• Monochrome printing for pennies! Monochrome printing in small volumes: testing personal laser printers

    Printers are matrix, inkjet, sublimation and laser, and in terms of printing color - monochrome and multi-color.

    Monochrome printers, which operate on the laser principle, reproduce images using the xerography method. They differ from their colored “brothers” only by the presence of only one black paint.

    There are monochrome devices that are intended for home use, while others are most suitable for large companies and offices.

    Features of monochrome printers

    Black and white printing devices are more compact than color ones. In addition, their difference is efficiency.

    Such printers, on average, can print 20-60 pages per minute. Almost all have network support, paper receiving and receiving trays, and finishing devices.

    Monochrome laser printers are capable of providing good print quality.

    If you compare inkjet and laser printers with a black and white device, the laser model will show better printing speed and the cost of a print will be much lower.

    For home use

    An inexpensive monochrome printer will be a profitable purchase for use by schoolchildren and students, teachers and professors.

    And mothers of babies can use such a printer for printing teaching aids and coloring pictures.

    Typically, a laser printer is slightly more expensive than an inkjet printer. But its advantage is cheaper maintenance and operation.

    For institutions, companies and offices

    Black and white printing equipment is widely used by many companies. Contracts and other legal documents can be printed freely. In addition, owners of such devices can provide printing services or sell copies of forms.

    Often used in educational institutions similar devices for “reproduction” of copies of various manuals and manuals.

    In medical institutions they are used to issue patient cards.

    Economical Kyocera monochrome printers

    Economical Kyocera printer The Japanese-made FS-4100DN will be a real find in an era of savings. Most devices of this brand are designed for use in small and medium-sized offices.

    Peculiarities:

    • Lowest printing costs in its class;
    • 45 pages per minute in A4 format with a resolution of up to 1200 dpi;
    • to reduce paper consumption - printing in “n-up” mode and duplex printing;
    • as standard - Gigabit Ethernet network interface;
    • convenient printing directly from a USB drive;
    • For ease of password entry - a keyboard with a secure printing function.

    This high-performance monochrome A4 laser printer fits perfectly into any network environment and is capable of printing up to 45 pages per minute. It is distinguished by the use of identification cards to improve the security system, hard protection disk and secure print function.

    Thanks to its various processing capabilities and increased paper capacity, this monochrome A3 printer handles even large jobs quickly. And with the touch and wireless communication module, mobile printing is simple and convenient.

    The advantages of the printer are the following:

    • With a common driver, printing is easy for everyone;
    • large volume of documents with high printing speed - up to 56 ppm;
    • universal possibilities for stacking and feeding paper into the stapler, booklet puncher, stacker;
    • one-touch simplified job processing: the ability for the user to quickly navigate between jobs using the large color touch screen;
    • Thanks to the fast-fusing technology, there is no need to wait, which allows for significant energy savings.

    This model laser monochrome designed for printing with mobile devices and easy network printing. In addition, it supports Wi-Fi.

    The device is equipped with an automatic two-sided printing function. Network energy-saving features save time. This model is ideal for home use or small office.

    Automatic image filtering and high quality resolution of 1200x1200 dpi will produce documents with highly detailed graphics and clear text.

    Advantages:

    • Easy printing from mobile devices is available using the special Canon Mobile Printing application;
    • best in class for energy efficiency;
    • fast printing in improved quality (up to 25 ppm);
    • Automatic two-sided printing allows you to save time and money on consumables.

    For daily use - OKI B431dn

    If you need a monochrome laser printer for your home that will provide high productivity without unnecessary expenditure of money, then many sellers will recommend you the OKI B431.

    This desktop printer is easy to use and will provide advanced productivity options. Among the advantages are:

    • a large resource supply of consumables ensures low cost of prints;
    • monochrome printing with first page out in 5 seconds (at 38 ppm);
    • dpi resolution provides prints of the highest quality with detailed elaboration of the smallest elements;
    • two-sided automatic printing (paper supply can be expanded up to 880 sheets);
    • “Energy Saving” mode: will reduce power consumption by up to 8 W.

    Extremely easy to use:

    • long service life of consumables, which are easily replaced in a matter of seconds;
    • control panel with backlight and LCD.

    LaserJet M604n

    This super-fast monochrome laser printer is expandable, easy to use and has a minimal environmental impact.

    With a four-line display and ten-button PIN pad, jobs and settings are quickly tracked.

    With automated duplex printing and optional trays that hold up to 3,600 sheets, you can easily print large projects.

    By adding pre-sorted paper feeders and multi-media functionality to your printer, you can make your job more efficient.

    For this monochrome printer, there are additional settings and updates on specialized websites. With their help, you can achieve, for example, scaling support.

    HP Auto-On/Auto-Off technology saves energy by turning the printer on when needed and off when not in use.

    This printer consumes less energy than any other device in its class, and the free HP Planet Partners program makes it easy to recycle consumables.

    Epson M105 printer

    Monochrome inkjet printer with wireless Wi-Fi connection, pigment inks and fairly low printing costs. The device comes with two 140 ml containers with pigment ink (starter kit), thanks to which you can print up to 11 thousand images. The special design of containers and ink tanks allows even an inexperienced user to easily handle refilling.

    The advantages of this device include:

    • pigment ink;
    • print speed - up to 34 ppm;
    • ultra-economical printing of black and white documents;
    • low cost of printing;
    • wireless connection Wi-Fi.

    Popular Samsung

    Laser monochrome printers from trademark Samsung are equipped with high-frequency processors and good RAM.

    They demonstrate high performance print. Due to the quality of work and efficiency, the devices have proven themselves to be excellent when used in offices and educational institutions of various levels.

    Classmates

    Monochrome toner printing or black and white laser printing is the process of producing black and white prints using printing devices filled with toner powder (toner).

    Monochrome toner printing involves the use of toner - a special powder consisting of microscopic granules.

    Toner granules consist of a polymer base, charge control additives, iron oxide (magnetide), modifiers, pigments and surface additives.

    The principle of monochrome toner printing is implemented in laser printers, copiers and multifunction devices.

    The core element of a toner cartridge is photoconductor, with the help of which the image is transferred to paper. It is an empty cylinder made of metal coated with a thin layer of photoconductive semiconductor. In order for the charge to be distributed evenly over the surface of the photodrum, a very thin mesh or wire is introduced into its design, to which voltage is applied - a corona wire.

    Charging the drum

    Monochrome toner printing begins with uniform charging of the drum surface, which occurs thanks to the charge roller.

    The principle of monochrome toner printing

    Overexposure

    When a negatively charged photodrum, rotating, passes under a laser beam, it is illuminated. The surface of the photodrum is illuminated only in those places where the toner should subsequently stick. That is, the laser beam draws the relief of the future image on the surface of the photodrum.

    Applying toner to the drum

    Areas of the photodrum illuminated by the laser beam partially lose their negative charge and acquire the ability to attract toner. The printing process involves a magnetic roller, which attracts the required amount of toner particles to its surface and transfers them to the photodrum. The toner, falling on the magnetic shaft, receives a negative charge, so it does not stick to the entire surface of the photodrum, but only to areas illuminated by the laser beam and having a weakened negative charge. The remaining areas of the photodrum that are not illuminated by the laser repel the toner. As a result, the image of the future image is transferred to the surface of the photodrum.

