Colour Printers Provide Distinct Details

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday July 24, 1995

BY STEPHEN WITHERS

IN recent weeks, I've been experimenting with three colour printers: Apple's Color StyleWriter Pro, Hewlett-Packard's DeskWriter 660C and NEC's SuperScript Color 3000 . The Apple and HP models are both Mac-specific inkjets, but the NEC uses a multi-mode thermal mechanism and is designed for use with Windows, although a Mac adaptor is offered.

The SuperScript's semi-upright design has a relatively small footprint and can be positioned on the edge of a desk with the fold-down paper catcher extending into space.

It seems strange in these days of ink and toner cartridges, but the SuperScript uses a film ribbon carrying page-sized panels of colour.

Five types are available. The cheapest is monochrome, then three- and four-colour wax thermal transfer, variable dot thermal transfer and - most expensive by a considerable margin - dye sublimation. The full-width print-head heats the ribbon, transferring the pigment to the paper.

Wax gives bright business graphics, including overhead transparencies, and the additional cost of the four-colour ribbon is worthwhile to ensure true blacks. Variable dot is suggested for proofing photographic images before final dye-sub output. I found the overall lightness of these two processes very similar, but dye-sub gave a green cast absent from the original Photo CD image. Fine details were more distinct and dither patterns far less noticeable with dye-sub than with variable-dot or the inkjet printers, but you do need 48 Mb of disk space for dye-sub printing.

The DeskWriter 660C is my favourite as a general purpose printer, although it's not perfect. It provides sharp and very dense black print partly due to a new pigment-based ink, while a separate envelope slot simplifies addressing DL envelopes (the standard business size), making it particularly attractive to SOHO users.

Its colour capabilities are also impressive. Performance on plain paper is unusually good: business graphics are very vivid, with smooth colour transitions. Photographic images deserve HP's premium glossy paper, which gives a warmer, more "Kodak-like" appearance than the SuperScript's cooler tones. Unfortunately, they are also rather dark and lack shadow detail, and dither patterns are noticeable in fair skin tones and some other colours, but the overall effect is very good for such an inexpensive printer.

The main disadvantages are the use of a tri-chamber colour cartridge (which wastes ink) and a substantial footprint.

The Color StyleWriter Pro uses four separate ink cartridges and a retractable paper catcher to avoid those criticisms. It does accept envelopes but lacks the convenience of HP's design and support for the DL size.

Black print quality is very good, but not quite as dense as that of the 660C. Similarly, business graphics reproduce well on plain paper, but without the vibrancy of DeskWriter output.

Photographic images come up well on glossy paper, with more natural flesh tones, although blues tend towards purple. The dither patterns are similar to those used by the 660C. The StyleWriter also handles backprint film for the glossiest result, but I couldn't get a supply in time.

Priced at $1,083 and $1,195 respectively, the DeskWriter 660C and the Color StyleWriter Pro are very affordable. The SuperScript Color 3000 lists at $2,089 including the Macintosh interface kit. I found the 8 M RAM option ($822) essential to print full-page Photo CD images, but NEC says it's only required for shared printing. Either way, the SuperScript is somewhat expensive for home use.

Running costs are important. The cost per page for the SuperScript depends on the ribbon used, but is deterministic: monochrome, 27c; three-colour, 85c; four-colour, $1.13; variable dot, $1.49; and dye-sub, $4.64. Inkjet printing costs vary according to coverage. HP's figures are based on 5 per cent for black and 15 per cent for colour, and total 33c for black on "CX" paper and $2.57 for colour on premium glossy. Actual coverage could be much higher: 100 per cent coverage pushes the price up to $3.75 on glossy. Apple quotes an ink cartridge life of 315 pages at 5 per cent coverage. I calculate that means 30c for black on coated paper, 55c for 5 per cent coverage of each of four colours on coated paper (i.e. between 5 and 20 per cent total coverage) and $2.20 for the same colour image on glossy paper. These costs are approximately 10 per cent cheaper than HP's figures. All these estimates are based on recommended prices.