How to go good-looking photo prints from a color laser printer.

Conventional wisdom says laser printers shouldn't be able to produce decent-looking photo prints. Afterwards all, they apply only four colours and they're designed for productivity; not reproducing tonal nuances. But when I needed a couple of prints in a hurry and my monitors weren't profiled, a colour laser printer was at paw and switched on, so I decided to employ information technology.

To my surprise, it delivered photo prints that were skillful plenty to surprise friends and colleagues with printing expertise. The secrets of success prevarication in understanding the printer's limitations, setting up the printer correctly and using the right printing paper. We'll embrace these factors in this feature.

Epitome Choices
You lot can impress both colour and monochrome images, covering subjects every bit dissimilar as landscapes, portraits and interiors. Even so, some paradigm types produce ameliorate results than others. We obtained the best-looking prints from images with plenty of detail and bright, vibrant colours.

Images with subtle tonal nuances are more difficult to impress well, partly because laser printers tend to heave contrast but as well considering it is more than difficult to reproduce subtle transitions in pastel hues with a iv-colour printer.

Monochrome prints made with the B&W setting were gratis of colour casts but different printers reproduced our original with different densities. One printer (the Catechism) lightened the paradigm by approximately x%, while another (the Samsung) darkened information technology by roughly the aforementioned amount. Monochrome prints made with the colour setting ever had colour casts. Some were slight plenty to overlook just others were quite obvious.

Laser Printers' Limitations
Conventional consumer colour laser printers transfer powdered toner to receiving paper, using an electrostatic procedure. Rut bonds the toner to the newspaper. The resolution of the resulting print is decided by how finely the powdered colours have been footing and the settings used in the printer driver.

Powder toners accept a couple of advantages: they don't dry out if the printer isn't used for a while and they besides produce very sharp printed text and deep, rich blacks. Toners come in generous packs, which means yous don't need to continue irresolute cartridges (as you practice with a consumer inkjet). Laser printers are faster than inkjets – and too cheaper to run.

Nonetheless, they simply use four toner colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. These are the traditional CMYK colours of commercial printing and their tonal gamut is less than that of mod inkjets with six or more colours.

It'southward not really fair to compare the output colours of a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation printer with the colours and tonal subtlety produced past a six-or eight-colour inkjet. A fairer comparison is with printed books, which are also reproduced through iv-colour printing. In our experience, an entry level laser printer tin match – and often exceed – the print quality of many commercially-distributed 'java table' books that sell for $fifty or more. However, that said, at that place are some common faults that tin appear in prints from light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation printers:

1. Runway marks on the surface of the paper, acquired past the paper feed system. You can't do much to forestall them, although their visibility tin be reduced by laminating the prints.

ii. Gloss differential, where unlike tones accept different 'shininess' when the print is viewed from a shallow angle. This tin can besides occur with inkjet press and is reduced by laminating the prints.

3. Metamerism, in which colours await dissimilar nether different types of lighting. Almost all laser prints will announced 'warmer' in tone nether incandescent lighting just have on a light-green colour cast nether fluorescent lights. Yous tin can't do annihilation to foreclose this.

four. Each printer will reproduce colour balance, brightness and contrast in slightly unlike ways, which tin can influence the terminate effect.

5. Color and brightness banding tin be visible in some prints. It'southward usually quite subtle but indicates variation in the density with which the toner has been applied.

All laser printers leave the factory calibrated for document press; not photo press. Default settings are based on standard part printing newspaper (eighty~100 gsm), rather than roofing a wider paper range. Colour, brightness and saturation adjustments are available, merely may not exist attainable in Photograph manner. Some defaults can't exist over-ridden in the photo printing way.

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Paper Choices
A wider choice of papers is available for laser printing than for inkjet printers. Laser papers also tend to exist cheaper than inkjet papers and come up in larger packs, although non necessarily a wider range of sizes.

You lot can't use inkjet papers considering their surfaces are coated to receive sprayed-on inks, whereas the surfaces of laser papers are coated to attract dry out powder. Inkjet photograph papers tin can't accept the high heat used in a laser printer to fuse the toners to the newspaper.

Inkjet printers also have a simpler paper feeding system that allows them to print on thicker papers than light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation printers. ('Normal' 80, ninety or 100gsm bond papers tin can exist printed on both laser and inkjet printers.)

If you want good-looking prints, you must exist discerning when choosing papers. Avoid plain role newspaper. The best results volition come from coated papers with shine surfaces and these tin can come in matte, low-gloss and glossy finishes.

The weight of the paper determines how the prints feel when handled. We recommend a minimum weight of 130 grams/square metre (gsm) for photo books and calendars. Some printers tin't handle papers of 170 gsm or more.

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An example of an prototype that prints well on a laser printer.

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This analogy shows the subtle differences in color and tonal rendition produced by different printers. The image in the top left reproduces the original from which the others were printed. To its correct is a scanned image output by the Catechism LBP7200Cdn. Below the original is a scan from a print made with the FujiXerox DocuPrint CP205, while abreast it is a scan from a print made with the Samsung CLP-680DW.

