Word processing and printers

[Robert17]

Hey all, I was just wondering, what is the best (Commercial and Free) word processor for the amiga? Also I have an Epson Stylus C62 Printer, are there any compatible drivers for it at all? It has a parallel port on the back so... maybe?

Cheers

Robert

[tomo]

For years I used Pagestream 2.2 (free) and later I bought 4.1. It is a DTP-program. Usable for just text but also for a complex layout. I used it most for making worksheets or books for my pupils.
Besides multiple functions for text it is also possible to import graphics or to make complex drawings by yourself. On my Amiga it rocks. Now I'm using it on my Pegasos.

Cheers, Tom

[whabang]

Epson's newer printers doesn't work properly with any drivers for the Amiga. The C60 works, dunno bout the C62 (That's pretty old too).

Do a search for amiga printer drivers and Epson. That should give some results.

[mr_a500]

I'd say the best wordprocessors for the Amiga are FinalWriter 97 and Wordworth 7. PageStream is good, but is DTP and not really fun to use as a wordprocessor (I only have version 3.2 though). Unfortunately all these are commercial.

I also use an Epson Stylus C62. I bought TurboPrint 7 to get the drivers. I do NOT recommend either TurboPrint 7 or the Epson Stylus C62. I had some half decent printouts, but TurboPrint is buggy and constantly crashed (with badly worded error messages). Printing a full page image in medium-low resolution took exactly 1 hour!

If you've got another computer, save yourself the hassle and don't print from the Amiga.

[Alma96]

Hi,

Personally, I use Amiga Writer which can be purchased online on Haage&Partner website. It is not expensive and has a lot of features. I appreciate the possibility of reading Word2000 files and save rtg format files, which is great if you want to exchange files with PC/mac users.

The only limit is that it requires a fair amount or RAM (I have 16MB and it is the minimum, in my opinion, under 3.9).

[whabang]

Printing a full page image in medium-low resolution took exactly 1 hour

Believe me! That was not because of the printer! ;-)

[mr_a500]

Believe me! That was not because of the printer! ;-)

No, I know. It was because of TurboPrint. Maybe people with >16Mb RAM have better experiences with TurboPrint. Let me put it this way: if you have less than 16Mb RAM, DO NOT BUY TURBOPRINT. I don't know why the makers of TurboPrint don't specify 16Mb as a minimum requirement in their documentation. (they told me AFTER I bought it - actually about a year after, the time they took to answer my repeated polite email requests)

The reason I say I don't recommend the Epson C62 is because the colour ink runs out after 15-20 image prints, it won't print b/w text without the colour cartridge and the ink cardridges dry out if not used for a few weeks.

[VooDoo]

I use AmigaWriter ppc version..and its great for word procesing..and you can find Info about this progy here -> http://www.haage-partner.com/amigawriter/aw_e.htm

[CyberStorm]

I use Final Writter and Turbo Print on my A1200 and that works very well and fast together with a HP Laser Jet 5L. The Amiga is equiped with a 030-50 and and 16 mb. Well all inkjets are quite expensive to use so better go for a laser printer. However check for existing printer drivers before buying a new printer.

[Castellen]

I just bought myself a HP2550L colour laser.
Finally got fed up with unreliable "100 page wonder" inkjets and overpriced cartridges.

The Turboprint support for the 2550L isn't that good.  You can only get greyscale prints, even with the colour laserjet5 driver.

Since the 2550L is a postscript printer, you don't need a driver for any software which can produce a postscript output.
It appears PageStream is capable of 24 bit colour prints using this method, I did a few photo quality prints yesterday with impressive results.

FinalWriter(97) also produces postscript outputs.  Wordworth probably does as well.

Also a lot faster.  Printing before to the inkjet would take up to several minutes for a complex print job.
Using postscript, it's down to several seconds.

Plus using Ghostscript, you can view the postscript output, thus giving you a print preview.  Ghostscript can also generate a PDF document from this.

Check before hand, as some modern printers may not work from the motherboard parallel port.  Using mine through an IOblix card, so it's the newer breed of parallel port.