    Transferring toner to paper

    At the next stage, a sheet of paper is fed into the cartridge mechanism. It is pulled into the gap between the negatively charged image drum and the positively charged transfer roller. The transfer roller pulls the toner particles from the drum onto the paper. As a result, a future image is formed on paper. While it is not fixed and is smeared by friction. To fix the image on paper, the sheet is transported to the fuser (oven).

    Freezing an image

    Fixing the image involves “baking” the toner at a temperature from 180°C to 250°C. The fuser is equipped with a rubber roller and a heat roller that are in contact with each other. Rotating, both shafts pull the paper between them. When a sheet of paper passes under the heating element, the toner melts and adheres to the paper.

    Despite the increasing spread of network electrographic printers, interest in personal printing machines remains consistently high. The main reason for this is affordable price these devices and consumables for them. The cost of the most popular models is in the range of 100-200 dollars. Another important factor in popularity is compactness and ease of operation. Modern personal “laser cameras” are quite compact to be placed on a desktop and do not require a special stand. Many printer models allow you to fold the input and output trays to save space, and the most ergonomic devices have everything inside and no protruding parts at all.
    Before choosing a specific printer, you should clearly understand what such devices can do – and most importantly, what they cannot do. The main task of personal “laser printers” is to print text documents and simple b/w images in small quantities. If the expected monthly print volume exceeds 10-15 thousand sheets, then these devices are not suitable. When the speed of print output is important, you should pay attention to middle-class devices (the maximum speed achievable today for personal laser printers– 20 pages per minute).
    To assess the potential capabilities of the printers being tested, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the table of declared technical characteristics.

    Brother HL-2040R



    This printer is a great example of a compact device. The horizontal layout of the elements and the input tray, which is completely contained in the body and does not protrude outward, allows you to place the printer in a small area, for example, on a computer table shelf. Prints come out from the top and also do not require additional space. The only protruding part is a small folding “tab” to support printed sheets. The smooth contours of the body and neutral colors fit perfectly into the environment home office or office.


    The input tray opens forward (it can be removed completely from the printer). There are centrally symmetrical adjustable width stops. The paper is placed face down.


    The media is also collected from the sheet feed slot, which has separate adjustable guides. This is very convenient when you need to add an address to an envelope or fill out a form.


    There is a cover on the rear panel that provides access to the duct. If paper gets jammed, removing it is easy. Interface connectors and a socket for the power cable are also located at the back.


    The USB port is covered with a translucent sticker with an inscription warning about the need to install drivers before connecting to a computer. Experienced users know how much time they will have to spend on “manually cleaning” the Windows registry if the system incorrectly detects what is connected to USB device(this is exactly what often happens when the printer is connected before the drivers for it are installed). So this little thing will save a lot of time and effort for novice users who want to quickly connect and try out the newly purchased device.


    Behind the back cover there is a drawing shaft and a stove. In the event of a malfunction, it can be removed and replaced without disassembling the entire body of the device. An exhaust fan is provided on the right side to cool the heating element. This obvious and simple technique will extend the life of the stove and prevent premature failure.


    On the left front panel there are LED status indicators:

    low toner level;
    photodrum malfunction;
    no paper in the tray;
    ready for printing;

    as well as a button to resume a task after a failure.


    The cartridge consists of two parts: a container with toner and a housing in which the photo drum is fixed. This design is completely justified, since the life of the drum significantly exceeds the life of the toner cartridge.


    The container can be reused: at the end there is a cork covered with a protective sticker. However, if you refuel yourself, problems with warranty service may arise.

    Printer driver and settings

    The driver's user interface is quite austere, but allows you to configure everything you need and even more.


    On the first tab, you can set the media size and type, number of copies, sheet orientation, and layout when printing multiple pages on one sheet.


    On the second tab, you can configure the print resolution, the method of stitching pages, mirroring, and also enable the mode for saving toner and displaying watermarks. Another interesting option called “setting print parameters” provides access to rasterization settings when outputting images.


    In the dialog box that appears when you click the “Install…” button, you can manually set raster parameters, as well as use existing presets. How these settings affect the output of halftones is discussed in the next section of this article.



    As stated above, there are three possible resolutions available: 300 dpi, 600 dpi and 1200 dpi (HQ). Here are the test results for each of the possible settings in increasing order of resolution:

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    0.3 MB0.3 MB0.4 MB


    As you can see, the 1200 dpi (HQ) mode really provides the most detail, however, some artifacts arise: very small objects merge (in the 600 dpi mode they simply are not printed). When printing at 300 dpi, shading on inclined lines becomes noticeable.
    The quality of monochrome image output and halftone rendering can be assessed by the following scans:

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    300 dpi mode, 24.4 MB

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    600 dpi mode + improved grayscale printing, 24.5 MB

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    600 dpi mode + print sample improvement, 23.9 MB


    On a 300 dpi print, a coarse regular raster is clearly visible. In this case, the details of the image are lost, and the transitions between shades of gray become sharp. The structure of the dither matrix is ​​visible up to the maximum fill density. Black and gray characters become “overgrown with cobwebs,” which does not at all contribute to their better readability.
    In the 600 dpi mode the situation is noticeably leveled out: the raster remains regular, but is much less noticeable. Transitions between halftones become less noticeable. The main disadvantages of this mode: distinct dots in light areas, the darkest halftones merge.
    Enabling the “improve print sample” mode in the driver settings significantly improves the subjective perception of printed monochrome photographs. In this mode, another method of transmitting halftones is used - the formation of a matrix of equidistant dots of variable size. This makes the image denser, the transitions between halftones become smoother, but the detail in the dark areas is lost.
    Thus, for printing graphs, diagrams and diagrams, it is worth using “improved printing of gray tones” (will provide greater contrast between monotone fills), and for outputting monochrome photographs – “improving print pattern” (halftone transitions will be smoother).

    Canon LBP-2900

    Design, construction, ergonomics


    The device has a strict and practical design. When inactive, it is very compact and has no protruding parts. The color scheme complements the smooth and consistent lines of the body: snow-white sides and a gray translucent top. The device will fit very well into both the interior of a modern office and home environment. On the front panel, which also serves as a folding input tray, the silver “Canon” inscription proudly displays, once again emphasizing that the device belongs to the eminent family of consumer and professional devices.


    In order to put the printer into working condition, you need to open the input and output trays. At the same time, the space occupied by the device increases noticeably. From this perspective, the curvature of the printing path becomes very noticeable, so printing on thick media is out of the question. At open lids rubber rollers are visible in the center of the finishing broach rollers, as well as two paper feed ports.


    Both have adjustable guides, and the lower one (which acts as an autofeed tray) also has a sliding stop. Load paper face up.


    The push-button control panel contains only two keys: turning the power on/off and restoring printing after reloading paper. The second button has an LED indicator inside, signaling the end of paper in the tray. The warning about the unavailability of the media is duplicated in the driver window, and the printed job can be restored from the computer, but you will agree that it is much more convenient to do this directly from the printer: load the paper and press the button, instead of returning to the computer and pressing the key there.


    The USB interface connector is recessed into the body and covered with a hinged lid. This solution will allow you to twist the excess connecting wire and hide it under the cover, thus removing the excess wire from the workplace.


    The back side contains only the power connector and the built-in power supply switch. There is no cover that provides access to the feed path, which can cause problems in case of paper jams.
    Another notable design feature: there is no case fan. The stove is located near the rear wall and is cooled passively. We will leave the justification of such a decision and its impact on the durability of the heating element on the conscience of the manufacturer, but the fact remains obvious that the likelihood of device failure due to problems with the stove increases.


