LaserJet 5L - fuzzy image

G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

Hi,

This printer was purchased in 1996 for $800, and having spent much of
its life on a 486 running Win 3.11 has given great service. It prints
an immaculate, perfectly clean copy with its 600dpi. The test page is
beautiful. During this time it has printed word processing documents
exclusively from this PC, and an occasional chart, which also prints
well.

Given its great service, I have moved the printer to my new PC running
Windows XP. And it still prints text beautifully. However, this PC is
connected to the web, and I feel let down by it in regard to the poor
print image it puts out. Help!

I recently bought a scanner, and images scanned print very poorly.
Help!

In fact, it wants to print at 300dpi all the time, and if I force it
to go 600dpi the print image is only partially improved and generally
spreads the print job over two pages, rather than one! I also note
that the image quality (crispness of the image varies over the page).

The manual tended to indicate that the problem might be a lack of
memory, but I'm not sure. This printer is advertised on ebay for
between $40 and $150. HP suppliers said memory chips will cost
between $300-$500. (I can buy a new printer for less than that.) I
rang the guy who repaired it for me. He recommended installing the
latest driver from HP. I did that. But it didn't notice any change.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Ron
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

<stenospamron@netlink.com.au> wrote in message
news:41c39f1c.2317187@news.netlink.com.au...

> I recently bought a scanner, and images scanned print very poorly.
> Help!
>
> In fact, it wants to print at 300dpi all the time, and if I force it
> to go 600dpi the print image is only partially improved and generally
> spreads the print job over two pages, rather than one! I also note
> that the image quality (crispness of the image varies over the page).

The last point suggests your 8-year-old printer may
be unable to print as you expect . . .
But the main consideration is the software you use
to manipulate scans. Photoshop LE (free under
various circumstances) lets you specify the printable
size and dot density of a scanned image: and the
scanning software lets you specify size and dot
density before the scan is made.

Repost saying what software you use (1) to scan,
(2) to print.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
 

Alan

Distinguished
Mar 31, 2004
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Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 03:11:09 GMT, stenospamron@netlink.com.au wrote:

>Hi,
>
>This printer was purchased in 1996 for $800, and having spent much of
>its life on a 486 running Win 3.11 has given great service. It prints
>an immaculate, perfectly clean copy with its 600dpi. The test page is
>beautiful. During this time it has printed word processing documents
>exclusively from this PC, and an occasional chart, which also prints
>well.
>
>Given its great service, I have moved the printer to my new PC running
>Windows XP. And it still prints text beautifully. However, this PC is
>connected to the web, and I feel let down by it in regard to the poor
>print image it puts out. Help!
>
>I recently bought a scanner, and images scanned print very poorly.
>Help!
>
>In fact, it wants to print at 300dpi all the time, and if I force it
>to go 600dpi the print image is only partially improved and generally
>spreads the print job over two pages, rather than one! I also note
>that the image quality (crispness of the image varies over the page).
>
>The manual tended to indicate that the problem might be a lack of
>memory, but I'm not sure. This printer is advertised on ebay for
>between $40 and $150. HP suppliers said memory chips will cost
>between $300-$500. (I can buy a new printer for less than that.) I
>rang the guy who repaired it for me. He recommended installing the
>latest driver from HP. I did that. But it didn't notice any change.
>
>Any advice would be appreciated.


Shortage of RAM does classically cause the page to be split, when the
memory gets full it ejects and starts a new one, but variation in
image quality sounds more like a problem with toner.

So you do need more RAM.
But you don't need to buy it from HP.

See for instance TPW:
<http://www.printerworks.com/Catalogs/AX-Catalog/AX_SupplyAcces.html#SIMMS>
They have 4MB for $29.50, or 8MB for $39.
Also, you can use the part numbers "C3148A" for 4 MB (I wouldn't
bother with smaller) or "C3149A" for 8 MB listed to search elsewhere
for a cheaper deal. Occasionally they'll turn up on eBay, but not when
I just looked.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

You can also get memory from eBay for $10-15 for 8MB but watch the shipping.

