Brother Twinriter

Twinriter
	Twinriter 5 (1985)
Manufacturer	Brother Industries
Introduced	June 1985;39 years ago
Type	Impact printer (hybrid daisy wheel and dot matrix)
Connection	Parallel

Last updated December 04, 2024

The Twinriter is a series of impact computer printers released by Brother Industries starting in 1985. The Twinriter has a unique hybrid printing system, combining a daisy wheel, for producing letter-quality text, and a dot matrix printhead, for producing graphics and other symbols not present on the daisy wheel. Brother released only two printers in the Twinriter series: the Twinriter 5 in 1985 and the Twinriter 6 in 1987. Sales of the Twinriter did not meet Brother's projections, and by 1990 the family of printers was discontinued.

Specifications

The original Twinriter 5 is a beige impact printer measuring 7.9 by 23.2 by 15.0 inches (20 by 59 by 38 cm) and weighing 35 pounds (16 kg).^[1] The printer features a unique dual hybrid printing system, combining a daisy wheel and a 9-pin dot matrix printhead—an industry first.^[3] The printer includes both types of printing systems to serve dual purposes: printing letter-quality text with the daisy wheel, and producing graphics and other specialized symbols not present on the daisy wheel with the dot matrix printhead. Other printers on the market featuring only one of the two printing technologies sacrificed one feature set for the other. While many dot matrix printers could produce both text and graphics, the quality of the letterforms produced by all but the most advanced near-letter-quality (NLQ) printers were poor; meanwhile, daisy wheel printers produced letterforms with a fidelity exceeding even the most expensive laser printers at the time, but could not produce arbitrary bitmap graphics and included only a handful of symbols.^[4] The Twinriter 5's dot matrix printhead can print up to 140 characters per second, while its daisy wheel printhead can print up to 36 characters per second.^[5] The Twinriter 5's stock amount of data buffer is 3 KB, expandable to 11 KB or 19 KB as part of an aftermarket upgrade.^[6]

Users can set the Twinriter to operate in one of two modes: DP (data processing) mode and WP (word processing) mode. In DP mode, the printer schews the daisy wheel completely to print both text and graphics through the dot matrix printhead, operating exactly like any other serial dot matrix printer. In WP mode, the Twinriter switches between daisy wheel and dot matrix on the fly, printing the 95 printable ASCII characters on the daisy wheel and graphics and special symbols on the dot matrix printhead.^[7] The printer's dot matrix controller supports ESC/P escape codes to control the dot matrix printhead and Diablo 630 escape codes to control the daisy wheel.^[1] Popular office suites for DOS allowing users to compose documents with graphics and text using the Twinriter in WP mode in 1986 included Lotus 1-2-3,^[8] Enable and Framework;^[9]^: 110 by late 1987, support for the Twinriter was added to several popular word processors including Microsoft Word, PC-Write, and Words & Figures—with preliminary support under the most popular word processor of the day, WordPerfect, in development that year.^[2]

As stock, the Twinriters are designed with a friction-feed platen accepting plain loose-leaf paper up to 16.5 inches^[3] in width, one at a time.^[1]^[9]^: 106 Brother additionally sold an optional single-bin sheet feeder, allowing the printer to automatically pull in new sheets of paper as needed for multi-page documents, as well as bidirectional (reversible) pin-feed platen accepting continuous tractor-feed paper.^[9]^: 110 In fall 1985, the company introduced a three-bin sheet feeder, with the smallest of the three bins specifically for envelopes.^[9]^{: 110–112}

As with all daisy wheel printers, the included daisy wheel of the Twinriter can be swapped out for another daisy wheel featuring a different fonts, although this interchange had to be done manually by the end user, necessitating pausing the print during swaps. The Twinriter accepts daisy wheel cartridges from Brother's family of standalone daisy wheel word processors and printers; by 1986, the company had 180 different daisy wheels. Most dot matrix printers at the time were capable of printing text in only one typeface of a fixed size, although the Twinriter's dot matrix printhead can print in five different font sizes, including a 24-by-24 character mode, which approaches NLQ printing (from a distance).^[9]^: 110

The Twinriter 6 was virtually identical to its predecessor except for a faster dot matrix printhead, added support for IBM 5152 escape codes in DP mode and Diablo 630/ECS daisy wheels in WP mode, and a slightly heavier weight to the chassis.^[10]^: 420

