Good color laser printer for photos?

I have been thinking about replacing both our black-and-white laser printer (actually an mfc) and our ink color printer (which we use for photos) with a color laser printer, but have no idea if there are any decent color laser printers that do a good job printing photos.

I know they must exist - the photos from professional shops that user laser printers are just fine, but all of the color laser printers I have seen for home use have low enough resolution that the prints on glossy paper just do not look very good. Does anyone know of a decent color laser printer that will do a good job with photos and a decent job with black-and-white documents?

Thanks.

For colour photos - only consider inkjets.

The professional "laser" printers project the image via a laser beam on to conventional photographic colour paper - e.g. Fuji Crystal

Labs do not use colour lasers in the form that you are thinking of such.

The professional "laser" printers project the image via a laser beam on to conventional photographic colour paper - e.g. Fuji Crystal

I guess I am not sure what you are saying. Is that not how normal laser printers work?

Are there no good quality color laser printers capable of producing decent photos on photo paper? Or are they all "professional" and hence expensive? Why should I consider only inkjet printers (that is a question - I am only trying to understand why)?

Hi Mike.

Laser printers, whether basic or professional, are known as Page Printers and they deposit toner on to, even, plain paper if so desired. The computer downloads the file to the printer and once done, copies can be printed as fast as possible (the file being held in memory inside the printer), as against an inkjet, where files are printed one at a time, with the printhead moving side to side and squirting ink on to the paper - effectively printing in linked strips. Thus if bulk work is to be printed for many copies, the laser will win every time. These type laser printers put toner on to a revolving drum that is then, via heat, transferred to whatever paper is used.

However, the Pro "Laser" Printers (they are actually colour printers that use a laser beam = totally different in design) used by professional labs for such as high quality photo reproduction are NOT the same in terms of how they work. They do not print on to "ordinary" paper but project, using a laser beam, the image on to colour photographic paper (light sensitive) that is then processed using chemical solutions - in the same way colour printing would have been done in a conventional (WET) darkroom, where an enlarger projected the whole image on to light sensitive colour paper (was same for B+W of course) and then the paper was processed in solutions to obtain the end colour print.

Laser printers - the sort you really mean - are far from being able to produce high quality photos as can be easily done even on an inexpensive inkjet printer.

conventional consumer color lasers work by sensitizing the appropriate color on the transfer belt and then applying a powdered toner which is then heated and bonds to the paper.

No, there are no good consumer-oriented photo quality laser color printers. That's why everyone uses inkjet.

That was very clear. Thank you.

I did not know that the professional laser printers were not "laser" printers in the traditional consumer terms I am familiar with. Thanks for explaining that to me.

So I guess I will just have to give up on the idea of replacing my 2 printers with a single color laser printer and using it for printing photographs.

Thanks for making that clear.

I guess I am surprised that there has been no research done to try to create a consumer color laser printer that would be good at printing photographs. We don't do a lot of printing so when we do the ink is generally dry or the print head clogged from non-use. That means having to spend time cleaning heads and buying new ink. After a while that process begins to get expensive (new color and bw ink cartridges for our printer run about $60). I had thought that a color laser printer, using toner instead of ink, might be more economical in the long term because the toner would not dry out. I guess that was not a good idea.

Hi again Mike,

Although these days the printheads in Epsons are generally clog free, even with only occasional use, you might perhaps consider an HP model, where although the cartridges are more expensive (because each has its own built-in printhead) I regularly quickly get local clients' HP models working again, when they have dried from little use, by simply having some warm water in a saucer - about ¼" deep, to thus dip in for a few seconds the actual nozzles underneath - the ink always flows within a couple or so seconds, then the bottom is wiped with some kitchen-type paper (or perhaps toilet paper as it is the bottom!) and replaced in printer. Doing that (seemingly fairly unknown trick) can get the HP back working again in no time.

Might be worth your while to at least check their models and whether that sort of cartridge is used. I have the Epson 1400 with inkjetfly.com pigment inks (Epson says it is only a dye printer and also that only black is not possible - both completely wrong - see my signature link) and have not had any clogs in over 2+ years - works fine even if I do a 3-week family trip away.

Photo calendars and colored books with photos are often made by digital printing in printing houses. That's like laser printing. You can send your sample data to HP, Kyocera … and you will get results like digital printing.

So I tested a Kyocera laser printer with several photo papers for one week. Matte papers is no problem, but I want to produce photo calendars with glossy or semi-glossy paper for publishing (on demand). The quality was similar commerial digital printing, but: on glossy papers you will see roll marks of the (very fast) paper transportation rolls.

