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LaserJet 5L - fuzzy image
Hi,
This printer was purchased in 1996 for $800, and having spent much of its life on a 486 running Win 3.11 has given great service. It prints an immaculate, perfectly clean copy with its 600dpi. The test page is beautiful. During this time it has printed word processing documents exclusively from this PC, and an occasional chart, which also prints well. Given its great service, I have moved the printer to my new PC running Windows XP. And it still prints text beautifully. However, this PC is connected to the web, and I feel let down by it in regard to the poor print image it puts out. Help! I recently bought a scanner, and images scanned print very poorly. Help! In fact, it wants to print at 300dpi all the time, and if I force it to go 600dpi the print image is only partially improved and generally spreads the print job over two pages, rather than one! I also note that the image quality (crispness of the image varies over the page). The manual tended to indicate that the problem might be a lack of memory, but I'm not sure. This printer is advertised on ebay for between $40 and $150. HP suppliers said memory chips will cost between $300-$500. (I can buy a new printer for less than that.) I rang the guy who repaired it for me. He recommended installing the latest driver from HP. I did that. But it didn't notice any change. Any advice would be appreciated. Ron |
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#3
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wrote in message
... I recently bought a scanner, and images scanned print very poorly. Help! In fact, it wants to print at 300dpi all the time, and if I force it to go 600dpi the print image is only partially improved and generally spreads the print job over two pages, rather than one! I also note that the image quality (crispness of the image varies over the page). The last point suggests your 8-year-old printer may be unable to print as you expect . . . But the main consideration is the software you use to manipulate scans. Photoshop LE (free under various circumstances) lets you specify the printable size and dot density of a scanned image: and the scanning software lets you specify size and dot density before the scan is made. Repost saying what software you use (1) to scan, (2) to print. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) |
#4
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You can also get memory from eBay for $10-15 for 8MB but watch the shipping.
Chris wrote in message ... Hi, This printer was purchased in 1996 for $800, and having spent much of its life on a 486 running Win 3.11 has given great service. It prints an immaculate, perfectly clean copy with its 600dpi. The test page is beautiful. During this time it has printed word processing documents exclusively from this PC, and an occasional chart, which also prints well. Given its great service, I have moved the printer to my new PC running Windows XP. And it still prints text beautifully. However, this PC is connected to the web, and I feel let down by it in regard to the poor print image it puts out. Help! I recently bought a scanner, and images scanned print very poorly. Help! In fact, it wants to print at 300dpi all the time, and if I force it to go 600dpi the print image is only partially improved and generally spreads the print job over two pages, rather than one! I also note that the image quality (crispness of the image varies over the page). The manual tended to indicate that the problem might be a lack of memory, but I'm not sure. This printer is advertised on ebay for between $40 and $150. HP suppliers said memory chips will cost between $300-$500. (I can buy a new printer for less than that.) I rang the guy who repaired it for me. He recommended installing the latest driver from HP. I did that. But it didn't notice any change. Any advice would be appreciated. Ron |
#5
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The last point suggests your 8-year-old printer may be unable to print as you expect . . . But the main consideration is the software you use to manipulate scans. Photoshop LE (free under various circumstances) lets you specify the printable size and dot density of a scanned image: and the scanning software lets you specify size and dot density before the scan is made. Repost saying what software you use (1) to scan, (2) to print. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) The scanner is an HP and the software came with it. HP call it "HP Director" which manages the scanner and what you want to do with it, and "HP Image Zone" which allows some manipulation of scans. HP Director does let you select various settings, The image quality of stuff printed directly from the web also appears "out of focus". Text prints very well, and small imags are crisp. The lager ones have a fuzziness to them that annoys me. You would think that a printer that bosts 600dpi would be okay. And as I mentioned earlier, the test page is perfect. Ron |
#6
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wrote in message
... You would think that a printer that bosts 600dpi would be okay. And as I mentioned earlier, the test page is perfect. If the test page is OK then it must be a software problem. What printer driver are you using? As far as I know, HP only produced one updated driver for this printer (version B). My 5L is nearly 10 years old and still going strong. I recently put it on a home network, forcing me to change from the GDI driver to the PCL driver. I stuck in a 9MB memory card (cheap on eBay) and although it's a bit slower now the print quality is as good as ever. Mike |
#7
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