Date:03/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/07/03/stories/2006070321270400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Fastest desktop colour printer is also affordable

Anand Parthasarathy

Overturns conventional wisdom of `inkjet versus laser'

Bangalore: There are inkjet printers and laser printers — and the twain shall never meet when it comes to any one application.

That has been the conventional wisdom for over 20 years, when black and white laser printers were fast, economical to run — but too costly for individual home-users.

For them, the industry churned out colour inkjet printers, which were slow, cheap but cost a lot to keep running with original cartridges.

New range

It is time to ditch these principles. The pace of development in the printer business has blurred the sharp distinctions between laser and inkjet technologies: entry-level black and white lasers are almost as cheap as budget inkjets.

The world's number one printer-maker Hewlett Packard has launched a new range of Officejet Pro machines — inkjet-based printers, which are almost a third cheaper to run and almost as fast as the fastest laser printers available today.

Fastest

As part of the launch of the latest Officejet models last week, what is claimed to be "the world's fastest desktop colour business printer" was put on display.

Readers used to the leisurely speeds from most home inkjets and lasers will be surprised at how fast the sheets come out flying, even in medium print quality settings.

In the best quality setting, it will be near impossible to tell a typical printed page from one produced by a good laser printer.

However this is not a machine for a photo freak: its best quality may not match that of the slower, cheaper Photosmart printers.