Next Generation Printers - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

agball · 03-29-2004, 12:47 PM

I currently have an HP 932C - with the standard 3 ink color cartridge. I do quite a bit of photo printing and was wondering if anyone out there has the next generation of printers, like the HP Photosmart 7960, which has 8 ink colors. If so, is there a noticable difference? Additionally, these printers have 1200X4800 dpi, as opposed to my current 1200X2400 dpi. Do these new printers eliminate the issue whereby black coloring in a photo can look strange under certain light (you can see the layering)?Feedback would be appriciated.

agball · 03-30-2004, 06:50 AM

somebody has to know something about this!!

shakran · 03-30-2004, 07:28 AM

you won't see much difference in resolution between 2400 and 4800 dpi. The human eye actually starts to lose the ability to perceive an increase in resolution at somewhere between 300 and 600dpi. Anything beyond that is for replication purposes only (i.e. if you're printing something, then sending it to a print shop to be mass produced, you want it high resolution to compensate for the resolution loss in the copying process)

As far as looking strange, that's a property of inkjets. If you want to get rid of that, get a color laser printer or a dye sublimation printer, both of which are very expensive.

sailor · 03-30-2004, 11:36 AM

As for the black ink, it is something you just have to play around with.

I do a lot of photography work (though not as much as I used to

), and the vast majority of it was black and white. We were experimenting with printers and inks trying to find the best ways to get rid of just that funky black you are talking about--a sort of pasty, thick black, that almost looks fake. When you are printing fine art black and white prints, blacks like that are absolutely unacceptable. We tooled around with different inks for a while, and eventually found that the largest factor in the richness of the black was actually the paper. We found an Epson rag paper that worked incredibly well. The problem was that it was expensive--about $4 for a 16x20 sheet.

As far as I know, the person I was experimenting it with is still playing around, trying to find the best thing for different applications. It really is just a matter of experimentation.

03-29-2004, 12:47 PM	#1 (permalink)
agball Insane Location: Long Island	Next Generation Printers I currently have an HP 932C - with the standard 3 ink color cartridge. I do quite a bit of photo printing and was wondering if anyone out there has the next generation of printers, like the HP Photosmart 7960, which has 8 ink colors. If so, is there a noticable difference? Additionally, these printers have 1200X4800 dpi, as opposed to my current 1200X2400 dpi. Do these new printers eliminate the issue whereby black coloring in a photo can look strange under certain light (you can see the layering)?Feedback would be appriciated. __________________ "A friend with weed is a friend indeed"

03-30-2004, 06:50 AM	#2 (permalink)
agball Insane Location: Long Island	somebody has to know something about this!! __________________ "A friend with weed is a friend indeed"

03-30-2004, 11:36 AM	#4 (permalink)
sailor beauty in the breakdown Location: Chapel Hill, NC	As for the black ink, it is something you just have to play around with. I do a lot of photography work (though not as much as I used to ), and the vast majority of it was black and white. We were experimenting with printers and inks trying to find the best ways to get rid of just that funky black you are talking about--a sort of pasty, thick black, that almost looks fake. When you are printing fine art black and white prints, blacks like that are absolutely unacceptable. We tooled around with different inks for a while, and eventually found that the largest factor in the richness of the black was actually the paper. We found an Epson rag paper that worked incredibly well. The problem was that it was expensive--about $4 for a 16x20 sheet. As far as I know, the person I was experimenting it with is still playing around, trying to find the best thing for different applications. It really is just a matter of experimentation. __________________ "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." --Plato

03-30-2004, 07:28 AM	#3 (permalink)
shakran Tone.	you won't see much difference in resolution between 2400 and 4800 dpi. The human eye actually starts to lose the ability to perceive an increase in resolution at somewhere between 300 and 600dpi. Anything beyond that is for replication purposes only (i.e. if you're printing something, then sending it to a print shop to be mass produced, you want it high resolution to compensate for the resolution loss in the copying process) As far as looking strange, that's a property of inkjets. If you want to get rid of that, get a color laser printer or a dye sublimation printer, both of which are very expensive.