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The edges of areas of banding are indicated past the cerise arrows.

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An instance of the type of image which is difficult to print satisfactorily with a laser printer.

Setting Up
The drivers in the printers we tried often defaulted back to settings for printing documents on plain paper, so you need to keep checking all the settings each fourth dimension you make a print – particularly when swapping between image files. The first step is to select 'photos' for the output quality and ensure the resolution is as high as the printer supports. So match the paper blazon in the driver to the stock you're printing on.

The drivers in the printers we tried all provided suitable settings for heavier-weight, coated newspaper. If in doubt, select 'Lightweight card stock' or 'Coated paper' rather than 'plain paper' for the paper type setting.

If you don't match the paper in the driver to the newspaper yous print on, the toner won't fuse to the paper correctly and your prints will bear witness white patches like those shown on this page. Colours that weren't fused to the paper may carry over to be deposited on subsequent prints.

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A print made on coated paper with the printer driver fix for plainly newspaper. Note the streaks resulting from paper incompatibility.

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The driver in the Samsung CLP-680DW is more complex than the drivers in the other printers we tested, which may account for our difficulties in applying ICC profiles when printing.

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Selecting the paper type from a drop-downwardly carte du jour (circled) in the driver of the FujiXerox DocuPrint CP205 printer.

ICC Profiles
The iii printers we tried allowed utilise of ICC profiles to help you match the impress colours to the colours displayed on your monitor screen. In the FujiXerox DocuPrint CP205, the following settings worked well for most subjects: Adjustment fashion – recommended, Image type – photos, Paradigm machine correction – select 'Portrait' or 'Landscape' from the drop-down carte du jour, according to the subject type.

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The profile settings in the commuter for the FujiXerox DocuPrint CP205.

Then click on Profile Settings and select the ICC Profile button. You can then prepare the Monitor profile to the aforementioned as your monitor's by clicking Browse and choosing the profile from the drib-down menu. For Input Image select 'Same equally monitor'.

Initial choice of ICC profiles is even easier in the Canon LBP7200Cdn one time you've navigated to the Quality folio in the driver.

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Accessing the profile settings in the commuter for the Canon LBP7200Cdn.

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Catechism commuter contour

We used the following settings; Profile – photograph prints, Objective – Photos, Colour Mode – select Colour or Black and White, according to the discipline blazon. Then click on the Colour Settings button to open up the manual settings pages.

Skip the Colour Adjustment folio and select the Matching folio to access the profile settings. Select Commuter Matching Way from the pinnacle carte du jour, then check the Application Colour Matching Priority button. For the Matching Method, choose Perceptual [Monitor Colour Matched]. Opening the Monitor Profile drop-down card allows yous to select your monitor contour.

It'due south more difficult to use ICC profiles with the Samsung CLP-680DW because, while there'due south limited profile support in the Standard press mode, it is blocked for the Photo printing mode (which seems counter-intuitive). Profile admission is also difficult to locate in the printer driver, even in the Advanced section. The driver is prepare to block admission when information technology perceives a 'conflict' in settings, as shown in the screen catch.

Samsung's Like shooting fish in a barrel Colour Manager software, which has to be downloaded from the company's website and then installed, provides very limited profile support, along with some potentially useful image adjustments. Unfortunately, there's no link to the profiles in your reckoner, which makes it difficult to use monitor profiles in the photo printing mode.

Color Adjustments
While all the printer drivers nosotros looked at include adjustments for brightness, contrast and the various colour levels, we would circumspection users well-nigh making adjustments in the printer driver. The adjustments made by the FujiXerox and Canon drivers are but too nifty.

The Samsung driver supports finer tuning but none of the drivers lets yous preview the results of the changes you lot make before committing to a print. Images that crave small adjustments to brightness and/or color values should always exist adjusted in an image editor. (Save the adjusted image every bit a copy to ensure information technology is quicker to print again.)

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The Colour Adjustment folio in the Colour Settings section of Canon's printer driver is easy to use. But each adjustment step is relatively large and changes the paradigm colour balance quite radically, as shown in the image behind the dialog box. In this case a one-pace adjustment to add red and magenta was applied.

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Samsung's Like shooting fish in a barrel Colour Manager provides limited support for ICC profiles.

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Color adjustments in Samsung's Like shooting fish in a barrel Colour Manager.

Examination Printers
Our initial tests were carried out on three typical entry-level, A4 'business' printers: the FujiXerox DocuPrint CP205, which is priced at around $250 RRP. This printer claims a resolution of 1200 x 2400 dpi.

We as well tested a Samsung CLP-680DW, which is priced at effectually $550 and claims to output at 9600 x 600 dpi (600 x 600 x four bit). The third printer we tried was a Canon LBP7200Cdn (RRP $599), which lists its print resolution as 'upward to 600 ten 600 dpi (2400 x 600 dpi quality)'.

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The three printers nosotros tested, from left; FujiXerox DocuPrint CP205, Samsung CLP-680DW, Canon LBP7200Cdn.

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Article by Margaret Brownish –  encounter Margaret'due south photography pocket guides

Excerpt from  Photograph Review Issue 56

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