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From: U12570@uicvm.uic.edu (Ed Garay)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,comp.periphs.printers
Subject: Resolution enhancement technologies
Message-ID: <91120.110204U12570@uicvm.uic.edu>
Date: 30 Apr 91 16:02:04 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Lines: 60

On a 26 Apr 91 posting to comp.fonts, rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:
>...text deleted...
>
>It leads me to ask if there's any near-term promise of low-end printers
>with significantly better resolution--say 450 dpi or better, preferably
>more like 600?  I've been told that 400 dpi is just about the limit for
>current dry toners, and that a change in toner/technology is going to be
>expensive for the time being.  The past few years have seen 300 dpi getting
>cheaper by the day; it's really an incredible bargain any more.  But I
>haven't seen or heard any progress in pushing the resolution upward for
>low-end printers, other than HP's resolution enhancement.
 
I sure hope that printer manufacturers are taking a closer look
at the benefits of resolution enhancement technologies similar
to HP's RET. RET is one of the main reasons why the LaserJet III
family of printers is selling real well inspite of the saturated
and price-competitive laser printer market.
 
Also, for example, the LaserJet IIISi's RET combined with its microfine
toner, has definitely the best looking 300dpi print quality money can buy;
and the beauty of it is, that you get an effective resolution of more or
less 600dpi without having to deal with four times as many pixels per inch
as a true 600dpi resolution would require. And you don't have to run
to purchase or make new bitmapped fonts, nor rescan your images either!
RET works transparently.
 
Granted, HP is not licensing its RET technology to its competitors,
but there is at least one company, namely Destiny Technology Corp,
which has developed a similar technology to improve 300dpi image quality.
 
Destiny calls the technology used in its custom ASIC chip, Edge Enhancement
Technology (EET) -- it improves the appearance of 300dpi output to 400dpi.
While the smoothing algorithms employed in Destiny's EET differ from those
used in HP's RET, their effectiveness is essentially the same -- in some
cases, I have read, EET produces even better results that HP's RET.
 
The EET ASIC chip set can be easily integrated in printer controllers
and it is not expected to add more than $50 to the cost of a printer.
Destiny's EET ASICs have been shipping since the end of last year.
 
So, the question remains, which printer manufacturers are going to use
this Edge Enhancement Technology, or any other resolution enhancement
technology, for that matter? And how soon before we can buy 300dpi laser
printers with outstanding resolution like that of the HP LaserJet IIIs?
 
I should add, if I understand RET and EET correctly, that while they produce
a noticeable improvement in image quality for text and lineart, there is very
little or no gain in print quality for grayscale renditions.
 
In any case, I think that HP's Resolution Enhancement Technology is
wonderful, and I hope to see its impressive print quality matched by
other printer manufacturers. If you feel the same way also, I suggest
you let your favorite printer vendors know.
 
 
--- Ed Garay
    University of Illinois at Chicago, Computer Center
    Internet: u12570@uicvm.uic.edu     Bitnet: u12570@uicvm
 
P.S. -- HP has finally announced the new LaserJet IIIP (;-)