Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: cos918 on February 21, 2016, 04:28:50 pm
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Hi All
Well my very old Inkjet printer has given up the ghost.
I am looking at getting a colour printer as they are very good for transfers . I have looked at the Currys web site and I am left confused. Can I ask what dpi is and is there a noticeable difference between a printer with 600 x 600 dpi and a printer with 2400 x 600 dpi . Is there any thing I should be looking out for ? Any advice would be most great full
john
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dpi = dots per inch. For photo quality you would need a lot more than 600x600. Most photo printers are in excess of 2000dpi. More dpi = better quality.
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^ I doubt a normal pair of eyes would find an image printed at huge dpi any better than one at 600dpi. I mean, 300 dpi is already ~12 printed dots per millimetre.
Andy
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Thanks for the info.
john
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I tend to agree; any 'photo' printer will be fine for transfers. Unless you want prints like the very best photographs, 600 dpi will be more than enough.
The most important thing to look for is the cost of replacement ink cartridges! They vary a lot and 'compatible' refills are usually rubbish. (I speak from experience. Cheap ones for kids to play with but for any proper printing, you will need good cartridges)
You won't go far wrong with Epson, IMO.
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^ I doubt a normal pair of eyes would find an image printed at huge dpi any better than one at 600dpi. I mean, 300 dpi is already ~12 printed dots per millimetre.
Andy
It's not that simple. Getting lighter shades, and especially where a gradient is needed, the printer has to leave white space. So if only one in six 'dots' needs to be coloured you have half a mm between dots, which is clearly visible on any close examination of a picture. (This is one reason for the use of Gray cartridges as they can help to reduce this spread.)
Decent 'photo' inkjets will typically be 2,000 dpi or more.
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One thing to look at is the cost of the cartridges.
The cheap printers have very small cartridges, which don't last long, and work out expensive. Also avoid the three tiny colour cartridges in one body (not sure if LJs have these, but Inkjet do). If one colour runs out you need to renew all.
If you are going to do a fair bit of colour printing, buying a more expensive printer, with larger cartridges, will save you a lot of money in the medium term.
Another thing to remember. If you have been doing decal printing, buy new decal paper for Laserjet, as the old Inkjet paper won't do it. Easy to forget that one.
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When I started creating my own decals, I created my graphics using a vector based program, then
printed them out on photo quality paper. They I took my Laser decal paper down to the local copy
shop and printed my decals on their best machine. It kept the expense of a laser copier and all
the maintenance on their tab.
:-))
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If your getting a new printer to go with an older PCM check that the printer will work with your pcs operating system. My sister in law has a older PCM and can't find a printer that is compatable
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I have a lovely colour HP laser printer, didnt cost me anything as it was being thrown, the big cost is the 4 cartridges 3 colours and black, at nearly £100 each
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That's why it was being thrown away!
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it came with a half full set of cartridges, plus a full spare set. maybe when it runs out of toner it will like other old printers be stripped for motors and gears:-)
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hello all
thanks for the input.
john
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My Samsung 365 works well with compatible cartridges but is "naturally" set for posters, so the colours tend to be "striking" if you read their blurb, or "garish" if you are normal. This can be sorted in the settings and photos come out looking like photos with the right setting.
Like any dot matrix type of printer, as noted above, pale colours are achieved by spacing the dots out allowing more white to be seen, so this shows on close examination of large areas of light colour where there is a look of newsprint. Again, this has to be considered when diagonal or curved lines or edges are involved. Any printer using dots (and that is effectively all of them) suffers, but the more dots the better. With inkjets, more dots means finer nozzles which in turn means more cleaning cycles so the printer becomes a device for squirting expensive ink into the printers internal nappy. Lasers don't have the head clogging problem, so while replacement cartridges do cost a lot, they last well.