    Access to the cartridge compartment is provided by the top cover located directly below the hinged output tray. The cartridge is held in place by a latch and can be removed and installed easily and effortlessly.


    The cartridge itself combines a toner container and a photoconductor. Not the most economical option, but for a personal printer with low print volumes, aimed at the SOHO segment, it is quite justified. There is no need to worry about whether you need to replace the toner or the drum - you just need to install a new cartridge.

    Printer driver and settings

    The driver interface is familiar to Canon printer users. Very logically and clearly grouped parameters will allow even an inexperienced user to configure the printer.



    On the first tab, the media dimensions, its orientation, layout and order of pages on a sheet and the number of copies are set, and most importantly, all settings can be saved and resumed when printing a similar sample. It is also possible to print posters when the page is scaled to multiple sheets (you can also specify stitching lines).



    Another important tab is setting the image quality. There are three presets here to suit the specifics of what you're going to print. Among them: “standard” (text and graphics), “text” (corresponds to the title) and “web page” (optimization for images). Those who like to control the process themselves can use manual grayscale settings.


    In the dialog box that appears, you can set the two-level segmentation mode (only black and white without grayscale), and enable image pre-processing by the driver for better perception in black and white. The slider controls the toner density, and the last checkbox enables the toner saving mode.

    Print Quality Test Results

    The print resolution test was run in two modes: standard and toner saving.

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    0.4 MB 0.4 MB

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    Standard mode, 24.5 MB

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    Preset "Web page", 24.3 MB


    Transferring halftones to standard mode and with the “web page” preset there is practically no difference. Same method (variable sized dots at equal distances), same density. This indicates that the driver is working correctly in determining the type of sample being printed. Transitions between halftones remain smooth throughout the entire range of gradations up to the maximum filling density. The light areas are also well-developed: the raster is hardly noticeable to the naked eye.

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    23.3 MB


    In toner save mode, the toner density is significantly reduced. Detail is lost in light areas, gray characters become almost indistinguishable. The raster structure is visible even on a black field. The boundaries between dies with monotonous filling are lost. All this does this mode undesirable (read unsuitable) for printing monochrome images.

    Epson EPL-6200L

    Design, construction, ergonomics


    “Simple and tasteful” – this is the phrase that best describes the design of the Epson EPL-6200L printer. There are no frills or decorations in it; it is another “gray box” in a modern office. Neutral colors and clean lines won't distract you when you place the device directly on your desktop.


    Once the covers are open, the guides in the input tray become visible. They can be adjusted to suit the desired media format. But what you won’t be able to see, even if you open all the covers and panels on the printer, is the sheet feed port. Apparently the manufacturer considered that the device entry level there is no need for this “excess”. Whether potential buyers will think the same is another question.


    Upon closer examination of the receiving tray... nothing interesting was revealed. Conventional sheet gripping mechanism. As practice has shown, it sometimes pulls in two sheets at once.


    There is no control panel as such. There are no buttons on the front side of the case, only two indicators: “ready” and “error”. All control is carried out entirely by software.


    The cartridge compartment is hidden behind the front cover. It fits into the seat along plastic guides and is held in place by a fairly tight latch. Unused space in the compartment and protrusions on the holder indicate the possibility of using larger powder containers.


    There are two interface connectors: LPT and USB. Frankly, it’s quite strange to see both connectors, given the “savings on matches” (lack of control buttons and sheet-feed slots). However, none of them will be superfluous: an entry-level printer is often used in conjunction with rather old computers, where USB connectors are in short supply or absent altogether.


    It's nice to see that the manufacturer did not skimp on really necessary things, such as a fan for forced cooling of the stove. In operating condition, the fan is quite quiet and does not have an unpleasant buzzing or whistling sound.


    The cartridge has a collapsible design. The toner bottle can be separated from the drum holder. Considering the significant difference between the resource of a toner cartridge and a photoconductor: 3,000 and 20,000 prints, respectively, such a design solution is completely justified.


    There is a stopper on the side of the powder container that can be easily removed. You can refill the cartridge yourself, at your own peril and risk, of course.
    In general, this printer has a very practical and ergonomic design, and although the manufacturer has saved on some small details, all the main components and mechanisms are made at the proper level. During testing, no malfunctions or “chewing” of paper (even very tattered) occurred, which gives reason to consider the device quite reliable in operation.

    Printer driver and settings


    The driver settings are not full of variety. In the main window, you can set the paper size, orientation, and number of copies. The only available resolution is 600 dpi. The printing mechanism cannot physically provide more, and it is impractical to use less. This does not increase the speed, but the quality suffers greatly. Other tabs do not contain particularly valuable settings.


    Several more interesting parameters can be set in the pop-up window after clicking on the “Advanced…” button. First of all, these are the fill intensity and raster density (two positions). If you set the switch to the "no" position, the printer will not print grayscale - only two levels - black and white. This mode is useful if the output document contains colored text. Because in graphic mode it [color text] will be printed not with a solid fill, but with the help of dithering. And this will not improve the perception at all. Here you can set the toner saving.

    Print Quality Test Results

    The print resolution test was run in three modes: standard, no graphics, and toner saver. This is caused by an unknown artifact in the resulting prints. Let's look at the scans.

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    Halftone mode, 1.0 MB

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    "No graphics" mode, 1.0 MB

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    Toner save mode, 1.0 MB


    A dark spot on the very interesting place imprint. Drum dirty? We reprint... try in a different mode... the defect remains. There is clearly an error in the print job processing unit at the driver level.
    Visible details in the image correspond to a resolution of 600 dpi. In toner saving mode, only the bottom and left outline of objects are printed, and solid fills are replaced with a rare regular raster. This does not have a positive effect on resolution.

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    24.3 MB


    The halftone image in standard mode looks quite good. The gradations near the lightest and darkest tones are clearly developed. The edges between the dies are clearly visible. It is noteworthy that a combined method is used to form halftones: both the size of the dots and the distance between them change.

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    24.3 MB


    Enabling the toner saving option distorts graphic elements quite significantly: contours are enhanced, fill intensity is reduced, the darkest gradations are inverted, and the boundaries between solids in the middle grayscale region are erased. This mode is completely unsuitable for graphics output. And the savings are meager. It can only be effective where there are no halftone elements.

    HP LaserJet 1020

    Design, construction, ergonomics

    HP network printers for workgroups are among the most popular in both domestic and foreign markets. The LaserJet 1020 model, intended for personal use, is also very popular. The main reason for this is the world-famous and well-promoted brand in the printing device segment. This printer has neither outstanding technical characteristics nor exquisite design, it simply does not have significant design flaws and bears the HP name. This, as it turned out, is quite enough to be popular.


    The printer has the usual design for devices of this kind and is gray in color.


    Everything is thoughtful and functional. Behind the front cover, which also serves as the paper input tray, there is a folded media feed port. Each has width-adjustable guides, and the bottom one also has a movable length limiter. Media should be fed face up into both ports. To receive prints there is a sliding holder with a folding stopper. It protrudes forward from the front panel exactly the length of the input tray when open.
    There is a recess visible on the side panel: this is the seat for the USB interface connector, but unlike the Canon printer, it is not covered by a hinged hatch. Therefore, it will not be possible to compactly twist and lay the excess connecting wire.


    Like the Epson device, this device also has only two LED indicators and no control buttons. Well, the concept of fully software control is finding more and more adherents among peripheral manufacturers. However, this approach seems to us to be far from always justified.


