Unboxing a Color Dot Matrix Printer

My childhood was full of dot matrix printers and printing stuff I designed on the PC.

Alyxx the Rat

I'll absolutely make a batch of shirts if it ends up working enough to do so! Fingers crossed

LGR

That "nice!" is copyright Steve1989MREInfo! :D

Adam Christensen

Bruh if that T-shirt ribbon works and you make up some custom-printed dot-matrix shirts, I am so there.

Ah yes, my favourite pont is definitely Putura. Although Pranklin Gothic is a close second.

Tim

I also had an Okimate 20 as a kid. I remember the quality of the thermal transfer was actually quite nice when used on glossy paper but I was always super cautious on using it because, yeah, you'd only get a couple of full color pages from each cartridge and that was it.

David Gaxiola

I just noticed: Not only does the box say "...5 Letter Quality Ponts" but in the line below it sais "Multiple Paper Feed Faths" :D

Ravy

I had a Star printer very similar to this. It wasn't a 2420, but I think I remember it being labeled "Rainbow". Mine was more square without the rounded edges. But the control panel looked almost identical. My dad worked at a machine shop and brought it home when they upgraded. We never knew it did color (even though it said Rainbow) until my dad brought home some old ribbons when they cleared out an old office closet.

Ralph Lucas

Likewise, down to the 2400 baud Prodigy connection. Logging onto that, and some BBSs, and downloading gifs to print out on my dot matrix was a real retro cacophony.

LGR

Not my only printer, or even my only dot matrix. But it's certainly the coolest/most interesting 👍

LGR

Hey yeah, a scan would be great to put in the final video for comparison! If you can print and scan something (something I can reproduce in Print Shop Deluxe) and email it to me, that would be awesome :) Clint@lazygamereviews.com

LGR

Well, not all dot matrix machines support continuous fan-fold paper like that. But thankfully this one supports both types!

LGR

Yep and they're still around! But this is t-shirt transfer INK that works with with any paper, the exact opposite process of transfer PAPER that works with any ink.

LGR

My first printer was a brother dot matrix printer. It was very loud :) We used it for so long we could not get the ribbon color things anymore. Then I got a crappy lexmark, but I still loved printing out screenshots from games and hanging them on the wall. And the door. Then I got a hp deskjet 930c, and I never bought a printer after that. Is this the only printer you have now Clint, so if you got to print something, you need to use a retro computer and this printer? :)

Uncleawesome

The sound of dot matrix printers is forever burned into my brain, alongside the 2400 baud modem noises that I heard every day logging into Prodigy. Ah the late 80s / early 90s.

Joon Choi

The t-shirt transfer papers were pretty common beginning of the 90’s, whether for printers or drawing paper. We didn’t have the Internet, custom t-shirt sites or disposable income, so that’s the way we’d make our own fan gear :)

Bastien Nocera

Should be possible to take a color ribbon from some other cartridge (that is easier to find) and mount in this one. Given you can find one with the right dimensions.

But the best part about dot matrix printers is ripping off the ribbons from the sides of the paper and folding them together into chains. :( This looks like it takes regular printer paper. Or am I just remembering the particular kind of printers at my elementary school?

Brian Gordon

Party on Wayne!

Ohhh very nice! I thankfully still have a color ribbon for my ImageWriter II. I made a birthday banner using Print Shop Deluxe not long ago! If you intend to compare the color quality to a 9-pin (like the ImageWriter) I’d be happy to take a scan of the paper or some photos. 👍 Looking forward to seeing this up on action! 🤓

Mac84

My printer as a kid was the Okidata Okimate 20 color thermal printer that I used for the C64. It was truly hideous in terms of performance, and you'd use up like half the cartridge printing a page of color. They made a PC card/version for it - also there's nothing on YouTube that I've ever seen about it - certainly nothing about the PC version of it. Anywho, what a terrible printer.

Chris Munch

Aah... That sweet loving noise of a dot matrix printer... Also the only way to print those amazing banners with PrintMaster

Frederic St-Georges

I had a color dot matrix back in the day with my Apple IIc. Don't remember which printer but it had that same 4-color ribbon. The yellow was especially awful.

Oh crap, haha! Will have to point that out in the full video, what in the world happened there

LGR

Not only does it have 5 Letter Quality Ponts, it also has Multiple Paper Feed Faths! :D

Steve Lovelace

YEP. At least just this once because life is weird right now 😁

LGR

Tease :)

Gary Leigh

Seems like Star printers were somewhat common with Amiga users from what I've seen online. Interesting stuff since I had zero experience with that system back then!

LGR

Oh yes Star printers. We had an NX1000Rainbow printer to go with our Amiga 500 in the late 80s. Nice printer but of course only a 9 pin, so not exactly pretty.

Lennart Sorensen

I really hope that ribbon works. That'll be super fun to show on video if it does!

LGR

"Start a business selling custom made T-Shirts", looks like you found your calling!

Ian Spence