1200x600 laser resolution

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave Reed
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Dave Reed

Hello Everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with laser printers that print at
1200x600. I'm used to 600x600 and 1200x1200, but 1200x600 seems unbalanced
and unintuitive. Does it result in strange output, like some lines being
thicker or thinner than if the two values were equal? Should I get a laser
that's only 600x600 or pay more for the 1200x600?

Thanks,
Dave
 
Dave Reed said:
I'm wondering if anyone has experience with laser printers that print at
1200x600. I'm used to 600x600 and 1200x1200, but 1200x600 seems unbalanced
and unintuitive. Does it result in strange output, like some lines being
thicker or thinner than if the two values were equal? Should I get a laser
that's only 600x600 or pay more for the 1200x600?
Click to expand...

With a magnifying glass, you may be able to see that lines going in the
600 DPI direction are less smooth. Put another way, they're modulating
the laser more finely in one dimension than the other.

It depends on the use. Most of the people I work with don't notice the
difference between 300 DPI and 600 DPI.

The ultimate test is to get print samples. Some printers don't look as
good as their specs say they should.
 
Dave Reed said:
How can I tell which direction is the 600 and which is the 1200?
Click to expand...

You will find that the greater number is always the horizontal scan of
the laser. It's much easier to modulate the laser beam than to increase
the efficiency of all the motors and the feeding mechanism to give you
1200 vertical dpi. For example to get true 1200x1200 dpi on Lexmark
Optras they slow the engine down by half so that, for example, a 24ppm
laser becomes 12ppm in 1200x1200 mode.

HP doesn't do this on their printers but when they run 1200x1200 dpi
then you lose edge smoothing as the ASIC which does edge smoothing is
turned off.

In terms of quality its almost impossible to see the difference between
1200x1200 and 1200x600 with edge smoothing or even 600x600 with edge
smoothing. It's all a numbers game to persuade you that more dots must
be better.
 
[email protected] said:
You will find that the greater number is always the horizontal scan of
the laser. It's much easier to modulate the laser beam than to increase
the efficiency of all the motors and the feeding mechanism to give you
1200 vertical dpi. For example to get true 1200x1200 dpi on Lexmark
Optras they slow the engine down by half so that, for example, a 24ppm
laser becomes 12ppm in 1200x1200 mode.

HP doesn't do this on their printers but when they run 1200x1200 dpi
then you lose edge smoothing as the ASIC which does edge smoothing is
turned off.

In terms of quality its almost impossible to see the difference between
1200x1200 and 1200x600 with edge smoothing or even 600x600 with edge
smoothing. It's all a numbers game to persuade you that more dots must
be better.
Click to expand...
Interesting bit of info. The reason most printers are more detailed on
the horizontal (and same goes for video) is that the human eye is more
sensitive to left/right definition than top/bottom.

Unlike cats which are more sensitive to top/bottom.

Theory is that pre-humans and early humans needed to see horizontal
movement more.
 
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