    Access to the cartridge compartment is provided by the top cover of the printer. The cartridge itself is held inside by spring-loaded latches and is inserted and removed without effort. For ease of removal, a ribbed handle is provided on the cartridge body.


    The back side is almost entirely made of metal. Behind it lies a heating element and drawing shafts. Alas, quick access not provided for the path. So if a paper jam occurs, you will have to unscrew the case.
    On the right side of the back there is a connector for the built-in power supply and a switch - the only button on the case.


    The combined cartridge contains a toner container and an image drum. The latter is covered from sunlight and fingers by a spring-loaded curtain. HP's official policy prohibits the use of non-original or refilled cartridges. However, you can sacrifice the warranty and use compatible or refurbished consumables at your own peril and risk.

    Printer driver and settings


    Driver user interface is not localized in the best possible way, but figuring it out is not difficult at all. In the main window, you can set the media size and type, and select the media source. All settings can be saved to a profile and then recalled as needed.


    The print quality setting is located on the Finishing tab. Two resolutions are available: 600 dpi and 1200 dpi. You can also set the toner saving mode and print color text not in grayscale, but in solid black.
    On the same tab, you can set the number of pages per sheet and rotate the pages up for ease of duplex printing. One more interesting feature– booklet printing. The pages are printed on paper in a "centrally symmetrical" order. For example, if the booklet consists of four pages, then the first and fourth pages will be printed on the first sheet, and the second and third ones will be printed on the second.

    Print Quality Test Results

    The print resolution test was run at both possible resolutions: 600 and 1200 dpi. Let's look at the scans...

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    Resolution 600 dpi, 1.0 MB

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    Resolution 1200 dpi, 1.0 MB


    and we see an already familiar artifact, only more pronounced. Now the incomprehensible spot has taken on quite definite shape - this is the symbol “6”. The artifact was obtained in both modes, and clearly indicates an error in processing at the driver level.
    As you would expect, the actual resolution remains constant at any setting, and the 1200 dpi mode is nothing more than software processing to enhance contours.

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    Resolution 600 dpi, 24.2 MB


    The grayscale image in standard mode looks mediocre. The lightest gradations are not printed at all. The boundaries between the dies in a ruler with a single gamma are very poorly distinguishable.

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    Resolution 600 dpi + toner saving, 23.7 MB


    In Toner Save mode, the overall infill density is noticeably reduced, but the problem remains the same.

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    Resolution 1200 dpi, 24.0 MB


    Setting the resolution to 1200 dpi visually increases the saturation of the image, but upon closer examination no significant differences from 600 dpi were found.
    In all available modes, the printer uses variable-sized dots at a constant distance to produce halftones. The problem of poor printing of the lightest areas cannot be solved by changing the driver settings.

    Konica-Minolta PagePro 1350W

    Design, construction, ergonomics


    The device has quite large sizes, but does not seem cumbersome. Oblique angles and contrasting color schemes make the printer visually smaller. In the center of the front panel is the logo of a company that is not so popular on domestic market, like, say, HP, but one of the world's developers of printing mechanisms for electrographic printers. Another participant in the test, Epson EPL-6200L, was manufactured using the same mechanism.


    The hinged front cover acts as a support for the input tray. When you open it, you can see the adjustable guides in the paper feed system. Unfortunately, there was no sheet feed slot.


    A closer look reveals a plastic lever in the middle of the tray - this is a paper presence sensor. Interesting fact: the Epson EPL-6200L printer has a hole for this sensor, but it does not.


    The block of interface connectors is located on the rear panel and does not contain anything exotic - all the same LPT and USB ports.


    The control panel is similar to other devices (a button and two indicators), but the purpose of each element is indicated not only by an icon, but also by text (which, naturally, improves perception).


    By opening the top cover, you can gain access to the transport path to remove the jammed sheet. The stove is visible from here. A warning marking is visible on it, but due to the presence of rather high fins, the likelihood of accidental contact is quite small. Two pressure rollers on the inside of the open top cover once again indicate that the company does not skimp on trifles.


    Behind the opaque second front cover is the cartridge compartment. It fits into the seat along plastic guides and is held in place by a fairly tight latch.


    The Konica-Minolta cartridge is one-to-one reminiscent of Epson, or rather the opposite (the developer of this mechanism is Minolta). The same separate design, placement of levers, stop protrusions.


    After separating the toner bank from the image transfer unit, a rather large plug at the end of the toner container becomes noticeable, which opens up wide possibilities for multiple refills. Fortunately, the resource of the photodrum is many times greater than the resource of the toner bank.

    Printer driver and settings

    The driver's user interface is quite unique. Here you can find all the necessary settings, but they are located inconveniently.



    On the first tab of useful options layout only: multiple pages per sheet, simple double-sided printing or booklet.



    The most interesting things are on the “Quality” tab: resolution, toner saving mode, adjusting the density and contrast of the fill. Here and in some other printer drivers, density is mistakenly called brightness. However, the concept of brightness applies only to light sources (for example, the brightness of a monitor), while paper is a reflective medium and its illumination depends only on external sources. Adjusting the brightness on the monitor actually shifts the tonal curve vertically, the same thing happens when changing the average fill density

    Print Quality Test Results

    The resolution test is particularly interesting in this particular case. The manufacturer talks about a fair printer resolution of 1200 dpi. It’s kind of hard to believe...

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    Resolution 600 dpi, 1.1 MB

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    Resolution 1200 dpi, 1.1 MB


    Let's see... If there is a difference, then it is minimal, in any case, there is certainly no need to talk about a twofold increase in resolution.

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    1.2 MB


    This scan demonstrates how the toner save mode is implemented. In places where there should be a solid fill, there is a rough oblique hatching, which, among other things, leads to a significant loss of detail.

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    24.6 MB


    The halftone image looks very nice. Transitions between gradations are very soft due to diffuse filling. The light areas of the image are very well worked out. The main drawback is saturation in the darkest midtones. A small raster makes the boundaries of contrasting objects very clear, and the characters are easy to read.

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    24.2 MB


    In toner saving mode, the picture changes dramatically. Diffuse filling is replaced by simple dithering, and details are almost completely lost. Small contrasting objects such as letters are lost on gray background. This mode is completely unsuitable for outputting grayscale images.


    The ComputerPress test laboratory tested eight monochrome laser printers for home use: Brother HL-2030R, Canon LaserShot LBP-3200, EPSON EPL-6200L, HP LaserJet 1022n, Konica-Minolta PagePro 1300W, Lexmark E230, Samsung ML-1615P, Xerox Phaser 3130.

    Introduction

    Most companies specializing in the printing market are transferring their printing device production capabilities to the production of MFPs, which should replace printers and scanners. However, do not forget about laser printers. If previously the cost of a monochrome laser printer was high and not every user could afford to purchase one for use at home, now many companies have reduced the cost of both prints and the devices themselves. This article discusses the most popular models from companies widely known to Russian buyers. Since the cost of a printer is of great importance to the user, the main criterion for selecting devices for this testing was the price, which should not exceed $200. Another important criterion for end user cost per print, so we paid more attention to this characteristic than, for example, speed or maximum print resolution.

    Testing methodology

    For comparative testing, monochrome laser printers of A4 format (210x297 mm) with a retail price ranging from $100 to $200 were selected.

    Testing was performed on workstation with installed operating system Microsoft Windows XP SP2. Setting up devices consisted of installing drivers, profiles and software. When testing printers, the software packages Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe Acrobat 6.0 and MS Word 2003.

