300 dpi uses less toner than 600 dpi?

[Franklin]

Hi guys

Does printing text at 300 dpi on my desktop laser printer use more
toner than printing text at 600 dpi?

If so then is the difference very small (like 5%) or is it quite
significant (like 40%).

What about if I print pictures and graphics instead of text: does
that make a difference to toner consumption?

 

[Arthur Entlich]

It probably make very little difference, if any.

The 600 dpi setting simply uses smaller dots which are of double the
addressable resolution in each dimension from the 300 dpi ones. At 600
dpi, your printer uses 4 dots for every one 300 dpi dot and you achieve
higher res, and therefore smoother curves, and more apparent gray scale
levels.

Art

 

[John Beardmore]

What about if I print pictures and graphics instead of text: does
that make a difference to toner consumption?

And this bit depends on the graphic or picture.

If you print a graph with thin lines that is mostly white space you will
use virtually no toner.

On the other hand, if you print a picture of a black cat in a coal
cellar, you'll use vastly more toner that you would printing text.

It's obvious really. Toner used is proportional to area covered.


J/.

 

[Franklin]

Does printing text at 300 dpi on my desktop laser printer use more
toner than printing text at 600 dpi?

If so then is the difference very small (like 5%) or is it quite
significant (like 40%).

What about if I print pictures and graphics instead of text: does
that make a difference to toner consumption?




And this bit depends on the graphic or picture.

If you print a graph with thin lines that is mostly white space
you will use virtually no toner.

On the other hand, if you print a picture of a black cat in a
coal cellar, you'll use vastly more toner that you would
printing text.

It's obvious really. Toner used is proportional to area
covered.

John, I think I didn't ask my question clearly enough.

What I meant was ... is there a significant difference between toner
consumption on my Samsung desktop laser printer at 300 dpi compared
to 600 dpi for:

(a) text

(b) graphics

Hope that makes it clearer!










[groups widened to comp.graphics.misc]

 

[Franklin]

Art, thank you for your reply.

To me, the strange thing is that my laser printer prints *black* text
more heavily (I mean the characters seem darker) at 300 dpi than it
does at 600 dpi! It is quite noticeable.

This difference in darkness between 300 dpi and 600 dpi is a bit less
noticeable when the Samsung is set to "toner saving".

All other settings in the printer driver are kept the same.

(1) Is this sort of result normal on all laser printers?

(2) Or is it just a quirk of how the Samsung has chosen to
interpolate the gaps between the dots? (Or something like that.)

(3) Is it to do with choice of fonts and how the printer interprets
the fonts? I used Courier 11pt on WinXP.

Thanks to anyone for any advice.
Franklin


PS: my printer is a 600x600 Samsung ML-1510 http://snipurl.com/9hrs

It probably make very little difference, if any.

The 600 dpi setting simply uses smaller dots which are of double
the addressable resolution in each dimension from the 300 dpi
ones. At 600 dpi, your printer uses 4 dots for every one 300
dpi dot and you achieve higher res, and therefore smoother
curves, and more apparent gray scale levels.

[groups widened to include microsoft.public.win2000.printingfonts]

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I cannot speak directly to the Samsung printer and how they have
accomplished their resolution modes, However, in a general sense, what
you are likely seeing is the problem with dot size with lower resolution.

As I mentioned in my earlier posting, at 300 dpi, the dot is
considerably larger. In order to form a letter with larger dots, it
needs to be designed heavier in total to give it proper proportions and
smoother curves. That would make the letters, especially in fonts which
have a lot of curved surfaces tend to be heavier in 300 dpi mode.

Some printers when printing in 300 dpi (and even in 600 dpi) use special
patented methods to make larger and smaller dots to fill in edges (I
believe HP developed this system), which allowed for finer text.

In terms of some fonts, it is probably true, therefore, that more toner
is used with 300 dpi than 600 dpi. Certainly, a darker (more likely a
thicker) lined appearance on the paper means more toner has been used.

The difference in graphics, other than if the graphic is made up of very
many thin lines, like a line drawing, probably would have little
difference in toner use. But, if the graphic shows heavier lines or
elements overall in the 300 dpi mode, then you might save toner in the
600 dpi mode.

Art

 

[Franklin]

Art, sorry for a late reply but I have been away. Thank you once
again for some useful information.

Can I ask you something else.

If I have a 600 dpi printer then why would I want to print in 300 dpi
mode in general? I can little reason for it.

Is it perhaps because some printers take a lot longer time to
calculate all 600 dots than calculating 300 dots?

Or is a 300 dpi setting useful (in some sort of non-obvious way)
for older applications which somehow need a printer than offers no
more than 300 dpi?

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Hi Franklin,

Today's higher res printers usually use a faster processor, so the time
you wait is minimal.

Some programs may only print with 300 dpi, depending upon how the
drivers are designed.

The main difference is memory. A 600 dpi print uses up 4 times the
memory for the same paper area as a 300 dpi print does. Since each
dot position needs to be rasterized and addressed, doubling the density
of the dots in both dimensions requires four time the memory. If the
printer has limited memory and, for instance, you are printing a legal
or longer sized paper, you might be forced to use a lower resolution.

Memory, in general, even for laser printers, has come down so low (much
is standardized to accept PC memory and memory cards) that it's false
economy for a printer company not to stock it well, but some still don't.

If you prefer heavier, lower res lines, I suppose that might also be an
advantage. But for gray-scaled images, the higher the resolution the
more natural photos type images you will get from the printer.

Art

 

[Alan]

If you want to save toner, many lasers (HPs anyway) have an
"Economode" setting, look at the printer settings in the Control Panel
-- some older ones have this as a dial inside the printer; this
changes the density of the toner used.