Date: December 7, 1992
More and more, the technological line that distinguishes printers from plotters is blurring. And this convergence in functionality- -enhanced by advances in both hardware and software--is good news for scientists.
Hardware has advanced to the point that, in most situations, there is no longer a need for separate output devices for handling text and graphics. While there are still a few drawbacks to this one-device-does-all output approach, especially when both large-size and color output are necessary, many researchers will find these new output units versatile enough to meet most of their publication and data-presentation needs.
Moreover, scientists can also enjoy further ease of use thanks to the development of increasingly sophisticated output software-- especially that associated with device drivers. As a result of this development, say vendors and others, scientists will find that the actual connection of computer and output device has become much simpler (see ...