    To calculate the integral indicator of printing speed, the following test tasks were performed:

    • Test No. 1: a text document in MS Word 2003 format, which is a blank A4 page that contains in the center a single element - the letter “o” of 12 points, typed in font Times New Roman. The test is designed to evaluate the maximum printing speed of text documents;
    • test No. 2: formatted text in MS Word 2003 format, 8 A4 pages (23,900 characters), containing font selections and headings;
    • test #3: an eight-page PDF publication containing color and black text, graphics, and raster and vector illustrations;
    • test #4: a one-page publication in PDF format containing text, tables, charts, graphics, and illustrations; A4 format.

    In the second part of the testing, the printers were examined for print quality; the following tasks were performed:

    • test #5: a two-page publication in PDF format containing text, graphics, and raster and vector illustrations;
    • Test #6: Eight-page PDF publication containing text, graphics, and raster and vector illustrations;
    • test #7: a one-page publication in PDF format containing text, tables, charts, graphics, and illustrations; A4 format;
    • test No. 8: vector graphics; a set of specially prepared vector images in Adobe Illustrator CS format;
    • test No. 9: color photo; combined raster image(24 bit, RGB) in TIFF format measuring 28x19 cm with a resolution of 300 ppi, containing a photo from the PhotoCD library and color field samples.

    After carrying out the main test tasks for print speed and quality, the following parameters were assessed:

    • productivity time spent on completing each test task was recorded in a special table. The countdown began from the moment you pressed the “Print” button or a similar button in the application from which the print was made, and ended after last page document was leaving the paper transport mechanism. The time it takes for devices to perform test tasks is given in Table. 1;
    • quality of prints after receiving prints of test images on all printers participating in the competition, a comparative analysis of test prints was carried out. At the same time, printouts made on the same type of paper with the same settings were compared one by one. Subjective assessment of the quality of prints is presented in table. 2.

    In table Table 3 shows comparative assessments of printer software. In addition, ergonomics and ease of use of the software were taken into account. The testing results are summarized in a single table. 4.

    As already stated, the most important characteristics for these models are the price/quality ratio and performance (as the quality/speed ratio). Based on the test results, three printers were awarded the “Editor's Choice” badge.

    Editor's Choice

    Printers were awarded the “Editor’s Choice” badge in the “Optimal Solution” category on testing results HP LaserJet 1022n And Samsung ML-1615P.

    In the category " Better performance» The printer was awarded the "Editor's Choice" seal Canon LaserShot LBP-3200.

    Test participants

    Brother has a strong position in the printer market for a wide range of applications. Among other devices, this company offers printers designed primarily for the end customer. One of them is the compact laser printer HL-2030R, which is positioned as a high-speed printer for home use. This model has small dimensions 371x361x165.5 mm and an attractive design. On the front of the printer there are four indicators Toner/Drum/Paper/Ready and a Go button.

    The print speed of this printer is 16 ppm, which is achieved thanks to the built-in print controller, which is a SPARClite processor with a frequency of 96 MHz. According to the manufacturer, the first page output takes no more than 10 seconds, and the maximum printer resolution is 2400 dpi.

    The printer connects to the computer using a USB 2.0 interface. As an option, it comes with the NC-2200w device for wireless connection to the 802.11b specification network, which connects to the printer via the same USB interface. For this reason, the printer cannot be connected to both the PC and the network at the same time. The NC-2200w supports most common data transfer protocols such as TCP/IP, NetWare, BOOTP, NetBIOS, TELNET, SNMP and FTP. This model uses emulation of the GDI page description language as the print control language.

    Like most printers, the HL-2030R is equipped with two paper feed trays: standard and multi-purpose. The first holds 250 sheets, the density of which can vary from 60 to 105 g/m2. The direct paper feed tray allows you to print on sheets with a density from 60 to 160 g/m2, its capacity is 1 sheet. The output tray holds 100 sheets.

    The driver settings allow you to set the paper type and orientation, as well as the number of copies. The paper size can be selected from the list or set arbitrarily. You can print pages in reverse order, rotate the image 180°, and center the image on the page.

    There are ample opportunities to customize print quality: the user can choose from five ready-made settings and a manual setting option.

    Test #5 produced fairly clear images, but had minor text issues. Test print #8 shows a small moiré pattern in the center of the circular rosette. The gray wedge is reproduced very well. The text samples, with the exception of lines typed in 3 point font, are readable. Test #7's print is well-balanced, but lacks a little contrast. It should also be noted that the raster structure is barely noticeable to the eye and the high detail of the image. The image of test No. 9 has optimal contrast, good detail and a raster structure that is almost invisible to the eye.

    Canon LaserShot LBP-3200

    Canon LBP-3200 high-speed monochrome printer using single-pass laser printing and aimed primarily at the end user. It provides high quality color printing and has a working resolution of 600x600 dpi, and a maximum resolution of 2400x600 dpi. The model is quite compact 367x376.3x245 mm and weighs only about 6 kg. According to the technical documentation, the printer provides speeds of up to 18 ppm when printing on A4 paper.

    As printing media, you can use ordinary office paper, high-quality paper, various envelopes and films for presentations, and A4, B5, A5, Legal, Letter, Executive formats are supported. Media weights can vary from 60 to 146 gsm depending on the tray used. As standard, the printer is equipped with a 250-sheet cassette-type tray and a 1-sheet manual feed tray.

    To connect to personal computer The printer is equipped with a USB 2.0 interface. With 5% coverage of an A4 sheet, the cartridge resource allows you to print up to 5 thousand black and white pages. The photodrum resource is designed for 20 thousand pages. The printer has a built-in 2 MB RAM. This model supports work in most common home operating systems: Windows 98/2000/Me/XP; work with Mac and Linux OS is not supported.

    To visually monitor the operation of the printer, one ultra-bright LED is displayed on the front panel, displaying the current state of the printer, paper availability, as well as notification of errors occurring during operation. The printer is not equipped with a liquid crystal display, and all settings are made only at the level management utilities installed on a personal computer. The printer operates at a moderate noise level of 55 dBA.

    Print quality settings allow you to specify the paper type and quality level. The raster settings vary depending on the selected print mode and paper type. It is possible to adjust the brightness as well as the color correction mode. Page settings allow you to select the paper size and orientation, set the number of copies, print pages in reverse order and collate copies. Manual duplex printing is also available. The installation of the printer and software was straightforward. The printer demonstrated an optimal set of service capabilities of both hardware and software. Its modest dimensions and folding output tray make it easy to place this printer even on a small desktop.

    The text on test prints No. 5 and No. 6 is quite clear and bright. Samples of text on prints vector graphics, typed in font size up to 4 points inclusive, read well; On lines typed in 3 point font, slight distortion of the outlines of characters is noticeable. There is practically no moire observed on the round rosette. The printer coped successfully with printing concentric circles. In the dark part of the gray wedge there is a slight uneven coloring. The image of test No. 9 is slightly darkened and contrasted. Based on testing results, the Canon LaserShot LBP-3200 was awarded the “Editor's Choice” mark as the highest quality printer.

    This model is one of the latest developments from EPSON, which is positioned as a solution for individual use with small print volumes. The printer uses a laser electrographic printing method and enhancement technology that allows you to obtain truly high-quality prints with a resolution of 600 dpi. The printer is equipped with a 32-bit RISC processor operating at 48 MHz and 2 MB of RAM with MiTech technology. The stated print speed of the printer is 20 ppm. The printer has very compact dimensions 385x279x261 mm and weighs just over 6 kg, so it can be easily placed on almost any computer desk.

