Laser printers
| Pages | 347-351 |
| Date | 01 April 1993 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045257 |
| Published date | 01 April 1993 |
| Author | Howard Falk |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Hardware Corner
Laser printers
Howard Falk
Personal computer
users
now expect their systems to produce
printed output that looks very much as if it had been typeset at
a professional printing shop. In other words, they are using
laser
printers.
These printers are no longer high-priced luxury
units for publication specialists only; they have become the
standard units for personal computer printed output.
A major event during the past year has been the advent of
reasonably priced laser printers with 600 dot per inch (dpi)
resolution.
High resolution for fine camera-ready copy
If characters that appear on any laser printed page are exam-
ined through a powerful magnifying glass, rough edges will
be seen. The amount of roughness depends on the resolution
of the
printer.
Resolution of
600 dots
per inch (360 000 dots in
a square inch area) provides considerable improvement over
the previous standard of 300 dots per inch (90 000 dots in a
square inch area). The increased resolution has little visible
effect on any but the smallest text. At 600 dots per inch, six
point type, which was not satisfactorily reproduced at lower
resolutions, is finally legible. Drawn graphic images are sub-
stantially improved, showing smoother curved lines and more
even backgrounds. However, the quality of photographic im-
ages at 600 dots per inch still leaves much to be desired.
Images on pages for high quality books may have resolu-
tions as high as 3000 dots per inch. For quality printed repro-
duction of photographs, resolutions of at least 1000 dots per
inch are required.
Laser printers are fast
Even the slowest laser printer can turn out four typewritten
pages a
minute,
faster than the best of the dot matrix and daisy
wheel units. Faster laser printers run at rates of
8
to 17 pages
per minute. For a price, 20, 24 or even 32 page-per-minute
laser printers are available.
It is important to be aware that the basic speed offered by a
laser printing mechanism is not the only factor that deter-
mines the rate at which pages are actually spewed out by the
printer. When fonts change from page to page, or within a
single page, the computation time for those font changes can
slow down the printer. Font changes can be particularly slow
when fonts are being downloaded from the computer, rather
than remaining resident in the printer. The speed of
the
com-
puter that originates the printing instructions, the speed of the
printer processor and the amount of memory within the
printer (more memory can support faster computation) will
all determine how long it takes to set up the page image and
start the printer mechanism into action. Printer manufacturers
are now using faster (RISC) processors to speed the printing
process.
At higher resolutions, laser printers tend to run more
slowly. For example, at 600 dots per second the printer has to
produce four times as many dots as it does when running at
300 dots per second. Increased computation to produce more
dots takes added time.
Although laser printer prices seem to increase rapidly as
basic mechanism speeds increase, many users will find little
difference between a six page per minute printer and an eight
page per minute printer in practical
use.
For short documents,
the time needed to set up the page images will normally out-
weigh any differences in mechanism speed between printers.
There may be special situations where many large documents
with few font changes are being laser printed; mechanism
speed can then make a significant difference.
List price vs. street price
Competition among vendors of laser printers continues to be
fierce and most of these machines are available from retailers
at street prices considerably lower than list. However, the
street discount may be very different for different
printers;
for
example, a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4 that lists for $2199
can be purchased at a street price of
$1399.
How many fonts do you need?
When selecting a laser printer, it is important to consider the
desired fonts, as well as the compatibility of the printer with
the wordprocessing, page composition and other software
that is to be used.
Each font combines a typeface, point size and type style.
For example, the popular Courier typeface generally comes in
10 point size or the larger
12
point size. For a given typeface
and size, laser printers may produce characters in various
styles,
such as bold, normal or italic.
When a laser printer is advertised to come with '15 fonts',
that may merely mean that
it
can print
one
particular typeface,
such as Courier, in five different sizes, with a choice of nor-
The Electronic Library, Vol.
11,
No. 4/5, August/October 1993 347
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