New printing technologies focus on speed and quality

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): If the method by which printer makers label their products indicates anything, it wouldn't be easy to find the reasons behind any changes.

HP used the Roman numerals II and III to label their laser printers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. My very loyal laser printer, for example, was a LaserJet IIIP.

After the III generation, HP started using Arabic numerals to label Generation 4, and thus we had the low cost but decent LaserJet 4L, 5L and 6L. Just when we were expecting HP to introduce their LaserJet 7 series, we got a surprise. Last week HP introduced its LaserJet 4000.

I had the chance to have a look at this new series of network printers at a press conference in Singapore last month. Gone are the strong lines and sharp corners that we usually find in almost every LaserJet. The printer is more contoured, as you can see in the accompanying picture.

But there are other more important innovations in this printer than just the new label and smart look. Chief among them is that it prints with a resolution of 1200 DPI using a new technology that does not reduce printing speed.

Beyond DPI

On an ordinary printed page you will see dots of ink or toner, a lot of them. Nobody would actually bother, but the number of dots horizontally and vertically on the page could be counted.

The number of dots found per square inch is called the dot-per-inch (DPI). In the old days, a printing resolution of 300 DPI was considered acceptable. This was the level of resolution of which my now retired HP LaserJet IIIP was capable.

As time passed, printer makers found ways to increase the number of dots per inch so that it was possible to have a higher density of ink or toner on the printed page. Soon printers came up that boasted 600 DPI, 1200 DPI and above. Lexmark was one of the first printer makers that came up with 1200 DPI laser printers, the Optras.

The 1200 DPI was considered the minimum for desktop publishing purposes. With 1200 DPI, black and white images look reasonably realistic and detailed. The transition between the levels of gray is even and smooth enough for most purposes.

However, with existing technology, increasing the number of dots per inch means increasing the number of dots that the printer has to address. It also means that the amount of data also increases. To print an image of 3" by 5" at 1200 DPI, for instance, would require 16 times more data than printing the same image at 300 DPI. To compensate for the increase of data, a faster input/output and a faster print engine are needed. The increased amount of data also means that a bigger memory capacity is required to temporarily store it.

Wouldn't it nicer to be able to print at 1200 DPI as though printing at a 600 DPI? The printing speed would not be affected, because the number of dots the printer would have to address would remain 600.

Luckily, HP has found a smart solution and has implemented it in the LaserJet 4000 Series.

Called the FastRes 1200, the new technology uses 2 bits instead of 4 bits to address the same dot space. While each dot space still represents one of four levels of black, the amount of data to be translated into dots remains the same as in a 600 DPI printer, or half of what a true 1200 DPI printer has to handle.

UltraPrecise

Because the amount of data is smaller, the time required to print the text or images is also shorter. As a result, this new laser printer is capable of printing at a speed of 17 pages per minute (ppm) at the 1200 DPI level. That's about 41 percent more than the earlier generation of LaserJet, which printed at 12 ppm and 600 DPI.

The quality of the printed text and images is also enhanced by using a toner that has tinier particles of 5 to 6 microns. Older types of toner used 7 to 8 micron particles. The smaller particle size allows more precise placement of the dots on the paper, and that is why the new type of toner is called UltraPrecise.

Besides using smaller particles, the toner transfer technology has also been improved in many ways. The cartridge, for instance, uses magnetic seals to make it less likely to leak. As you may have experienced, sometimes toner can leak and create havoc to the printer and your desktop.

In addition to the 1200 DPI printing resolution and faster printing speed, LaserJet 4000 also comes with Adobe Postscript Level 2 emulation based on the source code that HP has licensed from Xionics Document Technologies, Inc. The benefit of using the emulation is reduced cost and no additional memory requirement for most printing tasks.

Another technology that you will be hearing more and more about is JetSend. Pushed by this printer king, this new open protocol will allow device-to-device communications.

HP is hoping that JetSend will become an accepted standard that will make it possible, for instance, to scan an image using a JetSend enabled scanner and print it with a JetSend enabled printer without a PC. LaserJet 4000 is the first printer that has this capability.

Still another important technology in the new printer are Web JetAdmin tools. With the increasing pervasiveness of Intranets, this technology makes a lot of sense as it allows administrators to manage printers with the help of an ordinary Web browser.

The administrator, for instance, can tell if a network printer is already low on toner without having to really check the printer.

Finally, another interesting new feature is the instant-fuser. Usually a laser printer needs to be warmed up before printing can be done. With LaserJet 4000, there's no need to wait.

In Singapore, the new printer is expected to carry a street price tag of S$2,048. Not too bad for a network printer with 17 ppm and 1200 DPI capabilities.

DeskJet

Earlier, HP also launched its new DeskJet printer, the 890C. As expected, this printer is also capable of printing photos like most other inkjet printers these days.

However, if the UltraPrecise toner uses smaller particles to increase the print quality of images, this particular inkjet printer uses a new ink type that can be sprayed on to the paper with smaller drops.

DeskJet 890C uses ink with a drop volume of 10 pl., while the 870C that it replaces used ink with a drop volume of 32 pl. In fact, HP claims that the new ink has the smallest drop in the industry.

In addition to reducing the volume of ink drop as much as 70 percent, HP has also increased the number of color shades that a dot can have. With more colors, this printer maker claims that the image print quality surpasses the print quality of other printers with higher DPI. It makes sense. As you may recall, in the old VGA days people preferred to look at images on TV even though the TV set had a much lower DPI than a computer monitor. The reason was that the number of colors on a TV was infinite, while on a VGA display it was only 16.

When it comes to print quality, you are the ultimate judge in the contest. If you're looking for a new printer, be it a laser or an inkjet printer, ask for samples to be printed out and compare them carefully before making your choice.