![]() Therefore, if you want the best printed output, consider a printer that uses true licensed PostScript (not emulated PostScript). It dominates professional publishing. And if it turns out your printer has bad driver software, there’s not much you can do except buy a different printer.Īmong page-description languages, PostScript is still the gold standard. Even if a printer has excellent technical specifications-great resolution and print speed-it can be hobbled by a bad driver. Second, no printer can ever be better than its driver software. In my experience, those differences are often most noticeable in the quality of printed text, and that quality can vary widely. Other page-description languages exist-the most common one is PCL, owned by HP and found mostly in their printers.įirst, different page-description languages-and different emulations of a page-description language-will render a given document slightly differently. The main alternative is PostScript emulation, which approximates PostScript using non-Adobe technology. ![]() Today, most printers don’t use licensed PostScript. As laser-printing hardware became cheaper to manufacture, printer makers sought alternatives to PostScript with lower licensing fees. In the ’80s, most laser printers were built on PostScript, in much the same way that most computers today are built on Windows. PostScript is a proprietary page-description language owned by Adobe. PDF was a proprietary Adobe format until 2008, when it became an open standard. PDF is built on a subset of the PostScript language. If you ever wondered what a printer driver does, that’s what. So there’s no reason to use an inkjet printer.īefore a printer can render a page, the layout on the screen has to be converted into an intermediate format using a page-description language. ![]() Over the years, laser printers have also gotten a lot cheaper. This creates a sharper edge on the printed page, making laser printers better suited for printing text. Laser printers, on the other hand, deposit particles of dry toner onto the paper and then fuse the toner to the paper with heat. And as the text gets smaller, the problem becomes more pronounced. It’s not desirable for text, because it makes edges less distinct. That’s a desirable effect for photographs, because it helps blend adjacent colors, and it’s why inkjets are preferred for photo printing. The wet droplets spread slightly as they’re absorbed into the paper. Why? Inkjet printers work by spraying small droplets of liquid ink onto the paper, which start out wet and then dry in the air. Inkjets are a lot better than they were 20 years ago, but they still can’t equal the crisp edges of laser printing. Inkjet printers used to be the cheaper and lower-quality alternative to laser printers.
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