One-pass laser printers speed up color printing
One-pass laser printers speed up color printing
Zatni Arbi Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id
Color laser printers used to need a lot of investment, take a lot
of time to print and be a challenge to use. That was why when PT
Harrisma Agung Jaya, a distributor of Fuji Xerox Phaser printers
for Indonesia, offered me the chance to try out their fast, easy-
to-use, one-pass color laser printer, I got pretty excited.
I agreed, and I was given a week to play around with their demo
unit before it would be taken to another customer for testing.
In the past, laser printers had to run four passes to print a
color page. During each pass, one of the four colors -- cyan,
magenta, yellow and black -- was placed on the paper. This was
the reason it took the printers so much longer to print color
images as opposed to just black text. In single-pass printers,
all the four colors are printed on the medium at the same time,
significantly reducing the time required to print a page.
Xerox launched two new color printers earlier last month,
Phaser 8200 and Phaser 6200. These two printer were meant to
drive the use of color in office documents. The Phaser 8200 uses
solid ink, while the Phaser 6200 uses color laser toner. There is
not much price difference between the two, as the 8200 is being
offered at prices starting with US$2,050 while the 6200 carries a
price tag starting at $2,100. I chose the laser for my test
drive. My feeling is that workgroup users and office managers
will prefer the more familiar laser than the solid-ink
technology.
Speed daemons
These two printers are quite capable. Both can print at a
speed of 16 pages per minute (ppm) in color or in black and
white. The laser printer has a very high resolution, which is
2400 dots per inch (DPI). Fuji Xerox recommends that you never
try to lift the printer alone -- that should tell you how big and
heavy it is.
Phaser 8200 uses a 300 MHz processor, while Phaser 6200 uses a
PowerPC 500 MHz processor. A feature that Fuji Xerox boasts for
Phaser 8200 is that it can start churning out printed documents
within nine seconds after it is turned on.
Phaser 6200 can be connected to an IP network using its
Ethernet port. I used the parallel interface for my tests, but
the printer also has a USB port. A hard disk with a 10 GB
capacity can be added to spool the printer jobs when the printer
is used as a network printer, along with a maximum of 512 MB of
RAM. Installation of the driver, which came on a CD-ROM, was
quick and straightforward. Automatic duplex printing capability
is optional.
Harrisma did not supply me with printed documentation. That
posed no problem at all. Not only was the printer easy to
install, its documentation can also be printed off the printer's
memory. The menus on the printer were quite comprehensive,
although I did not tinker with them very much. The backlighted
LCD, which displays the menus, is a bit too small for people with
limited vision like myself, although the characters are quite
sharp. Navigation is done through a set of six control buttons
next to the LCD panel. The power button is located a bit too far
to the rear. It took me some time to locate it without the help
of a manual.
Decent results
I tested the printer using the ASUS L2 notebook that I had tested
earlier. Printing a whole page photo just using Windows image
viewer resulted in a very acceptable print. I was pleasantly
surprised, because I did the test using some JPEG files sent by a
friend via e-mail. I did not expect the result to be of this
quality. The printer produced a lot of noise when it was working,
though. Other important features include Adobe Postscript 2.0
printing language, TekColor Corrections for optimal color
results. Its four print quality modes are Standard, Enhanced,
Photo and Draft. Because it has its own IP address, we can run
diagnostics and device configuration remotely using a browser.
The toner is a plastic-based powder. When I took the toner
tube containers out, I found a lot of this powder underneath. The
unit I tested had been circulated among a number of other
reviewers, and I guess Harrisma had not had the chance to clean
the unit.
Overall, I like the Phaser 6200DX that I tested. Its 60,000
pages per month duty cycle shows that it was intended to work
like a horse. Clearly, both the Phaser 6200 and Phaser 8200 have
a few strong competitors, among which are the comparably priced
HP LaserJet 4600 as well as another single-pass color laser
printer from Matsushita-Panasonic. What I appreciate the most
about these new printers is that they represent a breakthrough in
office color printing in terms of speed and price.
If we want a true photo quality prints, the best bet is still
the specialized photo printers, of course. A laser color printer
is not meant to reproduce photos, they are meant to add colors to
office documents to make it easier for us to highlight our
messages in our memos, or impress our clients with our marketing
collaterals that do not efficiently lend themselves to bulk
printing. A fast and affordable printer like these two Phasers
are highly welcome.
