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The Great Print Technology Showdown

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    The Great Print Technology Showdown

    After realizing I have at least one printer of most major print technologies (Laser, Ink-Jet, Dot-Matrix, Thermal) I decided to do a comparison of quality, speed, and cost.

    The Contenders:
    Representing Laser the Brother HL-5250DN:

    Representing Ink-Jet the HP Envy 5055:

    Representing Dot-Matrix the Epson LX-350:

    Representing Thermal the Citizen PN60:




    Quality comparison: (all of these prints were scanned on the HP Envy's 1200x1200 dpi scanner)
    Laser Document:

    Laser Photo:


    Ink-Jet Document:

    Ink-Jet Photo B&W

    Ink-Jet Photo Color (the ink-jet could do much better with photo paper but for fairness this is on plain paper):


    Dot-Matrix Document:

    Dot-Matrix Photo:


    Thermal Document:

    Thermal Photo:



    For comparison here is the original photo that was printed in the comparison above, taken straight from my Nikon D7000 (An Alaska RR SD70MAC pulling into Talkeetna Depot for anyone curious):




    Ink/Toner Cost Comparison (all costs are for genuine OEM cartridges):
    Laser $0.015/page. (A toner cartridge costs $100 and is good for 7,000 pages)

    Ink-Jet B&W: $0.12/page (The Black Ink Costs $15 and is good for 125 pages), Color: $0.28/page (A Color Cartridge costs $16 and is good for 100 pages costing $0.16/page + the $0.12/page for black)

    Dot-Matrix: $0.004/page (A Ribbon costs $5 and is good for 1,350 pages).

    Thermal: $0.20/page (A 2pk. of Ribbons is $12 and each ribbon is good for 30 pages)



    Speed (timed with a stop-watch rounded to the nearest 5 sec.):
    Laser Document: 5sec./page
    Laser Photo: 5 sec/page

    Ink-Jet Document: 30 sec./page
    Ink-Jet Photo B&W: 45 sec./page
    Ink-Jet Photo Color (Best Quality): 14 min. 45 sec./page

    Dot-Matrix Document: 15 sec./page
    Dot-Matrix Photo: 2min. 15 sec./page

    Thermal Document: 45 sec./page
    Thermal Photo: 6min 45 sec./page
    Attached Files
    Last edited by dmill89; 12-08-2018, 11:19 PM.

    #2
    Re: The Great Print Technology Showdown

    Originally posted by dmill89 View Post
    After realizing I have at least one printer of most major print technologies (Laser, Ink-Jet, Dot-Matrix, Thermal) I decided to do a comparison of quality, speed, and cost.

    [B]Ink/Toner Cost Comparison (all costs are for genuine OEM cartridges):

    Speed (timed with a stop-watch rounded to the nearest 5 sec.):
    Two other issues, IME, are more significant:
    • power consumption (printing and idling)
    • "hassle" (how confident that you'll be able to get a print "first time" after not having used the printer for 6 months)


    FWIW, I found the Phasers to offer the best visual quality (at "respectible" speeds) for photorealistic reproduction. They remained true to color, after calibration.

    Unfortunately, they take quite a while to "warm up" (literally -- to melt the ink prior to printing). And, have a lot of startup waste (cleaning the printhead). Ink was outrageously priced (though I had a boatload of it gratis).

    But, the thing that did them in (mine) was the amount of hassle involved in making prints -- esp if you only do it occasionally.

    I find it much more efficient to walk the mile (quicker than driving) to the local Kinkos and have them make pretty prints on a printer that they maintain 24/7/365 than to have to mess with printers, here.

    [I tossed my color laser, color wide-body ink jet, duplexed color phaser and duplexed LJ4m+ and just kept a pair of low-temperature monochrome lasers (very low print and standby power consumption)]

    Comment


      #3
      Re: The Great Print Technology Showdown

      Originally posted by Curious.George View Post
      Two other issues, IME, are more significant:
      • power consumption (printing and idling)
      • "hassle" (how confident that you'll be able to get a print "first time" after not having used the printer for 6 months)
      Here you go:

      Power Consumption:
      Brother HL-5250DN: Idle: 10w, printing: 930W, sleep: 5W

      HP Envy 5055: Idle: 3W, Printing: 8W, Sleep: 1W

      Epson LX-350: Idle: 5W , Printing: 18W, Sleep: 0W (I'm sure there is some power consumption but it is too low for my watt meter to get a reading).

      Citizen PN60: Idle: 2W, Printing: 15W



      Hassle (this is obviously a bit subjective, but I explained my reasoning in parenthesis for each):
      Brother HL-5250DN: virtually none (reliably prints even after months of sitting, rarely ever jams).

      HP Envy 5055: Moderate to High (often leaves streaks/lines on the first print or two after sitting for an extended period of time, like all ink-jets cartridges will dry out over time, requires alignment whenever a cartridge is replaced).

      Epson LX-350: Low if using tractor-feed, Moderate if using the sheet-feeder (often-misfeeds multiple sheets if using thin paper).

      Citizen PN60: High (only feeds one sheet at a time, must be setup each time, thermal ribbons have short life, must make sure the ribbon is tight or the printer will "eat it").

      Comment


        #4
        Re: The Great Print Technology Showdown

        Do tell how you got the pics to display and not just attach in this forum. I tried the pic icon and the url ..... not working here


        Last edited by captainKKK; 07-28-2019, 10:24 AM.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: The Great Print Technology Showdown

          Originally posted by captainKKK View Post
          Do tell how you got the pics to display and not just attach in this forum. I tried the pic icon and the url ..... not working here

          Just [IMG] tags with the URL, I did upload the pictures first with "manage attachments" and put the URL from that in the tags, not sure if the forum can connect to google drive ( I see your image URL is https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2...UN1eWdnNUtxX00 when I quote the post) so that might be your problem.

          Comment

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