Articles

There are many color laser printers available at low prices nowadays. Some are older versions selling for less than they did originally, while others are small and only one year old. Now each small firm can have a high-volume printer other than an inkjet, because each seller has a stock of color laser printers at a price good enough for a single user workplace, not to mention one with multiple employees.

Phaser 8200 ink doesn't utilize laser technology. It utilizes ink to make stunning color copies very rapidly. It is also compatible with PostScript, and you can adjust color settings in a way that's not possible with a low level laser printer. Of course, you have to give up something. It won't run tons of black & white copies like a laser printer, and it's no competition for an inkjet when it comes to the quality of its images, but it's still pretty terrific.

The Phaser 8200 printer is known as a phase-change or a wax-jet printer. Its ink appears to be halfway between that of a laser printer and an ink-jet printer, or that used by offset printing presses. The four colors of ink come in small waxy cubes. To be more precise, the yellow, cyan, black, and magenta inks each come in slightly different shapes. They are inserted into the printer like a toddler's toys, each one into its own slot beneath the hood of the printer.

Accustomed to conventional ink and toner cartridges, it was slightly unnerved that the Phaser's front-panel LCD and software driver don't offer an ink-remaining gauge though the former does display a low-ink warning; instead, you simply lift the hood and look. You can top off or add ink anytime, such as before starting a big print job, with no more wondering whether an installed cartridge will go the distance.

As opposed to the standard procedure of discarding or recycling cartridges and ink storage units, our machine results in considerably less waste. All that is needed for continued operation are three small pieces. These consist of a "maintenance kit", a "lubricating kit", and a tray to capture any waste material. Monitor these and replace as necessary, and you will have no problems.

The short crayons melt within the printer, and the ink flows into a reservoir. The Xerox Phaser has a signifcant environmental impact because it draws up to 1500 watts, but Xerox says it averages less than 300 watts. A 600 by 600 dpi print head with 1236 nozzles sprays the ink onto a turning, warmed drum that transfer the ink to the paper in a sinle pass, compared to the four separate passes more cheap color lasers require.

The ink sets within seconds on the page, unlike the seeping or blotting that happens when you use an inkjet. You can get the ink off only by scratching with a fingernail as it does not even smudge if you run a damp finger over it. The end result, though dry, still looks almost damp. Color printouts appear with a definite banding in an inkjet printer and a laser printer too has a mild banding effect, but here, even solid-color areas look glossy enough to believe they were painted.