SRFERGU%ERENJ@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU (Scott Ferguson) (06/20/91)
Has anyone got any experience with continuous-tone color printers? I've got a Tektronix 4693DX, which does 300 dpi (if you only use the three primary colors), but dithers down the resolution. Also, it doesn't do a real good job of reproducing some colors (blues come out too dark, etc). I've adjusted correction parameters on the printer to the best I can get, but some colors just never come out right. What types of printer alternatives are out there, and at what cost? I can't afford the Canon Color Copier yet, and even 20K would be too high, but I would like to know so I can target vendors when I go to SIGGRAPH and check them out. Thanks, Scott Ferguson srfergu@erenj.bitnet
wave@MEDIA-LAB.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael B. Johnson) (06/20/91)
Far and away the most impressive color printer I've seen is Kodak "Continuous Tone" XL7???? (I forget the whole number). We have one here at the lab and it produces beautiful output. It prints at 200 dpi, and can print a 2K x 2K image onto a 11" x 11" sheet of paper. The paper is special from Kodak and feels like photographic paper (i.e. similar to RC paper). I'm not sure how much they really cost - somewhere in the $10K to $20K range, I imagine. Don't be put off by the 200dpi number - the image quality is impressive. the downsides - not postscript, special paper (although nice), and expensive. For a given page, a sheet of paper is ~$2, and the ink is about $3. Given the way it prints, you use the same amount of ink per page whether or not anything actually goes on the page. People here use them for one-of insertions in submitted papers or internal papers, and use it for making overheads. Pricey, but the output is in a league by itself (I think). --> Michael B. Johnson --> MIT Media Lab -- Computer Graphics & Animation Group --> (617) 253-0663 -- wave@media-lab.media.mit.edu
krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (06/21/91)
If I remember correctly, the Kodak printer is the XL7700, and it listed for about $25,000 when it first appeared at the Sigraph conf. in Boston. You are correct about the quality of the output -- 200 dpi with a continuous-tone printer looks just lieke a photograph. The printer, when introduced, came with a GPIB interface, but I think you can now get an SCSI interface. They (Kodak) also make a 3" x 5" printer called the 6500 (?) which was about $5,000. -- David Krowitz krowitz@richter.mit.edu (18.83.0.109) krowitz%richter.mit.edu@eddie.mit.edu krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet (in order of decreasing preference)