Development and release

Brother Industries unveiled the original Twinriter 5 in April 1985.^[11] In the decade prior, Brother had established themselves as a major manufacturer of dot matrix printers and daisy wheel printers and typewriters, before developing the Twinriter series as a marriage of those two technologies.^[9]^: 106 The Twinriter 5 was released to market in June 1985, at a street price of US$1,295.^[3] The company supported the rollout of the Twinriter with an extensive corporate sales program, targeting Fortune 500 companies and leveraging their network of 1,000 dealers to try to win accounts for the Twinriter 5.^[12]

Sales and reception

Despite Brother's large marketing push, the Twinriter sold slower than Brother had anticipated.^[13] By October 1986, over a year after its introduction, the Twinriter 5 had only sold roughly 1,500 units.^[14] Alex Schibanoff, an executive of Brother's Information Systems division, explained in 1986 that a combination of high costs and "the misperception of Twinriter as a sort of strange animal" conspired to keep sales of the printer sluggish.^[15] In 1987, Brother discontinued the Twinriter 5 and introduced the Twinriter 6.^[10]^[16] The latter was discontinued by 1990, having failed to accrue a large pool of supported software.^[17]

Despite the disappointing sales, the Twinriter line was broadly praised by technology journalists of the time. PC Magazine 's Richard Ridington, in a review of the Twinriter 5, concluded that the printer offered "excellent versatility and good speed at a reasonable price".^[1] Creative Computing 's Owen Linzmayer wrote that the Twinriter 5's "versatility suits it ideally to office automation, yet its modest price makes it attractive for home businesses as well".^[7] Hillel Segal in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that the quality of the Twinriter 5's printouts were better than that of his HP LaserJet in certain respects,^[4] while Rick Doherty in Electronic Engineering Times called the Twinriter 5 superior to Apple's LaserWriter.^[18] Segal deemed the Twinriter 5 preferrable to laser printers for low-volume applications, despite some downsides, on account of its ease of use and versatility.^[4] Richard Sherwin of the New York Daily News wrote that, "for consumers who require both true letterquality printing and highspeed graphics abilities—but who may be short on home or office space—this machine does everything it advertises".^[5] PC World 's Jon Stewart was more tempered in his praise, writing: "Were you to split it in half, the [T]winriter 5 would be either an expensive dot matrix printer—given its low speed and print quality—or an expensive and slow daisy wheel. But compared to the laser option, it has to be considered a cheap way out of at least one of life's nagging choices".^[9]

PC Magazine's Vincent Pugila called the output of the Twinriter 6's daisy wheel as superior to any laser printer he had used and appreciated the fact that it could print high-quality letterforms over multipart forms, which laser printers could not do.^[19] InfoWorld 's Steve King rated the Twinriter 6 a satisfactory value with "somewhat limited appeal", assessing the output of the daisy wheel as excellent but the output of the dot matrix printhead as mediocre and its speed the lowest of any dot matrix printer the magazine had reviewed up to that point.^[2]

Related Research Articles

In computing, a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a durable representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Different types of printers include 3D printers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and thermal printers.

Dot matrix printing, sometimes called impact matrix printing, is a computer printing process in which ink is applied to a surface using a relatively low-resolution dot matrix for layout. Dot matrix printers are a type of impact printer that prints using a fixed number of pins or wires and typically use a print head that moves back and forth or in an up-and-down motion on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper. They were also known as serial dot matrix printers. Unlike typewriters or line printers that use a similar print mechanism, a dot matrix printer can print arbitrary patterns and not just specific characters.

A dot matrix is a 2-dimensional patterned array, used to represent characters, symbols and images. Most types of modern technology use dot matrices for display of information, including mobile phones, televisions, and printers. The system is also used in textiles with sewing, knitting and weaving.

Daisy wheel printing is an impact printing technology invented in 1970 by Andrew Gabor at Diablo Data Systems. It uses interchangeable pre-formed type elements, each with typically 96 glyphs, to generate high-quality output comparable to premium typewriters such as the IBM Selectric, but two to three times faster. Daisy wheel printing was used in electronic typewriters, word processors and computers from 1972. The daisy wheel is so named because of its resemblance to the daisy flower.

Centronics Data Computer Corporation was an American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered primarily for the parallel interface that bears its name, the Centronics connector.

