Photo Quailty - Minolta 3300 VS HP4500

  • Thread starter Thread starter dreeves
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dreeves

I need to get the highest quality photographic prints from our Minolta
3300 as possible. As some of you may know the printer is stated to be a
1200dpi x 1200dpi printer. I you need a refresher on the specs go here
---à http://printer.konicaminolta.net/products/color/mc3300/index.asp

My setup PC, XP, printing from Photoshop CS, installed to a network.
Printer maxed with 512mb memory.

I have spent the better part of week tuning all of the on-board printer
settings, installed and tweaked all possible driver settings
(postscript, PPD, PCL6). I've talked with several levels of Minolta
tech support (we are a reseller and have dedicated Minolta support),
visited numerous message boards about this subject. I am still not
convinced I'm getting top quality out of this Minolta 3300 printer.

The reason I'm not convinced is because we've been given a print
from a HP 4500 that is about 8 years old. HP 4500's are 600dpi x
600dpi printers. The prints are exceptionally better as far as laser
photo prints are concerned. They appear to have a denser toner
appearance, brighter colors, and primarily a smoother appearance, not
grainy.

If the same image is printed on the Minolta 3300 even at a distance the
faces, and solid color areas appear grainy. Like you would get when
you take a low light picture with ISO set above 800. I can compensate
for toner density and color brightness easy enough, but the GRAINY part
is pissing me off.

My dilemma: Minolta says talk to Adobe, Adobe says to talk to Minolta

Same photo but on a higher dpi printer, WHY?

Is it the application; Photoshop vs something else?
Is it color management issues; ICC profiles, Print Space?
Is it a difference in the engine; small dots vs bigger dots?
Is there a company I can hire to resolve this?
Is the printer just not capable of getting as high of quality as the HP
4500?

Suggestions, opinions, comments, solutions welcome.
 
I see that Minolta will even give a reseller a ride down the path.
First, to eliminate PhotoshopCS, download a copy of irfanviewer.
I suspect the problems will be the same.
Next, Are both printers running in postscript, and the same level?
It might be necessary to change from postscript to a "RAW" mode
If so print the picture to a prn file instead of to the printers.
Use a hex editor/lister to examine and compare the PRN files.

Finally, a fair number of the HP printers have some sort of image processing
built into the printers that may have a bearing.

There are some reference standard photos on the internet. These can be used
to judge many of the more subtile things concerning printed photos.
http://www.inkjetart.com/custom/ Has two that are useful, and are in the
SRGB color space..

Even 600x600 (true resolution) will produce very good looking prints if the
printer's capabilities are exploited properly. It may be that the printer is
OK, and the driver has a great deal to be desired.

An oddity that I've noticed with some printers and drivers-- Driver settings
return to the default printer settings unexpectedly. In such cases, the
default printer and or the printer in use may need to be set via the start
settings printers path instead of from the application. The application
should be set also.

What is the picture resolution and size? A convenient resolution for screen
display might be 1024x768. Yet, when printed, this size picture may produce
a very small image, or a large one with "colored dots" that are very
obvious.

Color "Gamut" problems may also produce strange looking printouts.

I need to get the highest quality photographic prints from our Minolta
3300 as possible. As some of you may know the printer is stated to be a
1200dpi x 1200dpi printer. I you need a refresher on the specs go here
---à http://printer.konicaminolta.net/products/color/mc3300/index.asp

My setup PC, XP, printing from Photoshop CS, installed to a network.
Printer maxed with 512mb memory.

I have spent the better part of week tuning all of the on-board printer
settings, installed and tweaked all possible driver settings
(postscript, PPD, PCL6). I've talked with several levels of Minolta
tech support (we are a reseller and have dedicated Minolta support),
visited numerous message boards about this subject. I am still not
convinced I'm getting top quality out of this Minolta 3300 printer.

The reason I'm not convinced is because we've been given a print
from a HP 4500 that is about 8 years old. HP 4500's are 600dpi x
600dpi printers. The prints are exceptionally better as far as laser
photo prints are concerned. They appear to have a denser toner
appearance, brighter colors, and primarily a smoother appearance, not
grainy.

If the same image is printed on the Minolta 3300 even at a distance the
faces, and solid color areas appear grainy. Like you would get when
you take a low light picture with ISO set above 800. I can compensate
for toner density and color brightness easy enough, but the GRAINY part
is pissing me off.

My dilemma: Minolta says talk to Adobe, Adobe says to talk to Minolta

Same photo but on a higher dpi printer, WHY?

Is it the application; Photoshop vs something else?
Is it color management issues; ICC profiles, Print Space?
Is it a difference in the engine; small dots vs bigger dots?
Is there a company I can hire to resolve this?
Is the printer just not capable of getting as high of quality as the HP
4500?

Suggestions, opinions, comments, solutions welcome.
 
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