Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

Jason K. Krause

Tektronix is promoting the Phaser 380 solid-ink printer as a way for design departments and offices without a color laser to produce full-color, 11- by 17-inch bleeds for proofing and quick checks of creative concepts. Solid-ink technology is similar to the technology used in laser printers but has fewer consumables, uses four waxy blocks of ink instead of electrostatic toners, and offers vivid colors, good color-matching capabilities, and a low per-page printing cost for a color printer. But if the Phaser 380 has the speed and color capabilities of a laser, why isn't it ready to do more than proofing?

The main answer is resolution. Some inexpensive ink-jet printers can match the resolution of the Phaser 380. Another issue is that the Phaser 380's text-grap hics printing (e.g., calligraphy and logos) is poor, with the letters looking blurred and smudged. Also, one odd propert y of solid ink is that you can smear and scrape the ink right off the page with a fingernail, which undermines the durability of a print.

What this solid-ink printer does offer is rich color and pretty good speed, especially when printing 11-by-17 full-color bleeds. The Phaser 380 printed an 11-by-17 PostScript file in less than 1-1/2 minutes. But the printer's limitations became apparent when I ran the same PostScript image on the Phaser 380 and on a Xerox Majestik 5765 color laser printer. The laser printer captured levels of detail that the Phaser 380 simply could not produce.

For $7995, the Phaser 380, with its rich color, good speed, and wide-format capabilities, is a versatile printing option -- if it's not ready to be your go-to-production printer.

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Where to Find

Phaser 38
0.............................$7995

Tektronix, Inc.
Wilsonville, OR
Phone:    503-682-7377
Internet: 
http://www.tek.com/color_printers/

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Set Your Phasers to 380

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