David English

My Experience

At PCMag, my focus is on printers and scanners. I started out way back in 1988 at Compute!, which still had a section of the magazine devoted to type-in programs. Since then, I’ve written more than 1,000 articles for a variety of publications, including Architectural Record, Attaché, CNET, COMDEX Daily, Computer Shopper, Digital Cinema Report, Film & Video, Hemispheres, The Leica Camera Blog, Maximum PC, Omni, PC Magazine, PC World, Sky, StudioDaily, US Airways Magazine, and ZDNet.

My interest in printers stems from my interest in digital photography. Ten of my photos were featured in a solo exhibition at the Leica Store at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Titled “Monochrome Vegas,” the large photo prints were displayed there for more than a year. I’m also interested in technology-based music. I’ve created a large number of music videos that combine improvised music with computer graphics. You can view my photography at protozoid.com and my music videos on my YouTube channel.

My Areas of Expertise

• Printer and scanner technology
• Imaging technology
• Consumer-grade and pro-grade photo printing
• Professional-class monitors and workstations
• Technology-based musical instruments and audio editing

The Technology I Use

I’m currently using an HP Z8 G4 workstation PC with 48GB of RAM. Since I do a fair amount of audio and video editing, I need a sufficient amount of horsepower and storage space. (The Z8 can take on a second processor and has four full-size internal drive bays.) My monitor is an HP DreamColor Z27x that I purchased in 2015 for color-critical photography work. While the Z27x is getting to be a bit long in the tooth, I’ll probably wait some before upgrading. I’m still running Windows 10, but will likely move up to Windows 11, assuming compatibility issues with my older programs don't force the issue. Fingers crossed.

My first PC was a Sperry PC/IT, an IBM PC AT compatible equipped with 128K of RAM. I won it in a contest for writing small. (I had written more than 10,000 instances of “dp” onto a single page during my lunch breaks.) I didn’t really need a new PC. At the time, I was happy running WordStar and dBase II on a CP/M-based expansion card installed in an Apple IIe. And I also had a Macintosh 128K with better graphics and a cool, new visual interface. (This was all prior to the release of Windows 1.0.) I had no corporate ambitions, so I sold the Sperry PC/IT at a steep discount to a local newspaper. I used that money to purchase a 5MB external hard drive for my Mac and a Yamaha DX7 music synthesizer. I still have the DX7.