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File for checking the printer. Test images to check the RGB color profile. Test photo

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When in inkjet printer Ink runs out, the user needs to refill the cartridge or purchase a new print cassette. Some users purchase only original consumables, others prefer compatible inks, but both the former and the latter are interested in obtaining high-quality prints and extending the life of their printing equipment.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to check the quality of ink in a store, so the user has to rely only on the integrity of the manufacturers and personal experience in the selection of consumables. But testing the quality of purchased ink at home is not difficult. To do this, you will need a printer, high-quality paper, and, in fact, purchased ink. The essence of testing inkjet ink at home is to print special test pages or test tasks and their careful analysis in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages of these inks. Test page to check the quality of inkjet ink can be found on the Internet.

Test page elements for testing inkjet ink quality

If you plan to use the ink for printing home photos, then the first two elements of the test page will be enough for you, but if you are using the ink for professional commercial photo printing, then the test page should contain all the elements listed in the figure above.

An example of a test page with the designation of its main elements is presented below.

Legend:

1, 1a – gradient transition from white to black; 2 – portrait of a person with a natural skin tone;

3 – image fragments containing light elements on a dark background and vice versa;

4 – dies filled with different colors.

A sample test page with the designation of its elements

When examining the resulting test page, you should pay attention not to the exact match of the shades of the resulting image with the original, but to the balance of the selected ink set. The main criterion here is the gray fill that the inkjet printer generates during printing. The gray color must be pure, without any foreign tint. If such a shade is present on the print, then the selected ink is far from ideal.

An example of color distortion when printing in gray is shown in the following figure. Here is a comparison of several scans obtained when testing inkjet inks. The same printer was used in testing, the same settings were set when printing, and printing was done on the same paper.

Ink A

Ink B

Scans obtained from inkjet ink testing

Ink B And IN when printing they form foreign shades: on the print B– blue, on print IN- lilac. This is especially noticeable in the gray shading of the picture located in the lower right corner. Ink A demonstrated accurate color reproduction, which indicates their quality and balance.

An extraneous tint may appear both on the entire image and in its individual areas. Also, poor ink quality may be indicated by excessive paleness of the print, distortion or mixing of colors, insufficient image clarity and poor rendering of small details. Only ink cartridges can be to blame for the appearance of the listed symptoms. Most likely, the manufacturer did not test their ink sufficiently and released it to the market ahead of time. Pay attention to the fine details in the darkest and lightest areas of the image. Good printer ink renders fine details better than bad ones. As an example, consider two scans of photographs printed with different inks on the same inkjet printer using the same paper.

Ink A

Ink B

Photos printed using the same photo paper

on the same inkjet printer, but with different inks

Ink A demonstrate more realistic color rendition and better depict the smallest details of the image. Ink B They do not convey halftones and small details clearly enough, their colors are not as natural and deep as on the first print. Light halftones in the picture B look garish, there is no smooth transition between light and dark areas of the image.

If you get insufficient quality test prints and are about to run to the supplies store for new ink, stop! Practice shows that you can achieve quite satisfactory print quality by experimenting with the settings in the “printer-ink-paper” system. If you do everything correctly, you can increase the realism and colorfulness of your photos and improve the color rendition of midtones and shades. If you plan to use inkjet ink for professional photo printing, then you will have to spend a little more time finding a balance in the printer-ink-paper system. You may need to print more than one test page before you are satisfied with the image. As an example, consider the figure.

Basic test page

The basic test page has a pale yellow tint. The children's faces shown at the bottom of the test page look faded, the shades are not vibrant and natural enough.

Open the color rendering settings window on your computer and find the halftone curve. We reduce the yellow color in the settings, increase and adjust the brightness and clarity of the image. We print a second test page with the new settings.

Test page after additional settings color rendering

After adjusting the color rendering, the test page looks more natural: the milky yellow tint has disappeared, the images have become more realistic, clearer, and brighter.

If the color rendering adjustment does not give the expected results, then most likely you are using photo paper that is not suitable for these inks. In this case, you will not get satisfactory print quality without color distortion even using original inks, not to mention cheaper compatible inks.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the correct selection of ink for inkjet printing– the process is quite labor-intensive and complicated for the average buyer. Therefore, if you are not confident in your knowledge and abilities in the field of inkjet printing and printer maintenance, it is better to seek advice from professionals.

