If you have started your search for a color printer for your home or office, you will have surely realized that there are several types of color printers offered. But you should first evaluate why you want a color printer in the first place. The good news is that nowadays printer technology can be considered as a golden age with prices on the inexpensive side and quality on the higher side.
The Use of a Color Printer
Ahead of selecting the type of color printer you want you should decide what its main use will be. If you desire one just for printing digital photos then you will need a photo quality ink jet printer. Although marketed for producing beautiful color photos most of these printers can be used also as a daily home printer for documents besides.
Alternatively, if you need a printer to print out text with color diagrams, images, or graphs then choose between a color laser printer and an ink jet printer. First, let's take a look at the specifications and the terminology that are used by the manufacturers of color printers and what to search for if you want the best results for your color printing needs.
Printer Resolution (dpi)
The resolution is normally the first specification that folk check when choosing a color printer. However it isn't only the resolution of the printer that decides the print quality. If you are printing photos with a printer with a high resolution you will require an image with a high pixel number or file image size to make a good sized print. The resolution of a printer is determined by the number of dots per inch (dpi) that the printer lays down on the paper. The higher the dpi number, the smaller the dot will be that the printer produces. Smaller dots make it more difficult to distinguish one dot from the next with the naked eye. A printers resolution can vary from 300 up to 2,400 dpi or higher.
How Many Colors?
Mainly, color ink jet printers use either three, four, or six colors to print and now you can get ones with eight colors. Ink-jet printers can use 1 cartridge with 3 colors in a multi-chambered ink cartridge as well as another cartridge for black, or 3 individual cartridges containing the 3 primary colors so that you can replace one cartridge when one color runs out. Every color printers use cyan, magenta, and yellow which are the 3 primary colors used for printing in color printing.
Color printers use any of the subsequent colors:
3 color printers (cyan, magenta and yellow) - the 3 colors when mixed together create black
4 color printers (black, cyan, magenta and yellow)
6 color printers (black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta)
8 color printers (black, medium grey, light grey, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta)
Obviously, the 6 and 8 color printers turn out the best color images than the 3 or 4 color printers. The 8 color printers can do a much better job at printing B&W images thanks to their grey inks. Some of the 6 color printers can print excellent B&W images but because the shades of grey are produced by mixing the 6 colors, you could finish with sepia tinted photos.
Choose the Correct Paper
Even with a high dpi number and six colors, your printed images won't look good if you don't use the right paper. You will not get good results from low-cost, porous paper that isn't intended for printing photo-quality photos. You should buy paper and ink that is recommended by the printer manufacturer. After you have more practice you can try out different brands and grades of paper.
Test Before Buying the Printer
Your best bet is to go to a shop specializing in color printers that stock many different brands. Ask the salesperson to demonstrate the printers that you're considering. Get them to print out a few pages of text to check the quality of the printer and then a page with text and images, and finally a full color image. Compare the same pages from different printers.
Verify how many pages per minute and contrast that to the specifications of the printer. Also, see if the printer is noisy or not. Lastly, check out how much new ink cartridges cost for several different printers. Sometimes a printer can seem very cheap but when it comes time to buy new ink you could discover that they are very costly.
The Use of a Color Printer
Ahead of selecting the type of color printer you want you should decide what its main use will be. If you desire one just for printing digital photos then you will need a photo quality ink jet printer. Although marketed for producing beautiful color photos most of these printers can be used also as a daily home printer for documents besides.
Alternatively, if you need a printer to print out text with color diagrams, images, or graphs then choose between a color laser printer and an ink jet printer. First, let's take a look at the specifications and the terminology that are used by the manufacturers of color printers and what to search for if you want the best results for your color printing needs.
Printer Resolution (dpi)
The resolution is normally the first specification that folk check when choosing a color printer. However it isn't only the resolution of the printer that decides the print quality. If you are printing photos with a printer with a high resolution you will require an image with a high pixel number or file image size to make a good sized print. The resolution of a printer is determined by the number of dots per inch (dpi) that the printer lays down on the paper. The higher the dpi number, the smaller the dot will be that the printer produces. Smaller dots make it more difficult to distinguish one dot from the next with the naked eye. A printers resolution can vary from 300 up to 2,400 dpi or higher.
How Many Colors?
Mainly, color ink jet printers use either three, four, or six colors to print and now you can get ones with eight colors. Ink-jet printers can use 1 cartridge with 3 colors in a multi-chambered ink cartridge as well as another cartridge for black, or 3 individual cartridges containing the 3 primary colors so that you can replace one cartridge when one color runs out. Every color printers use cyan, magenta, and yellow which are the 3 primary colors used for printing in color printing.
Color printers use any of the subsequent colors:
3 color printers (cyan, magenta and yellow) - the 3 colors when mixed together create black
4 color printers (black, cyan, magenta and yellow)
6 color printers (black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta)
8 color printers (black, medium grey, light grey, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta)
Obviously, the 6 and 8 color printers turn out the best color images than the 3 or 4 color printers. The 8 color printers can do a much better job at printing B&W images thanks to their grey inks. Some of the 6 color printers can print excellent B&W images but because the shades of grey are produced by mixing the 6 colors, you could finish with sepia tinted photos.
Choose the Correct Paper
Even with a high dpi number and six colors, your printed images won't look good if you don't use the right paper. You will not get good results from low-cost, porous paper that isn't intended for printing photo-quality photos. You should buy paper and ink that is recommended by the printer manufacturer. After you have more practice you can try out different brands and grades of paper.
Test Before Buying the Printer
Your best bet is to go to a shop specializing in color printers that stock many different brands. Ask the salesperson to demonstrate the printers that you're considering. Get them to print out a few pages of text to check the quality of the printer and then a page with text and images, and finally a full color image. Compare the same pages from different printers.
Verify how many pages per minute and contrast that to the specifications of the printer. Also, see if the printer is noisy or not. Lastly, check out how much new ink cartridges cost for several different printers. Sometimes a printer can seem very cheap but when it comes time to buy new ink you could discover that they are very costly.
About the Author:
Michael Tait likes writing articles about his interests like technology, electronics, and gadgets. Check out his latest site about Portable eBook Readers where you can read his review of the iLiad Reader. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory
No comments:
Post a Comment