scanned images. Phaser II PXi ships with Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows drivers which incorporate TekColor PostScipt colour management capability – this enables the adjustment of colour output from screen to printer. The 300-dots-per-inch Phaser II PXi printer is based on Advanced Micro Device’s Am29000 RISC processor at 24MHz for fast PostScript language file processing. The Pantone-certified printer comes with 6Mb of on-board memory and includes automatic switching across its standard serial, parallel and AppleTalk ports. The printer also includes a SCSI port that can be used to connect an optional hard disk for font storage and caching. The Phaser II PXi printer costs $8,000 and is available now through Tektronix’ dealer network.