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Most often, people purchase printers for specific tasks. Both an advanced digital photographer with high quality requirements and a caring parent, when choosing an inexpensive printer “for study” for their child, although vaguely, formulate the quality characteristics of the device. Therefore, when developing this technique, we proceeded primarily from the possible areas of application of each specific model printing device.

To eliminate pointless testing of printers in all possible (and innumerably multiple) combinations of applications, drivers, operating modes and settings, we start primarily from several general types of printers, users who may need certain capabilities, and tasks specific to each printer . It follows from this that our goal is not to make, say, an inexpensive inkjet from the “up to $100” category work in conditions more suitable for a powerful laser printer with its own PostScript interpreter.

1. Maximum print speed

This test shows the maximum speed of the printing mechanism. Multiple copies of a single-page PDF file are sent to the printer at a standard 5% page coverage. The number of copies launched corresponds to the number of copies per minute declared by the manufacturer + 1 copy. Timing begins immediately after the printer issues the first copy. This eliminates the dependence of the result on the power of the computer, the type of file, drivers, the printer interface and the speed of processing the job by the printer itself.

The test runs on all types of printers. The result is the number of ppm.

2. Print a multi-page document with illustrations

Unlike the previous test, which simulates the replication of a one-page document, this test shows the printing time of a simple 20-page document in PDF format, containing small raster illustrations in RGB format and text typed in 10 point size. Printing is made from Adobe programs Reader 6.0; time is measured from the moment the document is launched for printing. Since the document size and type are not standardized, and the driver processing time for the job is measured, the result reflects the relative performance of a particular application-computer-printer connection. Configuration test bench is given in the appendix.

The test runs on all types of printers. Result - time in min., sec.

3. Assessing the quality of font reproduction

This test allows you to evaluate the print quality of text material typed in serif and sans serif fonts (Times New Roman and Arial, respectively). Font sizes decrease from 72pt to 2pt.

If the printer does not support the PostScript language, a PDF file from the program is sent for printing Adobe Reader 6.0. However, if the manufacturer declares support for the PostScript standard, the test page is output to the printer directly from the layout package Adobe InDesign CS.

The test runs on all types of printers. The result is the minimum readable font size (size in points), the quality of printing of curved and inclined elements of letters. The readability of a font means maintaining the integrity of the main elements of the letters (the absence of “frozen” elements or breaks in the letters).

4. Printing a universal test strip

A special test page is designed in such a way as to clearly show the printer's capabilities. The following items are available for assessment:

neutral density scale. Range 0–10% in 1% steps, 10–90% in 10% steps and 90–100% in 1% steps;
color stretches CMYKRGB 100-0%;
scales showing the minimum and maximum reproducible densities of CMYK inks. Minimum densities are numbers from 1 to 8, colored in their corresponding shades, on a white background (0%). Maximum densities are numbers from 92 to 99 with the corresponding coloring against a background of 100%. Each color has its own pair of scales;
scale consisting of 100% RBGYMCK color dies;
RYGCBM color stretch created by Adobe Photoshop CS;
text typed in font sizes from 4pt to 8pt (5–9 pt for decorative fonts) in styles: decorative, serif, sans serif. The options are: normal (black text on a white background), reversed (white text on a black background) and colored (text of different colors on a rich green background);
scales that allow you to measure the maximum reproducible lineature. They are sets of concentric circles. Available values, in lines per inch: 60-80 in increments of 5 lpi, 80–170 in increments of 10 lpi;
a set of scales that allow you to evaluate ink registration and printer calibration accuracy.

They are sets of longitudinal, transverse, oblique, wavy and intersecting lines of different colors.

All test elements are located on a solid gray background that has no margins, which allows you to determine the actual printing field of the printer.

For printers that do not support PostScript, the document is printed in PDF format from Adobe Reader 6.0. For PostScript printers, printing is performed directly from the Adobe InDesign CS layout package. The printed strip is scanned, after which all parameters are evaluated.