The ImageWriter is a product line of dot matrix printers formerly manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc., and designed then to be compatible with their entire line of computers. There were three different models introduced over time, which were popular among Apple II and Mac owners.

An image scanner is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object and converts it to a digital image. The most common type of scanner used in offices and in the home is the flatbed scanner, where the document is placed on a glass window for scanning. A sheetfed scanner, which moves the page across an image sensor using a series of rollers, may be used to scan one document at a time or multiple, as in an automatic document feeder. A handheld scanner is a portable version of an image scanner that can be used on any flat surface. Scans are usually downloaded to the computer that the scanner is connected to, although some scanners are able to store scans on standalone flash media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LocoScript</span>

LocoScript is a word processing software package created by Locomotive Software and first released with the Amstrad PCW, a personal computer launched in 1985. Early versions of LocoScript were noted for combining a wide range of facilities with outstanding ease of use. This and the low price of the hardware made it one of the best-selling word processors of the late 1980s. Four major versions of LocoScript were published for the PCW, and two for IBM-compatible PCs running MS-DOS. LocoScript's market share didn't expand with the PC versions, which were not released until after Windows had become the dominant PC operating system.

LaserJet is a line of laser printers sold by HP Inc. since 1984. The LaserJet was the world's first commercially successful laser printer. Canon supplies both mechanisms and cartridges for most HP laser printers; some larger A3 models use Samsung print engines.

The Diablo 630 is a discontinued daisy wheel style computer printer sold by the Diablo Data Systems division of the Xerox Corporation beginning in 1980. The printer is capable of letter-quality printing; that is, its print quality is equivalent to the quality of an IBM Selectric typewriter or printer, the de facto quality standard of the time.

A letter-quality printer was a form of computer impact printer that was able to print with the quality typically expected from a business typewriter such as an IBM Selectric.

The Wheelwriter is a line of electronic typewriters that was manufactured by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) from 1984 to 1991 and by Lexmark International from 1991 to 2001. Typewriters in the Wheelwriter series use swappable daisy wheel cartridges to produce high-quality letterforms on the page via an ink ribbon and an impact printing head. Cartridges can be swapped out to allow the user to switch between a wide array of typefaces. The Wheelwriter was IBM's first daisy wheel typewriter and represented the technical apex of IBM's typewriter families, replacing their long-lived and commercially successful IBM Selectric typewriter series on its introduction in 1984.

Near letter-quality (NLQ) printing is a process where dot matrix printers produce high-quality text by using multiple passes to produce higher dot density. The tradeoff for the improved print quality is reduced printing speed. Software can also be used to produce this effect. The term was coined in the 1980s to distinguish NLQ printing from true letter-quality printing, as produced by a printer based on traditional typewriter technology such as a daisy wheel, or by a laser printer.

Blue Chip Electronics, Inc., later Blue Chip International, was an American computer company founded by John Rossi in 1982. Founded to develop peripherals for Commodore home computers, the company in 1986 began selling low-cost IBM PC compatibles.

The MacEnhancer is an expansion box originally developed in 1985 by Microsoft for Apple Computer's original Macintosh. Plugged into either the Macintosh's serial printer or modem ports, the MacEnhancer provides IBM-standard printer and serial ports as well as a passthrough for the Mac-standard serial port, for a net gain of three peripheral ports. Along with a provided disk of drivers, this expansion box allows the Macintosh to run a host of printers and other business peripherals not originally supported by Apple.

WordUp is a word processor for the Atari ST platform released by Neocept in 1988. It was one of the first word processors on the platform to offer a true what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) display, using GDOS to work with multiple fonts and embedded graphics. Most previous word processors on the platform were either entirely text-based, like Atari's own ST Writer, or did not use GDOS and did not support multiple fonts and effects on-screen.

The Executive Partner is an IBM PC-compatible portable computer that was introduced by the Panasonic Corporation in 1985. The portable computer is AC-powered exclusively, weighs between 28 and 30 pounds (14 kg), and features a built-in printer. The Executive Partner was one of the first affordable portable computers with a plasma display.

Video Seven, Inc., also typeset as Video-7, later Headland Technology, Inc., was a public American computer hardware company independently active from 1984 to 1989. The company manufactured expansion cards for personal computers, mainly graphics cards for the IBM PC through their Vega brand. It was founded by Paul Jain as his second venture in the graphics card market; after his departure in 1990, he founded Media Vision. Video Seven delivered both the first graphics card compatible with IBM's Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA), in 1985, and one of the first cards compatible with IBM's Video Graphics Array (VGA) standard, in 1987. At its peak, it was one of the three largest global manufacturers of graphics hardware for the IBM PC. In 1989, Video Seven merged with G-2 Inc., a subsidiary of LSI Logic Corporation, becoming Headland Technology.