    This model has a characteristic EPSON printers design. There are two LEDs on the front panel that inform you about the progress of the printer or any errors that occur.

    For paper feeding, the bottom of the printer has a 150-sheet paper drawer that can accommodate paper weights ranging from 60 to 90 gsm. There is also a manual feed tray that allows you to print on thicker paper up to 163 gsm. For printing media, you can use paper in A4, A5, B5, Custom (from 90x139.7 to 216x297 mm), Executive, Governmental Letter, Letter formats.

    To connect to a personal computer, the printer has two widely used interfaces: a high-speed USB interface (2.0 compatible) and an IEEE-1284 parallel interface. Connecting to a computer does not cause any difficulties. After connecting via one of the above interfaces, you simply need to install the drivers included on the CD. The monthly load of the EPL-6200L printer is about 15 thousand pages per month. The cartridge capacity is designed for 3 thousand prints at 5% page coverage, initial cartridges are designed for 1.5 thousand prints. The resource of the photoconductor is 20 thousand prints with continuous use.

    At the driver level, the printer supports Windows fonts TrueType and Apple Macintosh. The printer works correctly with the operating systems Macintosh 9.x and OS X, Windows 95/98/Me/NT 4.0/Server 2003/XP. During testing, an English-language driver was used. Driver settings allow you to set the paper type, orientation, and number of copies. The paper format can be selected from the list or set arbitrarily in hundredths of a millimeter or inch. Options include printing pages in reverse order and collated copies, rotating the image 180°, and centering the image on the page. In addition, you can set the maximum print area by reducing the margins on the sheet at the expense of some loss of quality at the edges of the image. One of the tabs of the management utility displays the ink level in the installed cartridges.

    Test No. 5 prints made in the optimal mode have moderate brightness. On test print No. 8, a small moiré pattern is visible in the center of the round rosette. The gray wedge is reproduced very well. The text samples, with the exception of lines typed in 3 point font, are readable. Test print No. 9, made on plain paper, is perfectly balanced. It should be noted that the raster structure is barely noticeable to the eye and the high detail of the image. On test print No. 8, the text is read very well, distortion of the outlines is slightly noticeable and subtle elements of the characters disappear. The graphic elements and illustrations are very light, but with good detail. When printing in normal mode, the image is quite bright, and no distortion of the outlines of characters in the text was detected. Graphic elements are reproduced without distortion, illustrations look good and have high contrast.

    EPSON EPL-6200L demonstrated high results based on the results of subjective assessment of the quality of prints. According to the test results, this printer almost caught up with the winner in this category.

    HP LaserJet 1022n

    Hewlett-Packard, one of the leaders in the production of its own printing equipment, introduced a new monochrome laser LaserJet printer 1022n, which is positioned for home use.

    HP LaserJet 1022n combines all the achievements of Hewlett-Packard engineers, and its design compares favorably with competing models. The printer has small dimensions 370x245x241 mm and low weight only 5.5 kg.

    The printing speed of this model, according to the manufacturer, is 18 ppm, which is a good indicator. Excellent quality The printing of this printer is achieved thanks to a print resolution of 1200 dpi. The high speed and print quality of the LaserJet 1022n directly depend on the internal print controller, which is a MIPS RISC processor operating at 266 MHz. By default, the printer is equipped with 8 MB of internal memory.

    The printer supports the use of regular office paper, letterhead, pre-punched paper, recycled paper, glossy paper, transparencies, envelopes, labels, and cardstock. The printer supports multiple paper types different formats A4, B5, A5, Legal, Letter, Executive. Paper weight can vary from 60 to 160 g/m2 depending on the tray used. Paper is fed both through the manual feed tray and automatically through the standard tray. The trays are designed for 10 and 250 sheets, respectively. When printing, the languages ​​used are HP PCL 6 and HP PCL 5c. The printer comes with a software package that supports 80 internal PCL emulation fonts and several TrueType display fonts as part of the software solution. The printer also features smart printing technology that provides information about toner levels.

    Connecting and setting up the printer is simplified as much as possible. The printer connects to a PC via two interfaces USB 2.0 and network interface 10/100Base-TX. The printer is controlled using HP LaserJet 1022n, HP Toolbox, HP Webjetadmin software. On the front panel of the printer there are two buttons (Stop and Go) and three indicator lights, informing you about possible problems or the current status of the printer.

    According to the technical specifications declared by the manufacturer, this model allows you to print up to 8 thousand pages per month. Provides correct operation with Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT 4.0/2000/XP operating systems; Mac; Novell; Linux, and also supports TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, Apple Rendezvous-compatible, DLC/LLC, Auto-IP, direct IP mode, FTP printing, NDS, NCP, NDPS, iPrint, Telnet, SLP, IGMP, BOOTP/DHCP, WINS, SNMP vl & v2c, HTTP.

    Driver settings allow you to select the paper type, orientation, paper size, and number of copies. There are options for mirroring, rotating 180°, printing pages in reverse order, as well as scaling the printed image to a specified paper size or arbitrarily. There is a button to quickly return to default settings.

    Test prints No. 5 and 6 differ in the brightness of the text. The central part of the round rosette is completely filled with ink. Text typed in font size up to 4 points is displayed clearly. In test No. 7, the image on plain paper turned out to be bright and contrasting, with high-quality reproduced text, and good detail in the illustrations. Test print No. 9, made in the best quality, turned out rich. Connecting the printer and installing software and drivers went without any problems.

    The printer is equipped with convenient software and, based on testing results, demonstrated high performance and good print quality. Based on the results obtained, we can conclude that the LaserJet 1022n is well suited for quickly printing text and mixed documents at home. Based on the test results, the printer received the “Editor's Choice” mark in the “Optimal Ratio” category.

    Monochrome laser Panasonic printer KX-P7105

    There are many manufacturers in the laser printer market that are not very well known to the Russian user in this role, one of which is Panasonic. This company specializes in producing a wide range of products, including printers. One of the models from this company is a monochrome A4 laser printer KX-P7105. This model is aimed primarily at home users, as well as small office workers.

    The printer uses laser technology print. The printing speed of the KX-P7105 is, according to the manufacturer, up to 14 ppm with 5% coverage of A4 sheet. The printer has small dimensions 399x390.5x254 mm, and it can easily be placed next to a PC, and the weight of the printer is no more than 10 kg. It has a 32-bit 100 MHz RISC processor and 32 MB of memory, which are used as an internal print controller. The maximum print resolution declared by the manufacturer is 1200 dpi. The printer has two interfaces for connecting to a computer: USB 1.1 and parallel IEEE-1284; Both connectors are located on the back of the printer. The Panasonic KX-P7105 is equipped with a 250-sheet paper feed tray. The printer has a built-in PCL6 page description language emulator, but the user can additionally install a PostScript 2 emulator, which is supplied as an option. It is worth noting another important feature of the KX-P7105: even in the basic configuration, the printer is equipped with a duplex module, which allows automatic two-sided printing. The printer supports Windows, Mac and DOS operating systems.

    You can't ignore the software that comes with the printer. Easy to use, it has several utilities that will help even a novice user find all the necessary settings. The KX-P7105 has a separate design of the drum module and the toner cartridge. The toner cartridge resource is 4 thousand pages, and the photodrum 20 thousand pages with 5% coverage. The procedure for replacing cartridges is extremely simple and does not require specialist intervention. The printer supports almost all page formats from A6 to A4.