Chris
<stenospamron@netlink.com.au> wrote in message
news:41c39f1c.2317187@news.netlink.com.au...
> Hi,
>
> This printer was purchased in 1996 for $800, and having spent much of
> its life on a 486 running Win 3.11 has given great service. It prints
> an immaculate, perfectly clean copy with its 600dpi. The test page is
> beautiful. During this time it has printed word processing documents
> exclusively from this PC, and an occasional chart, which also prints
> well.
>
> Given its great service, I have moved the printer to my new PC running
> Windows XP. And it still prints text beautifully. However, this PC is
> connected to the web, and I feel let down by it in regard to the poor
> print image it puts out. Help!
>
> I recently bought a scanner, and images scanned print very poorly.
> Help!
>
> In fact, it wants to print at 300dpi all the time, and if I force it
> to go 600dpi the print image is only partially improved and generally
> spreads the print job over two pages, rather than one! I also note
> that the image quality (crispness of the image varies over the page).
>
> The manual tended to indicate that the problem might be a lack of
> memory, but I'm not sure. This printer is advertised on ebay for
> between $40 and $150. HP suppliers said memory chips will cost
> between $300-$500. (I can buy a new printer for less than that.) I
> rang the guy who repaired it for me. He recommended installing the
> latest driver from HP. I did that. But it didn't notice any change.
>
> Any advice would be appreciated.
>
> Ron
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

>
>The last point suggests your 8-year-old printer may
>be unable to print as you expect . . .
>But the main consideration is the software you use
>to manipulate scans. Photoshop LE (free under
>various circumstances) lets you specify the printable
>size and dot density of a scanned image: and the
>scanning software lets you specify size and dot
>density before the scan is made.
>
>Repost saying what software you use (1) to scan,
>(2) to print.
>
>--
>Don Phillipson
>Carlsbad Springs
>(Ottawa, Canada)
>
The scanner is an HP and the software came with it. HP call it "HP
Director" which manages the scanner and what you want to do with it,
and "HP Image Zone" which allows some manipulation of scans. HP
Director does let you select various settings,

The image quality of stuff printed directly from the web also appears
"out of focus". Text prints very well, and small imags are crisp.
The lager ones have a fuzziness to them that annoys me.

You would think that a printer that bosts 600dpi would be okay. And
as I mentioned earlier, the test page is perfect.

Ron
 

miked

Distinguished
Jun 10, 2004
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0
18,630
Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

<stenospamron@netlink.com.au> wrote in message
news:41c6ad77.7212093@news.netlink.com.au...

> You would think that a printer that bosts 600dpi would be okay. And
> as I mentioned earlier, the test page is perfect.

If the test page is OK then it must be a software problem. What printer
driver are you using? As far as I know, HP only produced one updated driver
for this printer (version B).

My 5L is nearly 10 years old and still going strong. I recently put it on a
home network, forcing me to change from the GDI driver to the PCL driver. I
stuck in a 9MB memory card (cheap on eBay) and although it's a bit slower
now the print quality is as good as ever.

Mike
 

Alan

Distinguished
Mar 31, 2004
839
0
18,980
Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:54:00 GMT, stenospamron@netlink.com.au wrote:

>The scanner is an HP and the software came with it. HP call it "HP
>Director" which manages the scanner and what you want to do with it,
>and "HP Image Zone" which allows some manipulation of scans. HP
>Director does let you select various settings,
>
>The image quality of stuff printed directly from the web also appears
>"out of focus". Text prints very well, and small imags are crisp.
>The lager ones have a fuzziness to them that annoys me.
>
>You would think that a printer that bosts 600dpi would be okay. And
>as I mentioned earlier, the test page is perfect.


Even 600 dpi lasers aren't great for images; especially colour ones
which software has to convert to some approximation of greyscale on
the fly. Before blaming your printer, compare with another 600 dpi
laser and see if it's much better.

I your web printing, the text is Truetype, and that basically is what
the 5L is optimised for. The small images are probably GIF images,
which have a maximum of 256 different colours, so are fairly easy to
convert to greyscale. The larger images are probably JPEGs, and likely
optimised for viewing on screen, in colour and lower resolution. They
are inherently "fuzzy". Making them b/w involves some conversions and
approximations. To make this kind of image look good on a b/w laser
isn't trivial.