The test runs on all types of printers. The result is the actual values of all parameters.

5. Assessment of color rendering quality

This test consists of a selection of photographs typical for assessing color fidelity, saturation and detail of images:

photo of a brown bear. Dark wool with rich tonal variations allows you to appreciate the transmission of detail in the shadows;
photograph of a woman with a dog. The dog's light fur, the woman's clothing and a fragment of the pier allow us to evaluate the transfer of details in the highlights;
a photograph of a boy reveals the quality of the rendering of flesh tones;
A black-and-white family photo with a wide range of tones helps evaluate the quality of the printer’s reproduction of the entire range of neutral shades;
photography of vegetables. The colors of vegetables and greenery are very familiar to us all, therefore they are used by us as memorable colors and add their contribution to the assessment of color rendering;
photo of a motorcycle engine. Metallic surfaces, highlights and harsh shadows show the printer's ability to produce high-contrast images with deep shadows and ringing reflections;
photographs of instruments contain small details (texture of gloves, leather, scratched metal surfaces), warm, cold and neutral shades. In addition to checking the detail of the print, they help evaluate color separation algorithms. To this end, one of the photos is in CMYK space, and the other has an embedded sRGB color profile. The profile with which the image was converted into CMYK space is non-standard, created by us with our own hands. However, this profile has been repeatedly used in preparing images for high-quality sheetfed offset printing, and has proven its viability. The sRGB profile for the adjacent photo is not used by chance: in an increasing number of devices ( digital cameras, monitors, printers) full support for this space is declared, so it becomes interesting to compare two different approaches: independent color separation in Photoshop or automatic separation by the printer driver. Due to the fact that it makes no sense to print CMYK images on printers that do not support PostScript and then find fault with the quality of color rendering, for such devices this test only evaluates end-to-end sRGB profiling;
photos of parrots are a synthetic test. The chest feathers of parrots contain a lot of detail, but at the same time they have a pronounced dominant color. Since in real life We rarely have to deal with such saturated colors, all the more indicative will be this kind of stress test, which reveals the borderline capabilities of the printer.

All images (except for photographs of instruments) have a resolution of 300dpi. Photo of tools - 600 dpi. For printers without PostScript support, a PDF file is used with RGB versions of images without embedded profiles (except for one of the photo tools). On PostScript printers, images in the CMYK version (except for one of the photographs of tools) are output directly from the layout package. Printers that support the PDF format are sent a PDF file with CMYK versions of the images (with the same exception as in the previous case). Photo printers are printed from the Adobe Photoshop CS package, each image (in the RGB version) is printed in a separate session. Also for photo printers, the time elapsed from the start of a print job to the output of the finished sheet is measured.

The test runs on all types of printers. The result is a visual assessment of printed samples and time in minutes, seconds.

6. Other

Along with the main characteristics of the printer, it is also important for the end user to know such parameters as the noise level of the printer, the ergonomics of the controls, the thoughtfulness of the design and even the aesthetic impression of the printer. appearance printer. We do not attach absolute importance to these parameters and evaluate them subjectively.

Paper used when testing laser printers:

uncoated paper with a density of 200–220 g/m2.

Paper used when testing inkjet printers:

plain, uncoated, office paper with a density of 80 g/m 2;
universal glossy paper for inkjet printers from a third-party manufacturer;
high quality glossy photo paper inkjet printers from a third party manufacturer;
High-quality paper for photo printing on inkjet printers, recommended by the printer manufacturer.

Testing computer parts and related solutions, we, of course, could not ignore such a class of devices as office equipment. Today it has become an indispensable attribute of any office or company with a large document flow. And it’s now difficult to imagine a modern home setup without a printer or MFP, especially if its owner is a schoolchild or student. As you can see, the scope of application of devices of this kind is quite extensive, and it covers both the corporate and SOHO market segments. In this regard, store shelves are literally littered with a variety of office equipment: from compact photo printers to professional office “harvesters”.

Naturally, such diversity can confuse even a knowledgeable person, not to mention those who are faced with purchasing a printer or MFP for the first time. We hope that this technique and the series of materials prepared on its basis will help you understand the variety of models in order to make the right choice in the future.

