Finding a fast matrix printer in graphics mode

[Andrew Mayo]

The problem is this. Our customers want to print multi-part preprinted
stationery, so a matrix printer is the only solution. But we want to
print under Windows and not to a text-only printer, so that our
software can support multiple printer types without all that tedious
mucking around with escape sequences etc like the bad old pre-windows
days.

This therefore requires that the printer be fast in graphics mode, not
just text mode.

And I mean fast, because these customers want to print several hundred
sheets in a run and they are in a hurry.

However, technology appears to have regressed. 15 years ago I had the
perfect solution to this problem. The C-Itoh 5200 (I think it was) was
blindingly fast in both text and graphics modes. (I used it to print
industrial labels in graphics mode at very high quality, before
Windows came on the scene).

Thinking that Citizen (whom C-Itoh are now, I believe) might have
preserved this engineering excellence, I tried a Citizen Swift 330+ 24
pin printer but although in draft mode text-only it is extremely fast
(420cps at 15dpi draft), its graphics performance is only on a par
with the much slower Panasonic KX-P2023 (in fact, I'd say slightly
poorer) and this is simply not fast enough for our customers.

I need to find a 24 pin matrix printer that is fast in graphics mode.
The simple benchmark is to print 24 lines each of

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

from Wordpad in Courier 10 regular

and it needs to do this in 11 seconds or less at 180 X 180 dpi
resolution (the Panasonic can do this in 32 seconds in bidirectional
graphics mode at 180 X 180 resolution and 22 seconds at 120 X 180).

(in text-only mode the Citizen can do this in only a few seconds, btw)

There is no way you can predict a printer's graphics performance from
its raw text speed. I found this out 15 years ago and now I am finding
it out all over again. Because the printer vendors tend to be reticent
about graphics printing speed, this information is generally not
available.

Can anyone suggest a printer model that might be suitable?. Much
obliged.

PS: Printer vendors;my company has several thousand customers and
therefore there is potential for quite a few sales, if you can meet
the requirements.