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Better Test Pages for Color Printers?

Posted by Cliff on from the printers-as-peacocks dept.

AigariusDebian asks: "I bought a new color laser printer (Lexmark C510), but I am not sure if my driver configuration gets all the best images out of it. I would also like to have some way to brag about it to other laser printer wielding geeks. That means that I'd need to make some kind of repeatable and measurable testing of the printers quality. Are there any good Postscript test files that will allow a non-expert to do a full test of their color laser printer? I am thinking about both resolution, dithering and color matching testing."

4 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. Drivers? by Stevyn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    First of all, you have a lot of time on your hands. But then again, I'm commenting on this so that doesn't say much about me.

    Second of all, what OS is this for? Windows, OSX, Linux? The driver options may allow you to tweak some things that can make a big difference.

    I'd recommend you find a nice very high-res photograph. Nothing looks better than a nature seen with a lot of color. It will look better than some test pattern. You could also tweak it in Photoshop or the gimp to bring out the color and contrast. I'm sure there are many resources that professional photographers submit for public use that google could help you out with.

  2. Re:How about this by markild · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've done a few tests of printers over the years, and I must say that the lines in circle is a damn good way to see the accuracy of the printer. ...at least when you look at the effort you have to go through...

    You wan't see much about color accuray etc, seeing that all colors when you see them in the context of the other colors pretty much looks perfect. To get an test that does that, I would guess you would need an hardware color-pick-thingy.

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  3. Go with a classic.. by technos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Lena!

    No matter what your final test image, you'll have to work that one in for the inevitable conversation with your wife.

    "Who the hell is this hussy you keep printing nude pictures of and throwing them away?"

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  4. Re:"Shirley" by Marcion · · Score: 2, Interesting

    >For many years, Photographers have used test shots
    >of women, they nicknamed her Shirley for no reason
    >I've ever been able to figure out.

    There is also the Lenna picture, see the wikipedia for the background story.

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