First, we will briefly describe the structure of the review of a printer or MFP, and then we will talk in more detail about the testing itself. As always, for better understanding, the material will be divided into several sections.

Introduction and Specification

At the very beginning of the article, the relevance of the tested solution is described, its positioning in model range, as well as how the manufacturer himself sees its use. Right there you can find the most complete specification of the device, compiled on the basis of information from official sources. In the future, during testing, we will definitely check to what extent the stated information corresponds to reality.

Packaging and delivery

In this section, we will pay special attention to the packaging in which the printer is supplied. In particular, its dimensions, strength, design and information content. We will also take a closer look at the delivery package to see if the manufacturer has saved on any components.

Appearance and operating features

This section will be the most extensive. In addition to photographs of the tested solution from different angles, it will include detailed description all its key nodes. We will pay special attention to the operating features of the printer and MFP. “What paper sizes are supported?”, “How does the printing process work?”, “How do the trays and automatic feeder function?”, “Is it difficult to change the cartridge or ink?”, “What interfaces is the device equipped with?”, “Does it have any then additional functionality? − We will try to give the most complete and detailed answers to all these questions.

Consumables

Here you will find information about consumables for printers that are used during printing. Depending on the type of device, these can be toner cartridges, ink containers or CISS. If possible, we will share information about their resource, cost of refilling and complexity of maintenance.

Autonomous operation

Professional or pretending to be such models can often function in standalone mode, that is, without connecting to a PC. If such an opportunity is present, we will definitely explore it in practice and describe our impressions in the “Autonomous operation” section.

Software

At this point the emphasis will be on software: driver capabilities, number of settings and available functionality.

Testing

Finally, we come to the most interesting part - the process of testing the capabilities of the device. The procedure itself will be divided into several series of experiments, so we decided to divide this section into several subsections. By following this link, you can download the original documents and images that are used in the testing process.

First page out time

The first page out time is the first way to evaluate how quickly a printer processes a job. The experiment is carried out in two modes: on a warm (ready to print) and cold device. In the second case, part of the time is spent on preparing the printer for operation (exiting energy saving mode, warming up, etc.).

A page of plain text saved in DOC format will be sent for printing. In this case, the printer driver sets the maximum print quality.

Print speed in monochrome mode

To evaluate the printer's printing speed in monochrome mode, we prepared four scenarios:

"Text" − a 20-page document saved in DOC format, with text typed in Times New Roman 10-point font, and different types formatting.

"Text + drawings" − a 10-page document saved in DOC format, with half-sheet drawings and text in Times New Roman 10-point font.

"Text in vector format» − a file in vector format (CDR), which consists of one page of text typed in Times New Roman and Arial fonts with different font sizes.

"Photo" − black and white photography high resolution, saved in PDF format.

These scripts are run for each print mode available in the driver menu. In all cases, the printer warms up in advance. If the device has the ability to duplex print (on two sides of paper), then similar tests will be carried out for this mode. For the purity of the experiment, ordinary office paper with a density of 80 g/m2 is used, which can be bought at any office supply store.

Then the data is entered into a table, the estimated print speed for each mode is determined, and based on the information received, certain conclusions are drawn.

Color print speed

Five different types of photographs are printed one by one (the principle of their selection is described in more detail in the subsection “Evaluating the print quality of photographs and vector elements”) and the time it takes for the page to come out of the tray is measured. We will carry out the test by pre-heating the printer and selecting the maximum print quality in the driver menu. During the experiment, again, ordinary office paper with a density of 80 g/m2 is used, and for professional devices, special photo paper is also used (its properties will be discussed separately in each case).

Assessing the quality of text printing

A document saved in vector CDR format is launched for printing, with a set of control fonts (Times New Roman and Arial), typed in different sizes. Based on the finished print, it will be possible to determine the presence of grain, the degree of filling of characters, the accuracy of drawing serifs on letters, as well as the minimum size of a readable font. Again, the experiment is run for all modes available in the driver menu.