The MX-80 is a serial dot matrix printer introduced by Seiko Epson in 1980. The MX-80 is capable of printing a maximum of 132 columns per line, while its 9-pin printhead was the first disposable, user-serviceable printhead on the market. The MX-80 was a massive commercial success for Epson and soon became the best-selling dot matrix printer in the world, selling over well one million units over the course of its market lifespan. It enjoyed a high level of popularity in the personal computer marketplace for much of the 1980s and was the progenitor of the ESC/P printer control language. The form factor and basic functionality of the MX-80 soon became a de facto standard for manufacturers of inexpensive dot matrix printers. Epson released a number of succeeding revisions of the MX-80 before replacing the entire line with the FX-80 in 1983.

References

1 2 3 4 5 Ridington, Richard W. (November 11, 1986). "Brother Twinriter 5". PC Magazine. 5 (19). Ziff-Davis: 212 – via Google Books.
1 2 3 King, Steve (November 23, 1987). "Daisy Wheel Drives Us Dotty—A Little Slowly". InfoWorld. 9 (47). IDG Publications: 57–59 – via Google Books.
1 2 3 Staff writer (June 1985). "New Office Printer Combines Daisywheel and Dot-Matrix Features in a Single Enclosure". Office Administration and Automation. 46 (6). Dalton Communications: 75 – via Gale.
1 2 3 Segal, Hillel (August 4, 1987). "New printer shows 2 heads can be better than 1". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 10 – via Newspapers.com.
1 2 Sherwin, Richard (February 9, 1986). "'Twinwriter' offers two printers in one". New York Daily News: 2 – via Newspapers.com.
↑ Kirchoff, Glenn (August 9, 1985). "Printer selection easier if heads are put together". Sun-Sentinel: 3E – via Newspapers.com.
1 2 Linzmayer, Owen (November 1985). "Print About Printers". Creative Computing. 11 (11). Ziff-Davis: 72–74 – via the Internet Archive.
↑ Williams, Stephen (April 22, 1985). "Software for Those Who Hunt and Peck". Newsday: Part III/3 – via Newspapers.com.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Stewart, Jon (August 1986). "Twinriter 5". PC World. 4 (8). IDG Publications: 106–112 – via the Internet Archive.
1 2 Staff writer (November 10, 1987). "Index to Printer Reviews (1984–1987)". PC Magazine. 6 (19). Ziff-Davis: 420–428 – via Google Books.
↑ Staff writer (April 24, 1985). "Brothers Joins 2 Print Modes". MIS Week. 6 (17). Condé Nast: 9 – via Gale.
↑ Staff writer (April 29, 1985). "Brother's National Accounts Force Formed to Lead Twinriter 5 Sales". Computer & Software News. 3 (17). Lebhar-Friedman: 28 – via Gale.
↑ Sorenson, Karen (January 27, 1986). "Brother Hopes to Change Its 'Price-Slasher' Image". InfoWorld. 8 (4). IDG Publications: 31 – via Google Books.
↑ Gates, Bruce (October 18, 1986). "Laser printers on way to eclipsing older rivals". National Post: 51 – via Newspapers.com.
↑ Meth, Clifford (October 1986). "Understanding the printer plethora". Administrative Management. 47. Dalton Communications: 38 et seq– via Gale.
↑ Shannon, L. R. (August 25, 1987). "Finally, the Right Stuff". The New York Times: C8. Archived from the original on October 31, 2016.
↑ Cox, Laura (September 25, 1990). "Service and Reliability: Printers: Brother International Corp". PC Magazine. 9 (16). Ziff-Davis: 373–376 – via Google Books.
↑ Doherty, Rick (April 29, 1985). "New Twinriter Print Head Performs Double Duty: Letter-Quality Print, Dot-Matrix Graphics". Electronic Engineering Times (327). UBM LLC: 82 – via Gale.
↑ Pugila, Vincent (November 10, 1987). "Brother Twinriter 6". PC Magazine. 6 (19). Ziff-Davis: 261–262 – via Google Books.