For fine art printing (for exhibitions ...) you have to use inkjet photo printers.
--
Helmu2233 - Germany

Matte papers is no problem

Does that mean that the Kyocera printer did a good job printing photos with matte paper? I am curious to know which Kyocera printer you were testing.

I tested the Laserprinter Kyocera Mita FS-C5300dn with matte paper between 135gr-200gr. One paper e.g. Mondi Color Copy 200g. Photo quality like that in printed photo calendars.
--
Helmu2233 - Germany

I have a Kyocera FS-C5100DN and the quality of the photo printing in colour is much better than I had expected. I used SpyderPrint to profile the printer and the proofs in Photshop closely match the printed output. The prints are banding free, accurate colour (IMO), sharp and quite good enough for attractive looking brochures or calendars. I use it for labels for our egg boxes which have a picture of our hens on them. They look very good. It's printing lacks a little in saturation and Dmax and I suspect it will fade like crazy in sunlight though I've never tried it.

A fine art printer it is not but it does a whole lot of jobs I wouldn't use my Epson 3800 for.
--
Brian
Fine Art Print sales of the Isle of Skye at:
http://www.eyeofskye.co.uk/

If you have access to Consumer Reports in your local library check out the December 2011 issue on printers starting on page 52. I think the current issue has a bit more detail.

In that December issue it rated the Dell 1250c as better than average. I subscribe to their on line version and and still the only above average printer for photo quality was that Dell 1250C. All else were rated average or below including the all-in-one category.
--
Ron Ginsberg
Minneapolis, MN
Land of 10,000 Puddles

Thanks. I will check it out. You don't by any chance have it, do you?

MikeFromMesa wrote:

I have been thinking about replacing both our black-and-white laser printer (actually an mfc) and our ink color printer (which we use for photos) with a color laser printer, but have no idea if there are any decent color laser printers that do a good job printing photos.

I know they must exist - the photos from professional shops that user laser printers are just fine, but all of the color laser printers I have seen for home use have low enough resolution that the prints on glossy paper just do not look very good. Does anyone know of a decent color laser printer that will do a good job with photos and a decent job with black-and-white documents?

Thanks.

If you plan on using the images professionally, it's not such a good idea however with a laser printer like the Samsung CLP-620ND the prints do rival some ink-jet printers. I have a Brother MFC- 440CN inkjet which outputs at 1200 x 6000 dpi and delivers decent detail however it's images are not vivid. They all look like they have a smoky tint. The Samsung on the other hand claims to output at 9600 x 600 dpi & destroys the brother. It's images are vivid however it does have some banding. This banding however is not like the banding I have seen with other laser printers. The images are actually solid. it looks more like the image was printed twice and in some areas the second layer did not cover as good. It's really the kind of thing only a perfectionist would notice and if I laminated the image the banding would disappear & the prints could pass for photo quality. Just to give you a little more insight as to what the output is like, I had an old  Epson Stylus Color 500 ink-jet that I purchased back in 1997. it had 720 x720 dpi resolution which was good at that time but you could see dithering however if you laminated the images and made small prints  some could pass for photo quality. With the Samsung there is no dithering. tone transitions are usually smooth and very inkjet like. there really is no comparing the two, the Samsung laser again destroys that inkjet. So to answer your question, some lasers do perform significantly better than some ink jets at reproducing photos. They still are not at the same level of some of the newer Epson & canon Pixma printers but they are starting to catch up and at this point I would go ahead and recommend you pick one up.

I like the speed and ability to print large files on the Laser printer but so far haven't been able to find  one that gives good quality photos on glossy paper.  Also need  to stay under $500 if possible.  I also need to Scan copy and print.The best one so far was a Brother 9130

Did you find any

mfaivre

I bought a Canon ImageClass MF731CDW for $250 on sale and I'm very pleased with the photo quality. There is banding (vertical when viewing a landscape orientation page) only shows on gradients like a pure blue sky and is more pronounced on glossy paper.

The printer driver has all kinds of image tweaking options, like vivid color, smoothing gradients, sharpening, and color adjustment for CMYK.

For me it makes way more sense than an inkjet photo printer because it's far cheaper per print, toner is pigment based, and printing is fast. I've printed dozens of pictures within a couple days, as there's no need to be conservative due to ink price!

Another good thing about a laser printer is you can use Rite in the Rain paper which is waterproof and also archival