Assessing the print quality of photographs and vector elements

This group of tests is more relevant for photo printers. However, they will also run on regular monochrome devices. This way, we will be able to comprehensively evaluate the capabilities of all solutions that come to us for testing, and in the future draw more objective conclusions when comparing models from different price ranges.

Please note that the process of selecting photographs did not occur spontaneously. Pictures contain a variety of effects, so if the printer distorts the gamma somewhere, reproduces colors incorrectly, “washes” the picture or makes it unclear, this will immediately appear on the prints. Images No. 1 - No. 6 are presented in PDF format, and No. 7 are in vector CDR format.

Image #1. Checking the accuracy of rendering shades of gray and drawing hair. “Sharp” transitions between white and black backgrounds will help reveal how much the printer “clogs” the image at the boundaries of objects.

Image #2. Checking the accuracy of dark shades. If the printer makes the image too contrasty (increases the gamma), the details of the scene in the shadows will be poorly visible or will not be drawn at all.

Image #3. Checking the accuracy of light shades and bright objects. At the end, the picture should not be dull, and the sky, sand and water should merge into one.

Image #4. Checking the quality of drawing of metal and shiny surfaces.

Image #5 . Checking the print quality of HDR photos. Ideally, the resulting colors should be just as saturated, without turning into warm or cold shades. Also, using this image, you will be able to check how accurately the printer is able to convey the reflection of objects on the car body and the texture of asphalt chips (the road should look three-dimensional, and not a piece of gray plywood).

Image #6. Checking the accuracy of human skin tone. The print will immediately show whether the photo printer corresponds to its status or whether it wears the “photo” prefix only for advertising purposes.

Image #7. Checking the accuracy of the output of gradient fills, thin lines and the quality of green color synthesis. Four gradient stripes correspond to the primary CMYK colors. They are formed by using a 512-step vector fill. The presence of vertical stripes here will indicate that the printer has problems with accurately transmitting gradients. Radial stripes and a “star” with a spiral in the center are drawn with a line one pixel thick. Printing these elements is quite a difficult task for printers. Note that some of the lines are drawn in green. Thus, we get the opportunity to evaluate the accuracy of the formation of this shade by mixing yellow (Yellow) and turquoise (Cyan) paint. The group of lines located in the lower corner is intended to check the quality of color synthesis at the intersection of these lines.

Operating the device in scanner mode (if such a feature is available)

The photographs pre-printed on professional equipment, which were discussed in the previous section (images No. 1 - No. 6), are scanned. This procedure is repeated for each type of resolution available in the driver menu. After completing the experiment, the resulting prints are compared with the originals and appropriate conclusions are drawn.

Operating the device in copier mode (if this option is available)

One page of text and the same photographs (images No. 1 - No. 6) are copied at different quality settings. In each case, the page output speed is measured after pressing the “Copy” button, and the resulting prints are also compared with the originals.

Energy consumption

Energy consumption will be measured both while the device is operating (printing, scanning, copying) and in idle mode (sleep).

Additional features

Sometimes manufacturers equip printers and MFPs with additional modules, for example, network interfaces or memory card slots. In principle, this does not apply to the main functionality of office equipment, but potential buyers will certainly be interested in how these units perform in practice.

Results

In our opinion, the set of tests presented in this methodology is quite enough to fully reveal the potential of a printer or MFP and draw certain conclusions. In each review we plan to publish links to scanned prints that were obtained during testing. This way you can evaluate the quality of printing (scanning, copying) not only from our words, but also personally, according to some of your own criteria. In other words, using this technique we will try to give readers as much information as possible to form an objective picture of the capabilities of office equipment that will end up in our test laboratory.

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It is difficult to focus on an uncalibrated monitor, since the similarity of the print to the monitor screen will be partial.

For check color profile there are three options. The first way to print black and white photographs is that they must be black and white, without color impurities. You need to look after the ink has completely stabilized and with the source for which the color profile was ordered. The second way is to print photos and compare them with a calibrated monitor. It is possible that you will have to compare in paper simulation mode. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, CorelDraw can do this. The third way is to print our test images and visually analyze their quality. The fact is that sometimes the printed image itself has a color shift, especially when shooting indoors. We tried to collect images without obvious color deviations.

Two blocks of images are presented: