Star LaserPrinter 8II
                         Copyright 1990 David Batterson

     Star Micronics has been producing Epson-compatible dot matrix printers for
years now with great success.  You just KNEW that Star's laser printers would
be right on the heels of Epson's.
     Star's hot item in the laser printer field is the LaserPrinter 8II.  This
eight-page-per-minute, HP LaserJet II-compatible printer is about 50 percent
faster than the older LaserPrinter 8.  Standard onboard RAM is now 1MB.
     Besides HP emulation, the LaserPrinter 8II can emulate the Epson EX-800,
IBM Proprinter and Diablo 630 ECS.  You get four resident fonts, Courier 10
point, Times Roman 10 point proportional, Prestige 12 point and that boring
Lineprinter 8.5 point.
     You get a 200-sheet cassette for standard 8 1/2 x 11 paper; the legal-size
paper cassette is optional.  Single sheets of varying widths and lengths can be
fed manually.  Naturally, you can also print on label stock, transparencies or
business envelopes.
     There's the usual choice of face-down or face-up output.  The face-down
output tray holds 100 sheets, while the face-up tray accommodates only 20.
     The LaserPrinter 8II model I reviewed came with an optional 1MB memory
board, bring total onboard RAM to 2MB.  There are also 2MB and 4MB RAM boards.
The 1MB board lists for $400 ($1,199 and $2,199 for the 2MB and 4MB).
     The review unit also had Star's LincPage PostScript-compatible interpreter
board ($999 suggested retail).  This board turns the LaserPrinter 8II into a
virtual PostScript printer, using 35 Bitstream Adobe-compatible fonts.  The
LincPage board requires at least 1MB additional onboard RAM.
     Using the control panel's Program mode, you can configure the printer to
emulate either HP LaserJet II or PostScript-compatible upon power-up.  Then you
can switch easily to the other emulation whenever you need it.
     The handy control panel also lets you change (temporarily or permanently)
the printer interface, character sets, margins, number of copies, and page
layout.  The front panel control has the other usual controls, such as on line,
test, reset and so forth.
     I found the control panel a quick learn, and the manual does a nice job at
explaining things.  There's a handy chart in "tree" format too, showing all
commands; the default settings are marked with the * symbol.
     You can print the Status and Setup Report any time.  It provides extensive
information on your power-up, current and factory settings, as well as a RAM
report and resident fonts available to you.
     My tests included using Professional Write, Publish It!, GEM Artline,
PFS:First Publisher, Finesse, PC Paintbrush IV Plus, Tracker Plus, The New
Print Shop, and other applications.  I experienced no problems at all.
     Don't be scared off by the suggested list prices, as these are always
artificially high and rather meaningless in the real world.  The LaserPrinter
8II itself has a suggested retail of $2,799, but this will be heavily
discounted on the street!
     For more information, contact Star Micronics Inc., 200 Park Avenue, Suite
3510, New York, NY  10166; 212-986-6770; TWX: 7105814082.
                                       #
     David Batterson reviews a lot of printers and DTP software.  Contact him
via MCI Mail: DBATTERSON.