Comparing different models

[Michaël Grünewald]

Hi all,

my hobbyist knowledge about printing devices is about 8 years old, and I
need to help a friend buying new equipment for «personal office
printing» (for teaching activities). I would appreciate a recommendation
for a particular model or some pointers or clues about reading devices
specs ... thank you for your help!

Let me outline the needs for my friend: to save space on her desk, she
will prefer an «all in one» model, coupled with a scanner. She will
mainly use her printer for black and white exercise sheets samples, that
will be photocopied. Recto-verso printing will be rarely used, since the
photocopier's recto-verso can be used instead. The main use of the
scanner will be scanning geometric figures or schemes, that are simple
figures with a few colors. It would be nice that scanned figures can be
resized by a 2x or 3x factor and still look descent with printed.

Finally, she would like to have a color output capable device, mostly
for occasional hobby activities, quality photo output is not important.

BTW, last time I carefully dived into devices specs, world was divided
between ink jet printers with a printing resolution roughly equal to 300
dpi, and laser printers with a printing resolution going from 600 to
1200 dpi for the most expansive models. I recently checked specs from a
few devices manufactured by HP, and discovered that most ink jet device
enjoy a printing resolution from 600 up to 4800 dpi, with 1200 being the
most common one, whereas laser printers continue to acknowledge 600 up
to 1200 dpi resolution! Is there a mercantilist trick I am unaware of,
or are these numbers honest? At the office where I work, we have an HP
4350 laser printer, that prints at 1200 dpi. How does the output of this
printer compare to ink jet printers claimed to print at the same or an
higher resolution?

 

[Warren Block]

Let me outline the needs for my friend: to save space on her desk, she
will prefer an «all in one» model, coupled with a scanner. She will
mainly use her printer for black and white exercise sheets samples, that
will be photocopied. Recto-verso printing will be rarely used, since the
photocopier's recto-verso can be used instead. The main use of the
scanner will be scanning geometric figures or schemes, that are simple
figures with a few colors. It would be nice that scanned figures can be
resized by a 2x or 3x factor and still look descent with printed.

Finally, she would like to have a color output capable device, mostly
for occasional hobby activities, quality photo output is not important.

The Brother color laser MFC/DCP machines might be a good match for that.

Many of the AIOs have front USB or memory card slots, so I'd suggest
taking a sample document to a store and printing it on multiple devices.

I recently checked specs from a few devices manufactured by HP, and
discovered that most ink jet device enjoy a printing resolution from
600 up to 4800 dpi, with 1200 being the most common one, whereas laser
printers continue to acknowledge 600 up to 1200 dpi resolution! Is
there a mercantilist trick I am unaware of, or are these numbers
honest?

The DPI numbers are, to put it charitably, misleading. Inkjets may have
mechanisms capable of high DPI accuracy, but generally can't print dots
of ink that small. For printing photos, that's useful, allowing the
overlaying and mixing of ink colors.

Lasers can actually meet their listed resolutions... but can't mix
colors like inkjets. So the high resolution can be lost to halftones.
Good for sharp diagrams, not so much for photos.

At the office where I work, we have an HP 4350 laser printer, that
prints at 1200 dpi. How does the output of this printer compare to ink
jet printers claimed to print at the same or an higher resolution?

For sharp text and diagrams, a 4350 will be excellent. The worst
bottom-end Lexmark inkjet will probably produce a better grayscale
photo. (The LJ4350 is monochrome, so color output comparisons are
difficult.)

 

[measekite]

Hi all,

my hobbyist knowledge about printing devices is about 8 years old, and
I need to help a friend buying new equipment for «personal office
printing» (for teaching activities). I would appreciate a
recommendation for a particular model or some pointers or clues about
reading devices specs ... thank you for your help!

Let me outline the needs for my friend: to save space on her desk, she
will prefer an «all in one» model, coupled with a scanner. She will
mainly use her printer for black and white exercise sheets samples,
that will be photocopied. Recto-verso printing will be rarely used,
since the photocopier's recto-verso can be used instead. The main use
of the scanner will be scanning geometric figures or schemes, that are
simple figures with a few colors. It would be nice that scanned
figures can be resized by a 2x or 3x factor and still look descent
with printed.

Finally, she would like to have a color output capable device, mostly
for occasional hobby activities, quality photo output is not important.

BTW, last time I carefully dived into devices specs, world was divided
between ink jet printers with a printing resolution roughly equal to
300 dpi, and laser printers with a printing resolution going from 600
to 1200 dpi for the most expansive models. I recently checked specs
from a few devices manufactured by HP, and discovered that most ink
jet device enjoy a printing resolution from 600 up to 4800 dpi, with
1200 being the most common one, whereas laser printers continue to
acknowledge 600 up to 1200 dpi resolution! Is there a mercantilist
trick I am unaware of, or are these numbers honest? At the office
where I work, we have an HP 4350 laser printer, that prints at 1200
dpi. How does the output of this printer compare to ink jet printers
claimed to print at the same or an higher resolution?

The best bet is to look at a Laser MFP device. I would look at Samsung,
HP or Okidata. While I do not particularly like Brother they one model
did score rather well in the latest PC World.

I would look to PC World and PC Magazine reviews and not listen to
anybody in this ng including me.

 

[measekite]

Ato_Zee wrote:

How does the output of this printer compare to ink jet printers claimed to print at the same or an higher resolution?



Brief comments. Weigh the pros and cons of laser versus inkjet. If she doesn't print on a regular basis, or has a long holiday period with no printing, inkjets can dry out and clog,


That is crap.  My inkjet printers occasionally sit for 2 to 4 weeks and I have never had a clog.  I still would recommend a laser mfp device.


getting them started again is a pain in the butt,


Only if you do not use the mfg OEM ink.


the printer could even be a write off if it was an extended school holiday. Ink spreads through paper fibres, so for plain bond paper, even inkjet specified multipurpose paper, resolution isn't the main issue, it becomes important when you move to coated, mostly 120gsm and up (which is thicker than 80gsm} papers. For day to day printing she probably wouldn't use coated paper, it's a bit thick for correspondance, etc. Lasers don't clog, initial and running costs are higher. Inkjets with the right photo paper tend to outperform lasers for stunning photos, but that is less of a consideration if she is mainly printing text and line drawings.

 

[Michaël Grünewald]

Hi all,

my hobbyist knowledge about printing devices is about 8 years old, and I
need to help a friend buying new equipment for «personal office
printing» (for teaching activities). I would appreciate a recommendation
for a particular model or some pointers or clues about reading devices
specs ... thank you for your help!

Thank every one for all of your hints!

 

[Gary]

We never had a clog with any of our Canon printers and sometimes they sat
for up to 3 weeks without being used! However, we just bought a new Canon
iP4500 and the manual recommends printing at least once a week "to avoid
clogging"! Their words, not mine!

 

[measekite]

Hmm. Your experience of no clogs means that everyone else's experience
with clogs (myself included) do not exist? Amazing.

Like I SAID. I have a Canon IP4000 and use and have always used Canon
OEM ink and have never had a clog. I also have an HP990Cse and have
never had a clog. Both printers have sat unused from 2 to 4 weeks.

 

[measekite]

We never had a clog with any of our Canon printers and sometimes they
sat for up to 3 weeks without being used! However, we just bought a
new Canon iP4500 and the manual recommends printing at least once a
week "to avoid clogging"! Their words, not mine!

I doubt that will clog also but they feel that would be better for them
to avoid warranty work.