When it comes to producing typeface specimens, nothing beats direct lino or velox output to white paper. Crisssssp black-on-white. The problem is that these services have become extremely hard to find. Even if you manage to dig up pricing for those services on a website, chances are very high that when you contact them they'll say "we don't do that any more". However, after a couple of dozen calls and emails I have some good news!
The least expensive place I've found so far is this:
http://www.dsbureau.com/cat03.php _
It's in Houston, Texas. I'm in the process of asking them how much
it would cost to mail the output within the US, and how they would
package it to avoid damage.
Another place I found was in Madison, Wisconsin:
http://www.porttoprint.com/imgsttng.html _
The guy is very friendly, and has already agreed to: lower the price for tabloid prints to $20, for the 2400dpi output; and mail the output within the US for less than $5, with proper protective packaging.
If you get in touch with one of those places please let them know I referred you.
I also actually found a place in LA that does velox, but he charges $20 per letter-size output, and you have to have a film of the page made first, which costs around $15 ($20 at their place), plus that makes it second-generation. The only advantage of velox is that the paper is thicker (AFAIK), so it's probably not worth it.
hhp
