From Robert Clark Product Manager Epson (UK) Ltd Marylands Avenue Hemel Hempstead
It seems to me that Hewlett-Packard is being somewhat misleading about the 600 dots per inch capability of its DeskJet-520 and DeskJet-560C inkjet printers. I think your readers should be told. What HP do not tell you is that these printers cannot lay down 600 dpi continuously at all. They offer 600 dpi addressability which means that any given dot can be placed anywhere on a 600 dpi grid. In fact, only 300 dots can be fitted per inch of horizontal motion. This so- called 600 dpi resolution has little, if any, impact on quality. The 600 dpi addressability of the new DeskJets is not equivalent to the 600 dpi resolution of a product like the LaserJet 4. In particular, grey shaded graphics and photographic images which are greatly enhanced when printed on a 600 dpi LaserJet will look about the same whether printed on a 300 dpi or 600 dpi DeskJet. This fact was recently reported in an American journal. In short, if users are buying these printers in the belief that they are getting 600dpi performance then they should stop and consider the Epson Stylus 800+. This offers true 360 by 360 dpi resolution. Or put another way, 44% more dots per square inch.
