NX1020 Rainbow Print from Star Micronics Rainbow         

by John McBride Vice President for MCUC Magazine June

I recently purchased Star Micronics' latest version of the nine-pin dot-matrix color printer, the NX-1020 Rainbow.  Anybody need a fritzed out Okimate 20 for repair parts? Cheap!!

The ads say the NX-1020 Rainbow will print 225 cps in high speed draft mode,
180 cps in draft mode and 75 cps in Near Letter Quality mode.  The manual
shows the NLQ speed at 45 cps, so I guess the ads must make claims based on
printing in both directions.

What this means is that I can print out a full page of GeoWrite text in a
matter of two minutes and twenty seconds in High Quality mode.  Sure beats the eighteen minutes or so the Okimate 20 took!  The same page in around forty-two seconds in draft mode (with the printer set on the default draft font).  I have printed GeoWrite documents using both the Xetec Super Graphix and Super Graphix Jr. and noticed no appreciable difference in print times.  I didn't time the print-out on color graphics. 

As some GEOS users might know, the only way to achieve true Near Letter
Quality is to set the printer in an NLQ font manually (over-riding the GEOS
fonts) and start printing in draft mode from within GEOS.  For those that
didn't know.....Now you do!  But remember you will lose the tab and margin
settings of your document.  

This new star speedster is further enhanced by a total redesign of its case. 
It sports a new sleek look that is softer and, yes, aerodynamic.  Gone are the sharp corners and flat surfaces.  In their place is a curvaceous machine
reminiscent of a classic roadster.  Something like a desktop Mazda Miata!

Speed and looks are not the only features of this versatile printer.  As with
the older NX-1000 series, fanfold paper can be loaded from the bottom or rear
to take advantage of the built in push/pull tractor.  The paper must be fed
through the rear to use the self-sensing paper parking feature.  Single sheets of paper are top loaded via the included paper guide and friction feed.  The printer will even accept four-ply multi-part forms and any address label size.

Star also doubled the buffer size from the NX-1000's 8K to a huge 16K.  Plenty of room for most printing needs.  A GeoWrite document printed form GEOS draft mode will load into the buffer in fifteen seconds and allow you to use another application while the document is still being printed.

Should you wish to use the fonts Star has included, you have a choice between
a draft font, a high speed font and four NLQ fonts (Courier, Sanserif, Orator
and Script).  All fonts support italics, condensed, bold, double-size and
quadruple-size styles.

Rather than using manual DIP switches, Star uses its five control switches as
Electronic DIP switches.  EDS mode is reached by pressing certain buttons
during power-up.  The manual is very thorough in explaining what can be done
with the buttons in both EDS and power-up function combinations.  In fact, the
manual is both informative and easy to understand in all aspects of operation.


The NX-1020 Rainbow has a suggested retail price of $329, but I purchased mine
at CompuAdd for $199.  You will need to use a printer interface such as the
Xetec Super Graphix or Super Graphix Jr. in order to use this printer as Star
no longer seems to have a model with a built-in Commodore interface.

I highly recommend the Star NX-1020 Rainbow as a "best-buy" in the nine-pin
dot-matrix type printer.  The seven-color capabilities alone make it a super
bargain at this price.