HP/Epson

I was reading a review about the HP 1100/1000 PhotoSmart printer which has 1200 dpi capabilities. If a print looks good at 300 dpi does it look better at 1200?.Can the human eye discern the difference? Is it "better" then the Epson 1280?
Any comments or help is welcome.

RLV

RLV said:

I was reading a review about the HP 1100/1000 PhotoSmart printer
which has 1200 dpi capabilities. If a print looks good at 300 dpi
does it look better at 1200?.Can the human eye discern the
difference? Is it "better" then the Epson 1280?
Any comments or help is welcome.

RLV

Click to expand...

I have an HP 1000 Photosmart printer. Whether a photo will look better at 2400x1200 dpi than at 600dpi depends on the number of pixels in the source image. If you have an 8x10 photo that is 4000 pixels by 5000 pixels, that translates to 500dpi no matter what you do. Only very large numbers of pixels can benefit from the enhanced dpi. Moreover, HP's technology increases dpi by doubling and tripling the number of drops that are put on a single pixel. Go to http://www.photosmart.com and search their help documents. There is an article which explains all this better than I can. In its simplest form, different printer companies have different technolgies for getting effects out of a system that is designed to put 600dpi down on the paper. Epson has one way of doing it, HP another.

Kent Wisner said:

If you have an 8x10 photo that is 4000
pixels by 5000 pixels, that translates to 500dpi no matter what you
do.

Click to expand...

Inkjet printers have only 3 to 6 different colors they must mix (via dithering) to create all the other colors. To create the equivalent output of a 300dpi continous tone printer you need a 1200dpi or more inkjet.

Apparently, HP uses a very kludgey system for creating high resolution output. In the case of the HP you might not see much of an improvement, but for the Epson's you can very clearly to the naked eye see an improvement from 300dpi, 720dpi and 1440dpi. It's only when you go up to the 2880dpi setting that you really can't discern a difference without a magnifying glass.

RLV said:

I was reading a review about the HP 1100/1000 PhotoSmart printer
which has 1200 dpi capabilities. If a print looks good at 300 dpi
does it look better at 1200?.Can the human eye discern the
difference? Is it "better" then the Epson 1280?
Any comments or help is welcome.

RLV

Click to expand...

I don't think so, I've seen both, look about the same, I do like the fact that there seems to be more 3rd party support for the Epson prints, both in ink cartridges, CFS units, and profiles to purchase, just my opinion!