    To measure actual speed and image quality, we used standard printer tests and two tests, consisting of a Word document and an eight-page PDF publication, to measure print speed. To assess image quality, a specially prepared vector graphics file in Adobe Illustrator 9.0 format and a 3-page PDF publication were also used.

    According to the results of two speed tests, the printer showed almost complete compliance with the characteristics declared by the manufacturer. Its printing speed was slightly more than 13 ppm at 5% page coverage. The printer's high resolution undoubtedly provided a big advantage in the vector graphics test. Fonts up to 3 point were readable regardless of orientation, but some oblique fonts showed slight differences in contrast. The gray gradients obtained in this test were very smooth, but in some places there was a rough transition from light to dark. More detailed results are shown in the table.

    The tested Panasonic KX-P7105 laser printer showed excellent results and is in no way inferior (and in some cases superior) to popular models from famous companies specializing in the production of printers. We advise you to pay close attention to the presented model, since it (if you do not focus on a few rough transitions and imperfections in the gray lines) has all the necessary characteristics for the stated work, and the built-in duplex provides the possibility of double-sided printing. The KX-P7105 model can, in our opinion, take its rightful place among office equipment.

    The editors express their gratitude to the Vert company(www.vert.ru) for the Panasonic KX-P7105 printer provided for testing.

    Konica-Minolta PagePro 1300W one of the simplest and most inexpensive models from this company. Like most of the devices in this test, it is positioned for home users. This model uses an electrographic single-pass printing method and is able to print monochrome documents at a speed of 20 ppm with three resolution options: 1200x1200, 1200x600 and 600x600 dpi. The maximum declared printer resource is 15 thousand pages per month.

    Engineers used new optical technology in this model, which made it possible to reduce the size of the image forming unit, and therefore the dimensions of the entire printer.

    As a standard, the printer allows you to place up to 200 pages of A4, A5, B5, Letter, Legal, J-Postcard, Envelope or Custom format (92-216x148-297 mm) in the paper feed tray and paper output tray. In this case, the maximum printed area is the entire sheet, excluding a 4 mm indent from each edge.

    The hardware and software capabilities of the Konica-Minolta PagePro 1300W printer include support for GDI emulation, compatibility with Windows XP/2000/Me/98 SE operating systems, as well as support for Enhanced Automatic Image Density Control (eAIDC), Automatic ICC-based color matching technologies and ICC device profiles.

    As standard, the printer is equipped with 8 MB of RAM and a Naltec N1 processor operating at 48 MHz. To connect to a personal computer, a high-speed USB 2.0 interface is used, the connector of which is located on the back of the case and hidden under a protective cover.

    The printer package includes an electrical cable, an installation guide, and a software brochure. general information. Moreover, all information literature is in Russian, which makes working with the printer much easier. In addition, the CD contains a software package with which you can monitor the progress of the printer, configure it, etc.

    Setting up and managing the printer is extremely simple. The printer has two interfaces for connecting to a PC: USB 2.0 and parallel IEEE-1284. Separately, we note that the package does not include a USB 2.0 cable.

    Indicators located on the front panel indicate that the printer is ready for operation, the need to replace the toner, and collisions that arise during operation. There is also a button for canceling a job and a button for rotating the drum with cartridges (it is pressed when changing cartridges and a photodrum, which is done from the front side of the case).

    For full-fledged work The Konica-Minolta Magicolor PagePro 1300W printer requires four cartridges: blue, red, yellow and black. Note that the photodrum resource is 12 thousand prints.

    The manufacturer provides a 1-year warranty. After receiving prints of the test images, they were expertly analyzed. The text on test prints No. 6 at a standard resolution of 600x600 dpi, as well as at a higher resolution, is well saturated and clear. The print quality of photographic images from Test No. 9 is generally high, although some deficiencies in detail and brightness were noted. In vector test No. 8, the concentric circles do not have blurred edges, the gray wedge is smooth, and fonts up to 3 points in size have clear outlines, which indicates the high resolution of the printer.

    The E230 model is a new product in the Lexmark SOHO class monochrome laser printer lineup, which is positioned by the manufacturer as a printer for home users. Despite such a modest presentation, it has a resolution of 600x600 dpi (1200 Image Quality), the maximum speed of the printing mechanism for formats (A4/Letter), declared by the manufacturer, is 17 ppm. High data processing speed is ensured by using a processor operating at a clock frequency of 100 MHz. As standard, the C510 model is equipped with 8 MB of memory, without the possibility of further expansion. In addition to the main interface USB connections 2.0 model E230 is equipped with an IEEE-1284 (parallel) interface.

    Print media can be cut sheet paper, cards, labels, transparencies, and envelopes, and supports A4, B5, A4, Letter, and Legal paper sizes. Media is supplied from a 150-sheet cassette-type tray located at the bottom of the printer body.

    During testing, the Lexmark E230 demonstrated a high level of performance. It is worth noting the excellent image quality on prints obtained in the best quality mode. Fine lines of black and colored objects are reproduced very clearly, all samples of color (on the original) and black text are perfectly readable.

    The driver settings are quite concise and simple. On the paper management tab, you can select the size, orientation of the media, as well as the number of copies and options for printing pages in reverse order and printing collated copies. You can select the paper size from standard ones or set it yourself. Quality settings allow you to set document color (auto or black and white), media type, and print quality (draft, normal, or fine).

    The text on the test print #5 has high brightness, but it is not very clear. On the print of test No. 8, concentric circles and a round rosette are well reproduced. The gray wedge is well balanced. Text samples are easy to read; there are no distortions in the outlines of characters on lines typed in a font size of less than 5 points.

    On the prints of test No. 6, the images are well balanced, have close to optimal contrast and good detail, while the raster structure is poorly visible. Test #9's image is bright and has good detail.

    The procedures for connecting the printer and installing the software did not cause any difficulties. The printer demonstrated good performance and well-balanced functionality. The Lexmark E230 is great for printing text, graphics, and mixed documents.

    Samsung ML-1615P

    Samsung, one of the leaders in Russian market printing equipment, presented for testing a model of the monochrome laser printer ML-1615P, which is positioned both for home users and for workgroups of small businesses. The printer has a fairly traditional appearance, compact dimensions, and its weight is 6 kg. Among the technical characteristics of the printer, first of all, it is worth noting that the manufacturer claims a fairly high print speed of 16 ppm in black and white mode.

    The printer uses a color laser printing method that allows you to make prints with a resolution of 600 dpi. By default, it is equipped with a 150 MHz processor and 2 MB of memory.

    The printer accepts regular office paper, letterhead, pre-punched paper, recycled paper, glossy paper, transparencies, envelopes, labels, and card stock as print media. The printer supports paper sizes A4, B5, A5, Legal, Letter, Executive. Paper thickness can vary from 60 to 165 g/m2 depending on the tray used.

    Paper is fed through the 150-sheet multi-purpose tray. In addition to the main tray, there is an additional tray designed for 1 sheet. When printing, built-in emulation of the GDI language is used.

    Connecting the printer to a personal computer and setting it up is as simple as possible. The user can connect via a Hi-Speed ​​USB 1.1 2.0 compliant port or an IEEE-1284 bidirectional parallel port. The printer is controlled at the driver level. In addition to software control, the printer allows you to configure and manage printing using the control panel located on the top panel housings. The panel itself consists of a two-line LCD display and three LED status indicators.

    According to the technical specifications declared by the manufacturer, the recommended monthly load of the printer is 12 thousand prints.

