🚀 go-pugleaf

I've been using one of the Canon BJC-800 color printers for some time, hooked u
p to a peecee. It is identical to the NeXT except color of case and interface c
able details, which don't affect the print engine. Given that there have been m
ajor criticisms of the NeXT version of the printer, I have a few observations o
n the PC version that should apply.

(1) Colors do not come out consistantly on the printer - different printers wil
l produce slightly different tones, especially in colors that involve lots of i
nk mixing. I think that the only way around this is for NeXT to bundle a NeXT-C
olor-Printer-Tuner thingy that allows you to remap colors between the printer a
nd the screen. Unfortunately that won't help if it turns out that the colors va
ry between ink cartridges, or even worse, with room humidity or temperature. We
 haven't noticed either of these two problems with our printer. BTW, what we've
 done with the PC version is to print out sample pages with squares for each st
andard Pantone color code on the PC (Corel Draw). We ignore what the color _sho
uld_ be and settle for the fabulous color saturation we _do_ get with the BJC-8
00.
(2) It makes a _HUGE_ difference what media is used in the printer. Photocopy p
aper looks different from good bond paper, transparencies are significantly dif
ferent than coated paper. All this makes sense. To resolve color calibration we
 always use the Canon coated paper. Okay, it costs $.05 per sheet, but given th
e cost of the ink that is pretty trivial (we pay $50Can for color cartridges, a
nd $30Can for black, and these cartridges appear to last about fifty to a hundr
ed fairly darkly saturated pages in any one color - ie for typical pages we cha
nge the lot an average of once per 200 pages. Of course, some colors get used m
ore. I'm kinda partial to the red, myself :) ).
Remember that no ink jet printer will ever really be Pantone 'Perfect' without
some kind of day to day tuning. It just won't happen! The NeXT printer is prett
y darn good for the $$ (or is that $$$), but should be treated as an approximat
e color device, not an absolute color device.
BTW, Canon has a fantastic new printer out, that is a color printer, scanner an
d photocopier all wrapped into one. The resolution is considerably better than
on the BJC-800/NeXT Color Printer. It costs twice as much, more or less, but gi
ven the other abilities that isn't so bad.

Rob Harrap
Dept. Geological Sciences
Queen's University
Kingston, Ont.
Canada
Harrapr@qucdn.queensu.ca