Xerox Phaser 7800 - Max Resolution

Hi all,
Quick one-
We own a Phaser 7800 - Max resolution is spec'd at 1200x2400.
I'm on a Windows 8 machine. When I click into the printer properties in Control Panel it states 'max resolution: 600DPI' .
The print dialogue in Photoshop says the same thing, 'max resolution: 600DPI'.
When I questioned Xerox about it, the guy on the phone said something along the lines of "any resolution increase above 600DPI is handled within the printer itself and the software wouldn't recognize it" or something like that.
The PS Driver for the printer only has two quality options - Standard and Enhanced.
I set it to enhanced by default, but I'm still very unhappy with the print quality of certain things. I just want to make sure that there isn't a hidden setting or something that I need to turn on, or that Xerox hasn't bent the truth regarding the actual capabilities of the printer.
Thanks in advance for your input.

 

I believe with this printer the 1200 x 2400 is 1-bit resolution. (dots of solid C M Y or K.) Your photoshop or print resolution to the driver are 600 dots (pixels) each with an RGB or CMYK value (meaning each of those dots may contain CMY and K in some mix that will take the printer several dots of toner to create.)
Thus there probably is no advantage to sending a higher resolution color or grayscale image to the printer (grayscale meaning each of the 600 ppi dots is a value from 0 to 256 of black... where it takes the printer several black dots to get that gray value).
It's too bad it doesn't allow you to send pure black and white line art as 1200 or 2400 dpi though as it would seem there would be a slight advantage to sending higher resolution line art. Probably not enough people print something containing pure black to make it worthwhile to write the driver for this.

 

I found this PDF regarding your question - see if it is helpful to you - http://www.office.xerox.com/latest/78XBR-01.PDF ...goodluck.

 

Hi PolkaDot,

Xfactor is correct but just to make it a bit easier to understand these are what the resolution settings relate to:

Standard: 1200x600x1-bit
Enhanced: 1200x2400x1-bit
Photo Mode: 600x600x8-bit

So if you select the top resolution then your machine is set to 600dpi.

Manufacturers often quote the highest DPI even if that's not the resolution used in the highest resolution setting. They are really misleading because without knowing the bit depth you only get half the 'picture'.

For instance, the OKI ES9431 has a highest resolution of 1200x1200x4-bit so what's best? Best thing to do is get the reseller to provide you with a load of samples prior to purchase, maybe do a demo of your own work and decide for yourself.

The Phaser 7800 is a great choice although for new customers going onto their PagePack solution you now pay for 2 clicks above A4 (i.e. it's double the cost)! Same is true if you switch to a new PagePack provider so just be careful and hope your current provider doesn't hike their pricing.

When you come to renew the machine, definitely consider the ES9431 because it's a single-click for all media sizes and handles card far better than the Xerox.

Cheers

Nick