    Provides correct operation with the operating system Windows 95/98/Me/NT 4.0/2000/XP, Linux and Mac OS. In the print quality settings, you can specify the paper type and quality level. There are options to force grayscale printing, optimize images and object borders. Page settings allow you to select the paper size and orientation, set the number of copies, reverse page printing, and collate copies. In addition, there is a manual two-sided printing option: after the odd pages of the document are printed, you need to turn them over and then continue printing the even pages.

    The text on test prints No. 5 turned out clear and bright. Samples of text on test prints No. 8, typed in font size up to 4 points inclusive, are readable; On lines typed in 3 point font, minor distortions in the outlines of characters are noticeable. There is a slight moiré pattern on the round rosette. White circles 0.2 point thick are partially filled. In the dark part of the gray wedge, a slight unevenness of coloring is visible. The image of test No. 7 is well balanced, but has too much brightness and low contrast. The image of test No. 9, although too light, is quite detailed, and the contrast is close to optimal.

    This model, like all printers from the Phaser 31** series, is positioned by Xerox as a printer for home use. According to the manufacturer, the printing speed on A4 paper is 16 ppm, for printing on Letter format this figure is 17 ppm. The standard print resolution for this model is 600 dpi, but printing with improved image quality of 1200 IQ is possible. The first page out time is 12 s. High printing speed and improved image quality are achieved thanks to the built-in print controller, which is a RISC processor operating at a clock frequency of 166 MHz. The printer is equipped with 32 MB of internal memory.

    The printer has relatively small dimensions 352x372x196 mm and easily fits on the table next to the office PC. At the same time, the weight of the printer itself is no more than 7 kg. The front panel of the device contains a button that allows you to either cancel a job or enable the toner save option, and two indicator lights that indicate the printer's status.

    The printer connects to the computer via two common interfaces: USB 2.0 and IEEE-1284 (parallel). It is also worth noting that a USB cable is included in the package. Phaser 3130 can be connected to Ethernet networks via an optional external adapter Pocket Pro 100, which is sold separately.

    The printer supports printing on different types of paper: A4, Letter, Legal, B5, A5, Folio, Monarch. Like most models, the Phaser 3130 has two paper feed trays: manual and automatic. The first can accommodate high-density paper from 60 to 163 g/m2 tray capacity 1 sheet. The cassette-type automatic paper feed tray holds up to 250 sheets, paper weight can vary from 60 to 90 g/m2. Since the printer is designed to home use, the recommended monthly load is 15 thousand prints. The cartridge capacity is 3 thousand prints at 5% page coverage.

    Drivers for operating systems are supplied with the printer. Windows systems, DOS and Linux. The software allows the user to select the orientation of the paper by rotating it 180°, print multiple pages on one sheet, as well as A4 posters made up of several smaller pages. The software package includes 45 scalable fonts and one raster font. The GDI language emulator is used as a page description language in this model. The driver allows you to add watermarks or designs to the printed image.

  • representative office of Xerox (www.xerox.ru) for providing the Xerox Phaser 3130 printer.

    • In order to choose the right printer model, you need to decide why you are purchasing it, how much printing per month you are interested in, and how much you are willing to spend on consumables. We have already talked about inkjet printers. In this article we will look at models of laser printers for the home, so we are talking about devices in A4 format (standard landscape sheet).

    Let's start with monochrome laser printers, which in everyday life are called “black and white” (although it would be more justified to call them “black”, since the toner is black). If you need text printing, then this is your option. Further - more interesting.

    Laser monochrome printers are also different. Think and estimate how many packs of paper you plan to print per month. If you get less than six to ten packs (which is three to five thousand pages), then you should pay attention to models of personal printers, the resource of which does not exceed just the specified number of pages. The printer resource is its maximum monthly load, at which the manufacturer guarantees stable operation of the device throughout its entire service life.

    If you do not fit into this framework, then it is worth considering models for small work groups. They are distinguished by higher printing speed, optional network printing (that is, the printer can be connected not only to a separate computer, but also directly to local network, where it will be available to every user of this network) and two-sided printing (duplex). Such printers cost two or more times more (depending on those same options).

    Next comes the most delicate moment - the question arises about the cost of consumables. Here it is worth telling a little about the policies of printer manufacturers regarding toners and refills. It's no secret, but none of them are interested in users refilling cartridges.

    That is, in general, the cartridge is a disposable thing. Bought - used - thrown away, but on the territory of our vast Motherland everything happens exactly the opposite.
    So, in order not to reduce profits from sales of new cartridges, manufacturers come up with all sorts of tricks to make refilling as difficult as possible. Some people chip cartridges (the printer remembers the chip and when the cartridge is identified again, it simply won’t use it), others make the cartridges non-separable, but that’s not the point.

    The bottom line is that cartridges from a number of manufacturers, such as HP, Canon, Xerox, Samsung, are still successfully disassembled and refilled, and for the first two, the cost of toner is cheaper due to the prevalence of the models.
    Laser cartridges have a greater safety margin than inkjet cartridges. Standard-capacity cartridges can usually print from one thousand to two thousand pages per refill (depending on the printer model and the capacity of the cartridge itself).

    In addition to refilling, laser cartridges periodically require repairs. Once every 3-4 refills you will have to change the photoreceptor (aka photo drum, photo shaft).
    How do you know when it's time?

    It's time when black stripes begin to appear along the edge of the printed sheet. If such a symptom appears, do not blame it on poor-quality refilling or stupid users. You just need to go and surrender at the nearest service center, which has a department for repairing office equipment.
    The next point that would be nice to remember is the presence of thermal film in the laser printer. It is not located in the cartridge and breaks due to improper use of the device. Usually it is torn by a foreign body that has gotten into the bowels of the printer - a paper clip, a nail, a pin, sometimes there are unique finds. Quite “accidentally” scissors, stationery knives and even larger things end up in the printer. To avoid such problems, do not place anything in the paper tray other than what is intended to be there. Even temporarily. If you use rough sheets, be sure to check if there is a paper clip from the stapler left somewhere.
    Even taking into account the above, many cartridges live and live quite a long time.
    I’ll make a small note about Xerox and Samsung models - their cartridges can be refilled and repaired, but they are more expensive than HP ones. Those who are sensitive to the policies of manufacturers can purchase OKI, Brother and similar printers, the cartridges of which are not refillable in principle, or are refilled with original toners, which cost a little less than a new cartridge.

    It should be noted that not all printer models from these manufacturers do not have a chip. The model range is updated quite quickly, printing speed increases, the printer mechanism changes, so when purchasing, do not hesitate to ask consultants questions about both the resource and the presence of a chip in the cartridge. A competent manager will always be able to tell you the main characteristics.
    Now let's touch a little on color laser printers. Literally in one sentence - you don’t need an A4 color laser printer. Its price is not so high that many would not think about purchasing such a miracle, but the cost of consumables, alas, is very high. Often a set of cartridges costs more than the cost of the printer itself. If we add to this the fact that neither domestic nor any other craftsmen have yet learned how to produce high-quality compatible toners using them, it becomes clear that buying such a device for the home is not justified.

    Photo printing from personal color laser printers is at the level of an average inkjet printer, and business cards are still cheaper to print in a printing house.
    Let's summarize. In order not to be disappointed in the purchase, you need to accurately and clearly define why you are purchasing the printer:
    – what we print ( text documents); – how often do we print (up to 3 thousand, from 3 to 5 thousand and over 5 thousand pages per month); – how much are you willing to spend on consumables (refilling with compatible toners or purchasing original cartridges).
    And also do not forget about the irrationality of using a color laser printer at home.

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