Yes there are a few really good typophile threads on laser printers. Im using an HP Laserjet 5200 which is really good, but makes type slightly whispy (thiner than offset). Good for proofing designs, probably not so good for proofing type though.

Read this recent thread digital printer query; it has some useful information about a printer sampling service which may be of help.

http://www.xante.com/products/4g/

I second John on the Xante recommendation. When it comes to high-end laser text rendering you can’t get better printers, and Postscript just flies out of them. Now if only I could afford to replace my Konica Minolta with a Xante here at home...

Xante is definitely the way to go for printing text, the 4G is especially good. The only drawback is the quality on grey areas isn’t that great or smooth. But if you’re using it for mostly type, it is well worth it. It does a pretty good job handling jobs from multiple computers at once, too.

I have been using Xante for years, the 3G and now the 4G. Nothing beats it for proofing type.

James

The only drawback is the quality on grey areas isn’t that great or smooth.

For some reason Xante color printers use all four colors to render most shades of gray and that can get pretty gross. But I find the output from the B&W Xante printers is great, although it can get pretty weak when the toner gets low.

I use a HP 5200 and get very good results for the halftones as well as the type.

The print shop that prints one of my newspapers has a Xante printer as an emergency last ditch imagesetter. If someone gives them a totally f-ed up .pdf that chokes the real imagesetter, which actually happens quite a bit since they print all of the highschool and college newspapers in Seattle, they print out to the Xante and shoot film of the output!

Xante costs a min of $2000... anything cheaper and still does 2400dpi but mind-blowingly good text too???

MikeDiaz

... also paper needs to be apart of quality laser output too

Dan, can I take it that the real imagesetter uses a third-party PostScript emulation? (Xante uses Adobe PostScript.)

Mike: There are cheaper 2400 dpi devices, but I don’t know if there are any that are cheaper and use Adobe PostScript. (If there are, I want to know about them!) Up to you whether that is a significant factor.

Regards,

T

Watch Craiglist, bankruptcy auctions, eBay, and so on. You can get the Xante machines for half price or less now and then.

Hi Thomas:

What does the ’official’ postscript do that the emulated stuff can’t. Less errors- more accurate? I know very little about the postscript tech.

Mike Diaz :-)

I use an HP 5000. I’d switch to an HP 5200 but this sucker is seven years old and just keeps on ticking. Slower than the latest iteration but these days speed is relative.

I had considered an Xante, for a number of reasons, including film processing (at 2400dpi), but specimens that were sent by the company revealed an awful lot of toner scatter, and since I was mainly interested in camera ready reproduction (back in 2000) I opted for the HP. Actually, can’t say I regret it. At an institution where I teach they have an Xante with film capacity (actually on my recommendation) and they have a lot of software connection problems with it plus repair maintenance is unbelievably expensive.

Plus, even with 2400dpi and film capacity, the Xante still can’t anywhere come near the quality of an imagesetter.

Gerald

That 5200 that Duncan uses was mine, but it is totally useless for proofing type. For layouts & design, however, it is excellent. I was absolutely furious to find that it was rubbish for proofing type, especially buying it new. So I am on the lookout for a decent proofing printer. Sigh.

I have also heard from a few other designers that they are having problems with new HP cartridges printing ’wispy’ type. Be interesting to know if anyone else is having the same problems.

—K