Since many color laser printers were originally made for corporate offices and traditional copier use, we have used some innovative tests to figure out the true potential of color laser in being able to handle the greater demands of color artwork. Since the color laser printer user manual lists only papers suitable for office use, we had to start from scratch to figure out what papers would be best for artistic images.

Art looks rather attractive on Weyerhaeuser paper. The 94 brightness level of this particular paper helps. Paper provided courtesy of Mac Papers. This is a scan of the actual paper print. We did not cheat by showing you the Photoshop file. By the time we reduced the letter-size print down, then JPEG it for the Internet, it has lost about 30% of its original quality.So if you find this Web image nice, then you would really like the real original on paper, which has the full 100% color and quality. Not bad for color laser technology of 1998.Best advantage is that you can do it on regular paper. You do not have to buy expensive ink jet paper because this is a laser printer. It costs almost $1 a page for ink jet photo quality paper, but this paper is about one penny a page for laser technology.Even better, it does not fade. Would you want to trust your precious art prints to ordinary xerographic paper?

It is hard to escape being a college professor, so I get rather excited about the potential of color laser technology. The professor of For the World Religions course at BCC, Dr Lin Osborne uses his own Lexmark color laser printer to create workbooks for his students. He outputs 20,000 pages a month. The students enjoy the colorful workbooks. Sure beats dull reprints. Dr Osborne started off with two Epson ink jet printers. They were too slow, ate up too much ink, and he junked them about the same semester that I junked my Epson ink jet printers as well. Epson ads promise heaven on earth but their printers are only cheap so that they can snare you into buying their overpriced ink. Color laser technology means that any instructor can now prepare workbooks and reference material for their students in full color, at a cost even the students can afford. A single cartridge of Lexmark toner lasts about 3,400 copies with full-sized photographs in full color.

Today even better color laser printers are available, such as from QMS, Tally and Tektronix (be sure to avoid color printers with solid ink process "melted wax crayons."). After two years with our Lexmark color laser (all the results pictured here) we upgraded to the far better quality offered by the Tally T8204 color laser printer (exhibit quality color output).It is difficult for someone who has never seen a "rollout photograph" to conceptualize what this really means. We show actual production and the technology on another web site, www.digital-photography.org. But here we have prepared a brochure for school kids, with the before and after views of the cylindrical Maya vases.These particular vases are in the village archaeology museum of Copan Ruinas, Honduras, Central America, photographed with the permission of IHAH and assisted by Prof Oscar Cruz and the staff of IHAH in the village.These are digital rollouts done with a Better Light adaptation of a Dicomed Field Pro 4x5 inch format digital camera.

The entire purpose of this web site is to investigate digital imaging technology and see how it can be applied to improving academic excellence. Our samples happen to be in archaeology, anthropology, and art history, but are equally applicable in zoology, botany, and geology. The pre-Columbian people of Guatemala worshiped venomous snakes, as pictured here to beautifully. Art historians need access to information on tropical flora and fauna in order to understand pre Hispanic deities and religion. This vase is from the 8th to 10th centuries A.D., Late Classic Tiquisate culture area of the Costa Sur of Guatemala (Dept. of Escuintla), and is preserved in the Museo Popol Vuh, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Guatemala City. For more information on papers for color laser printers be sure to check out www.laser-printer-reviews.org.

Do you need help in deciding what color laser printer to buy? Our staff has spent two years reseaching color laser printers at trade shows in Germany and in the USA. Just send us an e-mail and Nicholas Hellmuth (review editor, ReaderService@FLAAR.org) will do his best to answer you personally within 72 hours.Realize that our expertise is in high-quality printers for producing photo-realistic output (not cheap printers to do simple correspondence). Be sure to tell us what your budget is (no, we do not sell printers, which is why our reviews are independent), but the only way we can judge if your expectactions of quality are realistic is if you understand that the professional quality laser printers are not sold at CompUSA or Walmart. You can mention what other laser printers you were considering.We have inspected output from most of the leading printers. Reviews in magazines don't always help because magazine writers test the printers for only a few days. FLAAR tests a printer for up to two years (after all, you want your printer to last more than 30 days). We know people inside the leading laser printer companies where you can get factual information in person so we can forward your requests for information to a source of additional help in your quest for the most cost-effective high-quality color laser printer.

Museums, research institutes, university departments, and thousands of small offices need to be realistic in their printing budgets. Whereas a cheap ink jet printer is very tempting, because they are practically free, consider the long term costs. A color laser will last for years, both the technology and the actual machine. How long will a cheap ink jet really last? If you do not mind your color prints fading in a few weeks, then ink jet is fine. We also have dye sub prints that are four years old and still have exhibit quality color. Since color laser technology is new, no one has lived long enough to see a color laser fade to nothingness yet!