Zatni Arbi Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id
Color laser printers used to need a lot of investment, take a lot
of time to print and be a challenge to use. That was why when PT
Harrisma Agung Jaya, a distributor of Fuji Xerox Phaser printers
for Indonesia, offered me the chance to try out their fast, easy-
to-use, one-pass color laser printer, I got pretty excited.
I agreed, and I was given a week to play around with their demo
unit before it would be taken to another customer for testing.
In the past, laser printers had to run four passes to print a
color page. During each pass, one of the four colors -- cyan,
magenta, yellow and black -- was placed on the paper. This was
the reason it took the printers so much longer to print color
images as opposed to just black text. In single-pass printers,
all the four colors are printed on the medium at the same time,
significantly reducing the time required to print a page.
Xerox launched two new color printers earlier last month,
Phaser 8200 and Phaser 6200. These two printer were meant to
drive the use of color in office documents. The Phaser 8200 uses
solid ink, while the Phaser 6200 uses color laser toner. There is
not much price difference between the two, as the 8200 is being
offered at prices starting with US$2,050 while the 6200 carries a
price tag starting at $2,100. I chose the laser for my test
drive. My feeling is that workgroup users and office managers
will prefer the more familiar laser than the solid-ink
technology.
Speed daemons
These two printers are quite capable. Both can print at a
speed of 16 pages per minute (ppm) in color or in black and
white. The laser printer has a very high resolution, which is
2400 dots per inch (DPI). Fuji Xerox recommends that you never
try to lift the printer alone -- that should tell you how big and
heavy it is.
Phaser 8200 uses a 300 MHz processor, while Phaser 6200 uses a
PowerPC 500 MHz processor. A feature that Fuji Xerox boasts for
Phaser 8200 is that it can start churning out printed documents
within nine seconds after it is turned on.
Phaser 6200 can be connected to an IP network using its
Ethernet port. I used the parallel interface for my tests, but
the printer also has a USB port. A hard disk with a 10 GB
capacity can be added to spool the printer jobs when the printer
is used as a network printer, along with a maximum of 512 MB of
RAM. Installation of the driver, which came on a CD-ROM, was
quick and straightforward. Automatic duplex printing capability
is optional.
Harrisma did not supply me with printed documentation. That
posed no problem at all. Not only was the printer easy to
install, its documentation can also be printed off the printer's
memory. The menus on the printer were quite comprehensive,
although I did not tinker with them very much. The backlighted
LCD, which displays the menus, is a bit too small for people with
limited vision like myself, although the characters are quite
sharp. Navigation is done through a set of six control buttons
next to the LCD panel. The power button is located a bit too far
to the rear. It took me some time to locate it without the help
of a manual.
Decent results
I tested the printer using the ASUS L2 notebook that I had tested
earlier. Printing a whole page photo just using Windows image
viewer resulted in a very acceptable print. I was pleasantly
surprised, because I did the test using some JPEG files sent by a
friend via e-mail. I did not expect the result to be of this
quality. The printer produced a lot of noise when it was working,
though. Other important features include Adobe Postscript 2.0
printing language, TekColor Corrections for optimal color
results. Its four print quality modes are Standard, Enhanced,
Photo and Draft. Because it has its own IP address, we can run
diagnostics and device configuration remotely using a browser.
The toner is a plastic-based powder. When I took the toner
tube containers out, I found a lot of this powder underneath. The
unit I tested had been circulated among a number of other
reviewers, and I guess Harrisma had not had the chance to clean
the unit.
Overall, I like the Phaser 6200DX that I tested. Its 60,000
pages per month duty cycle shows that it was intended to work
like a horse. Clearly, both the Phaser 6200 and Phaser 8200 have
a few strong competitors, among which are the comparably priced
HP LaserJet 4600 as well as another single-pass color laser
printer from Matsushita-Panasonic. What I appreciate the most
about these new printers is that they represent a breakthrough in
office color printing in terms of speed and price.
If we want a true photo quality prints, the best bet is still
the specialized photo printers, of course. A laser color printer
is not meant to reproduce photos, they are meant to add colors to
office documents to make it easier for us to highlight our
messages in our memos, or impress our clients with our marketing
collaterals that do not efficiently lend themselves to bulk
printing. A fast and affordable printer like these two Phasers
are highly welcome.