HP has a problem with hints when printing that I wish I knew about before I bought my HP ( not the same model). I get around it by testing minus hints and then add the hints. Which in reality is the way type making works in general. Still, it’s a stupid bug and I wish they would solve it.

I have a lot of empathy for you position in looking. There is no obvious good answer that I can see unless you want to shell out very heavily for a Xante. But even then you might want a POS printer to see what the worst might be like... You can console yourself with the knowledge that there is no one right proofing choice for you. No silver bullet - except to be aware of what you are aiming for and what methods you want it to work well in and find a way to have it tested there. So if it is fine offset - make pals with a printer and see if you can run stuff in the margins - and so on.

There are several threads on Typophile that address similar questions and in many ways what I have written here is a nutshell summary of them along with a little salt of my own. Still, I encourage you to dig them up via a google site specific search and see what was said and by whom.

Hmmm… I might just keep having proofs done on the big Xante printers at the local print shop until I move somewhere that I have room for a Xante machine. I really wish that the 4G came in an 8.5”x11” model…

Anyone have any opinions about this laser printer? I need one for general office use.

http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/Ricoh_Aficio_CL3500N/402434/J36392...

Sharon: pretty negative review of that model’s text quality from PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127557-page,1-c,printers/article.html

Some of the criticisms are surprising, as they would imply problems with interpreting the font hints (like most HP models); yet the Ricoh uses actual Adobe PostScript 3.

Regards,

T

Thanks, Thomas. I didn’t see that. They recommend the BrotherHL-4040cnwhich isn’t a postscript printer.

Sharon

With everything I’m reading