| When purchasing printers or multifunction copiers | | | | moving the paper under the fixed printhead, and |
| for an office, trade-offs are typically made. Is the | | | | an ink system that can adapt to different |
| speed appropriate for a workgroup or a | | | | requirements. The new ink contains colorants that |
| department? Is color or monochrome output | | | | immobilize rapidly on the paper to ensure |
| sufficient? If color, would ink technology or the | | | | consistent dot size, high color saturation, and high |
| faster laser technology be better? | | | | optical density. Prints dry rapidly at 70+ |
| Typically, if color output is needed, the user must | | | | pages-per-minute, resist smear (even from a |
| decide between the photo quality of an ink | | | | highlighter) and are water resistant. |
| technology or the slightly more grainy output of a | | | | Will the quality be good? |
| color laser. Of course, the color laser can print | | | | Edgeline technology also includes intelligent and |
| much faster than the ink technology so that is | | | | self-calibrating writing systems to deliver |
| also a factor. If a large volume of output is | | | | consistent image quality. The printheads are |
| necessary, the user must choose a color laser | | | | designed to print at 1200dpi. This equals the best |
| because ink printing is just too slow and ink | | | | native resolutions of current products. The |
| machines are not built to handle volumes of paper. | | | | printheads also know when a specific nozzle is |
| In many cases however, laser printing is more | | | | acting up and it's duties can be passed to an |
| costly to print (per page) than ink technology. | | | | adjacent nozzle. There will also be a 2-pass option |
| Edgeline technology from Hewlett Packard | | | | for further increasing print quality. |
| promises to deliver the best of both ink and laser | | | | Will it be more expensive? |
| technologies. It will bring low machine cost, low | | | | Pricing has not been released as of the date of |
| operating costs, fast print speeds and photo | | | | this writing, but the base technology is already in |
| quality output. | | | | use and HP is promising best-in-class operating |
| What is Edgeline? | | | | costs as well as reliability, quality and speed. The |
| Edgeline is the result of 4 years and 1.4 billion | | | | machine itself should not cost more than current |
| dollars of research and development by Hewlett | | | | color laser MFPs due to the much simpler |
| Packard. What they created was a patented | | | | mechanics. There will be no high voltage power |
| process to economically manufacture an inkjet | | | | supply, laser scanner mechanisms, transfer belts, |
| printhead that spans the entire width of a printed | | | | or fuser assemblies. And those are just the major |
| page. This means that during printing, only the | | | | components. In fact, the machine will only need to |
| paper moves not the printhead. Combined with | | | | move paper passed the printheads. This is much |
| new ink formulations, the speed of the printer can | | | | simpler than any current design. |
| be increased to 71 pages per minute with | | | | When will it arrive? |
| outstanding image quality. The printheads are very | | | | Multifunction devices utilizing this technology are |
| reliable, designed to last for 2 million printed pages | | | | expected to be shipping during the second quarter |
| or the useful life of the machine itself. | | | | of 2007. Because of all its advantages, it is very |
| Three Key Elements | | | | likely that you will see this technology in an office |
| The three main features of this system are a | | | | near you before the end of this year. |
| printhead that spans the entire printed page, | | | | |