[BUGS] making photos

[Trevor Roydhouse]

Peter Jeremy wrote:
> In my experience, inkjets give better colour rendition than laserprinters,
> though I haven't tried using glossy photo paper in the latter.

First a warning: never use inkjet glossy paper in a laser printer! The 
glossy paper surface dissolves with the heat from the fuser and can 
permanently end the life of your laser printer by making it uneconomical 
to repair.

In 2003 I investigated both "laser" colour printers and the "solid ink" 
colour printers (now owned by Fuji Xerox, but previously Tektronix). 
Conclusion: at the time my humble Epson Colour Strylus Pro inkjet 
(purchased Dec 1995) produced much better prints on proper glossy paper. 
It was only retired when it developed an intermittent issue with 3 or 4 
lines of missing ink dots in the same place on every photo print.

I subsequently purchased an Epson 830U colour inkjet in 2003 which still 
produces excellent photo prints - good enough for my recent passport 
photos :) For a couple of weeks in 2006 I had an HP 2605DN colour laser 
and again, it failed to impress for colour photos (quite apart from the 
inherent flaw in the laser engine it uses and shares with a Lexmark model).

As for running costs - the inkjet is only used for colour photos and we 
don't print that many anymore now that it's easier to simply create "CD 
albums" and/or put them on a website. In any event, the cost was 
significantly cheaper than the film and print days because we only ever 
printed selected photos rather than having to pay for prints for whole 
rolls of film regardless of whether the photos were actually used.

> I'll second Harry's comment to use the "professional" photo printing
> approach rather than a home printer - though some of the 6-colour
> dedicated photo-printers may give equivalent results.

In my experience, the biggest factor in quality results is the paper 
used. We use Kodak ultra-glossy. Almost any colour inkjet is up to the 
task nowadays, even the HP ones which used to be the worst of the worst.

-- 
Trevor Roydhouse                            Mob  : 0415-448-273
BJuris, LLB, LLM (UNSW)
System Developer
Australasian Legal Information Institute    Web  : www.austlii.edu.au