Laser Printer Print Quality: The Real Story

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 05:09:00 GMT

If you’ve ever walked down the printer aisle at a consumer electronics store, you’ve probably noticed that most of the printers offer the ability to print out samples. At the same time, they display specifications around speed (pages per minute or ppm) and resolution (dots per inch or dpi). You might ask--if dpi describes the true print quality of a printer, why do they go to all the trouble to run power to all the printers and keep them stocked with paper? It’s primarily because, for print quality, the specs don’t tell the whole story.

Larger organizations, of course, usually don’t shop for printers at retail, so there are other ways to get LaserJet print samples. The discussions on print quality with larger companies often centers on the technology involved and how that delivers on print quality claims consistently, page after page. This technology and spec centered approach makes sense as there are usually IT people involved in the evaluation process.

The discussion will often start with the fact that there is a tradeoff between high dpi and high speeds. This is because the higher the dpi, the greater the number of dots the printer has to lay down per square inch of paper—described very well in this print quality video. High dpi also adds to the amount of memory needed to store and print files. For network printers, high dpi also increases network traffic. In other words, higher dpi can have a downside without a real benefit to the naked eye.

To understand this, you must know that there are two different ways that printers tend to lay down toner (or ink). If you’ve ever changed out the cyan, magenta, yellow and black print cartridges in your printer, you likely realized that printers mix these primary colors to produce all the other colors. Essentially, printers lay down bunches of colored dots in close patterns (also called dithering), so that your eyes see mixed colors. Typically, printers are spec'd at being able to print millions of colors.

To achieve improved print quality, without having to increase dpi, we developed Image Resolution Enhancement technology or Image REt. This involves a way to lay down dots of various sizes on the page, called “digital half-toning” which delivers improved print quality without having to increase the dpi. In fact, if you’ve ever noticed the quality of colors within a National Geographic magazine, you might be surprised to find out that these are commercially printed at quite a low dpi (in the 300 range), but use half-toning to make the printed images look exceptional.

Such technological advances are why LaserJets deliver print quality that looks great, without having to increase the dpi--slowing down the printer and clogging the network with huge files. While some printers claim 1200X1200 dpi, LaserJets consistently win PQ comparisons with 600X600 dpi, because of investment in superior technology, which is evident in the following independent studies:

HP Color LaserJet 4700 vs. Competitors

HP Color LaserJet 3800 vs. Competitors

HP Color LaserJet 3600 vs. Competitors

HP Color LaserJet 2600 vs. Samsung 300

Everyone wants their text, graphics and images to look great when printed out. This is why we also developed HP ColorSphere toner that is essentially rounder than competing toner particles, making placement more consistent. This technology is a great example of how HP designs our devices and supplies together so the overall print system is optimized to deliver the best results. Beyond the personal appeal is the fact that sharper, vibrant documents are more persuasive.

When you apply the best-in-class technologies to print out your documents, it actually improves your image. Feel free to respond with any instances which documents helped you influence others . . .

article Laser Printer Print Quality: The Real Story in The HP LaserJet blog by Vince Ferraro

Laser Printer Print Quality: The Real Story