12/7/96
Does somebody has heard something about an enhancement for laser printers
called LAZARPRINT and
abble to increase the resolution at 6800 DPI and 1024 Gray levels!!!(I know
it looks impossible)
I'm interresting by technical information and manufacturer.
Salutations.
Jacky Larnould
tel 33 (0)4 67 72 28 26
fax 33 (0)4 67 79 54 90
email larnould@mnet.fr
Impossible or not, this product really exists !!!
In addition to the high quality grayscale images, the speed of the process
is also remarkable: due to a direct access to the video port of the printer
via a special interface, a picture of letter size is transferred and printed
out within the time the laser printer needs for paper skip alone (+/- 10
seconds !).
The near photographic quality obtained at a very low cost (use of plain
paper) makes the LazarPrint system the ideal solution if you want to print
pictures obtained with really high resolution grabbing systems (eg our ORION
4.2 for Windows that gives you a resolution up to 4000 x 4000 pixels and 256
gray levels).
For more information, please contact:
I.C.I. sarl (France)
Voice: + 33 384 58 02 43
Fax: + 33 384 54 03 98
E.L.I. sprl (Belgium)
Voice: +32 2 726 31 02
Fax: +32 2 726 08 65
Email: orion @infoboard.be
Best regards,
Paul Vanderlinden.
Sales Manager.
See our web site: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk
To contact us:
E.L.I. sprl
Technical support:
Jean-Louis Leclef: Phone: +32 67 21 25 07
Fax : +32 67 22 09 53
Email: jleclef@hypercon.com
Sales support:
Paul Vanderlinden: Phone: +32 2 726 31 02 (NEW N° !!!)
Fax : +32 2 726 08 65
Email: orion@infoboard.be
The little gizmoes which make a low DPI printet think it's a high DPI
printer ARE A RIP OFF. They are fiddling the system and really don't
give you any real additional information. Contact John Mackenzie at
<supervisor@emc.ncsu.edu> who is the expert on these matters.
Patrick Echlin
pe13@cus.cam.ac.uk
D-82216 Gernlinden (Germany)
FAX : (0 81 42) 4 02 19
allows the printer to print at 4800 dpi. We purchased ours from Smart
Analytical Products in Maryland, USA. However, the board is made in
Germany, and I am do know who markets the board in Europe. The board is
very fast. You can even print out multiple copies of 20MB+ image files in
the same manner you would print a text file. The normal output of the
laserjet produces a dot pattern that is easily seen if you examine a print
with a magnifying glass. If you look at the grain stucture of a picture
printed using the LazarPrint board, the dots are almost too small too seen.
Each pixel can accept 1024 gray levels, but only 256 of these will be
printed. However, this allows a great deal of contrast manipulation. The
board does an excellent job with electron micrographs. I have no commercial
interest in the board.
Regards,
John J. Turek, Ph.D.
Purdue University
Dept. of Basic Medical Sciences
Core Laboratory for Image Analysis
and Multidimensional Applications (CRISTAL)
phone: 317-494-5854
fax: 317-494-0781
email: jjt@vet.purdue.edu
LaserJets like many other printers print in lines (lpi). The lines represent in digital image printing
lines of pixels. If the pixels are printed squarely than each square area (of a width equal to that
of the actual line width) must be printed with a desired amount of ink variations in order to
generate the gray levels (see John Russ' book for a nice illustration on how this is done in a
LaserJet). LaserJets and inkjets use dots as the smallest printed entity. If you would print with
600 dpi and 100 lpi (LaserJet 4) than you could place 6 dots per line (600/100=6), As a
consequence you can maximally place 6x6 dots per pixel or make 36 gray levels plus no-dots
(white). Thus a LaserJet 4M will print with 37 gray levels. This is just at the limit of gray level
recognition. A 1200 dpi printer which uses 100 lpi, will be able to generate 145 gray levels per
pixel (1200/100 = 12; 12x12+1=145). That's why the Lexmark is so good because the eye can't
distinguish that amount of gray levels (beyond the contrast resolution of our eyes). However,
100 lpi (25:100= 0.25 mm) also is just at the recognition level of the eye with regards to spatial
resolution. Print heads in LaserJets can print much better and ,if combined with HP's superfine
ink powders, they can easily be driven at 4800 dpi on plain paper. There are many
high-resolution printers on the market which do better. However, for comparison, print speed is
as important as adequate print resolution. LazarPrint prints 300 lines per inch (lpi) and 256 gray
levels, both surely beyond the resolution limit of the unaided eye and thus producing
"photography like" printing quality. However, in addition, LazarPrint prints 1- 10 MB of images
per page in 20 sec. (on a conventional LaserJet).
If you like to see some proof, look at a comparison of these printers at the following web site,
where dpi/lpi/eye resolution are compared for a 1Kx1Kx8-bit test image:
http://panda.uchc.edu/htklaus/DigiLab/Printing-ResultsL.html
Patrick, trust physics and experimental proof not emotions. I don't like gizmos either, that's why
I took the time and compared the actual print quality. Than, I made up my mind and for now
over two years I never used my photolab again, but I printed over 20,000 images (pages with up
to 8 images each) on my LaserJet, submitted MSA and other abstracts, made all my slides and
published papers; all with the help of my old but good LaserJet.
Address of LazarPrint developer: bm484646@muenchen.org (Mikel Jaeth)
I am commercially not involved in any of the mentioned resources. Best season greetings Klaus
Klaus-Ruediger Peters
Peters@BSAC.UCHC.EDU
printing. We tried these gizmo's about two years ago and at that time
could see no improvement. We now use a 600dpi pinter of a clay covered
brilliant white paper using superfine print powder and are satisfied
with the results. Perhaps things have changed in the past two years.
Sincereley
pe13@cus.cam.ac.ukPatrick