TEST OF CONSUMER INKJET PHOTO PRINT SPEED

Transcription

1 TEST OF CONSUMER INKJET PHOTO PRINT SPEED By For The Eastman Kodak Company August

2 Summary The Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak) requested a comparison of the photo printing speed of various consumer inkjet printers. There is no ISO standard for measuring the speed of printers when printing photo images. Accordingly Torrey Pines Research (TPR) developed a methodology in order to provide a comparison of print speed for digital photographic images that can be helpful to consumers hoping to compare actual photo printing performance. Using this methodology TPR compared the speed for printing a single 4 x 6 photo image on each printer using standard software, current printer drivers, OEM ink and recommended media. The results are in the Table below. Printer Name Media Time for 1 st print (sec)* Print Speed (sec)* Kodak ESP 9250 Ultra Premium Photo Paper Studio Gloss Kodak hero 7.1 Ultra Premium Photo Paper Studio Gloss Kodak Hero 5.1 Ultra Premium Photo Paper Studio Gloss Canon Pixma MG6120 Photo Paper Plus Glossy II Canon Pixma MX882 Photo Paper Plus Glossy II HP OfficeJet 6500A Advanced Photo Paper HP Photosmart B210A Advanced Photo Paper HP DeskJet 1055 Advanced Photo Paper HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Advanced Photo Paper HP DeskJet 3050 Advanced Photo Paper HP OfficeJet 6700 Premium Advanced Photo Paper Lexmark Prevail Pro 705 PerfectFinish Photo Paper HP OfficeJet 8500A Advanced Photo Paper HP Photosmart Premium Advanced Photo Paper Epson Artisan 800 Premium Photo Paper Glossy Brother MFC 5490 Premium Glossy Photo Paper Canon Pixma MG5120 Photo Paper Plus Glossy II Canon Pixma MP250 Photo Paper Plus Glossy II Canon MG4120 Photo Paper Plus Glossy ll Lexmark X7675 PerfectFinish Photo Paper HP OfficeJet J4680 Advanced Photo Paper Epson Stylus SX535WD Premium Photo Paper Glossy Epson WorkForce 635 Premium Photo Paper Glossy Brother MFC-J410W Premium Glossy Photo Paper

3 * Manufacturers recommended photo mode for achieving optimum photo quality output. The Kodak hero 5.1, 7.1 and the Kodak ESP 9250 were the fastest printers for mean print speed and were also fastest for first print out. Other printers in the test ranged from 20% slower in mean print speed to more than 4 times as slow. Background Currently there is no ISO standard for measuring the speed of printers when printing photo images. ISO 24734:2009 was issued as a methodology for measuring the digital printing productivity of office equipment. Documents to be printed using this methodology include text based Word files, Excel files and Acrobat files. The included test files have very low area coverage of ink/toner compared to most photographic images, and the resulting speed tests are not representative for most photo printers, especially inkjet printers. TPR has developed a methodology in order to provide a comparison of print speed for digital photographic images that can be helpful to consumers hoping to compare actual photo printing performance. Wherever appropriate, TPR has incorporated methodologies and procedures defined in ISO 24734:2009. The well-known click-to-clunk metric takes on new meaning when photo images are being printed. The click-to-clunk time for text and low coverage graphics files is relatively independent of the host system, but for photo images there can be a dependency on the host system performance and capacity and also the efficiency of the included printer driver software. The typical consumer 3.5MB and smaller images are not likely to tax host systems and drivers as much as the images created by typical prosumers. An additional issue that might be problematic when printing a large number of graphic intensive images in sequence is the potential for the printer to pause. Inkjet printers may pause for maintenance and laser printers for cooling. The photo print test needs to avoid this possibility since it will distort the typical user single print speed. For these reasons, TPR defined a consumer test intended to represent a level of performance comparison that is similar to the user experience. The test results are presented in a relative ranking of graphic processing times and a speed in seconds for print time. An additional test using much larger image files and known as the prosumer test was also defined and is intended to stress the speed performance with larger image files. This test is not the subject of this report. 3

4 Methodology 1. Test Images A set of four photo images is used as follows: These files are in lossy.jpg format and the file sizes are less than 750Kbytes. For the purposes of the test, these images are loaded onto a local hard drive. 2. Test Conditions Photo speed tests are run in a median environment with temperatures in the range 20ºC to 25ºC and humidity in the range 40%RH to 60%RH. 3. Test Equipment Printers and supplies were purchased in retail distribution. Printers were set up per manufacturers instruction prior to the start of the test. All printers were connected to the host PC via USB connection. Photo print speed tests are specified for 4 x6 prints. If the printer includes a 4x6 tray, this tray was used for printing. If the printer did not have such tray, then the main media tray was used for all printing. Sufficient media for printing a measured test set was loaded into the tray prior to the start of a measured test. TPR used a host PC that it considers current for consumer use. As of May 1, 2011, this host uses an Intel Celeron E330 at 2.5GHz with the Windows 7 operating system. Each printer was connected to this host and the driver installed from the manufacturer supplied disk. Drivers were updated to current status. 4. Test Supplies Print cartridges were purchased through retail channels unless otherwise specified.. Media was best photo OEM media, purchased through retail. 4

5 5. Test Software All of the application software required for the print test was installed on the host PC. For the consumer tests the image software used was Google Picasa The operating system and all application software to be used in the speed test were updated per manufacturer recommendations. The host PC included commercial antivirus software. 6. Test Method For each printer the printer driver was installed and updated per manufacturer specification. A new set of print cartridges was installed and any manufacturer specified alignment and/or cleaning procedures were completed prior to the start of the measured test. Consumer Photo Print Speed Test Warm-up Print With the printer connected to the host and the current driver installed, the operator opened Google Picasa. The operator selected one of the photo images from the Consumer Group and printed the image in 4x6 format using the following driver settings: Photo setting, if more than one photo setting was available the best photo setting was selected Borderless photo (if this is not the default photo setting) Dedicated 4 x 6 tray, if no 4x6 tray was available print from main tray Media setting for loaded media size, thickness, type Defaults for all other settings Operator selected single print in the software and printed the warm-up print. Speed Test Within one minute of the first print being printed, the operator selected all four of the photo images from the Consumer Group and printed the images in 4x6 format using the same driver settings. T0 is time when the operator selected the Print option to print all four images. T1 is when the first print stopped moving in the output tray of the printer T2 is when the fourth or final print stopped moving in the output tray of the printer Within one minute of the first set of prints being printed, the operator re-selected all four of the photo images from the Consumer Group and again printed the images in 4x6 format using the same driver settings. T3 is when the first print stopped moving in the output tray of the printer 5

6 T4 is when the fourth or final print stopped moving in the output tray of the printer Within one minute of the second set of prints being printed, the operator selected all four of the photo images from the Consumer Group and again printed the images in 4x6 format using the same driver settings. T5 is when the first print stopped moving in the output tray of the printer T6 is when the fourth or final print stopped moving in the output tray of the printer Two speed performance numbers were calculated as follows: T1 T0 = Print time including processing time for 1 print [(T2-T1) + (T4-T3) + (T6-T5)]/9 = Consumer Photo Print Speed in seconds 6

7 Results Reporting of results for tests conducted in accordance with the TPR photo print speed methodology list the printers and media that were used, and references the TPR test method. This test was conducted in accordance with TPR Photo Print Speed for Consumer Prints, Release 1.4. The printer data for the tested machines is as follows: Printer Name Driver Version Driver Date Borderless Brother MFC /20/09 yes Brother MFC-J410W /05/10 yes Canon MG /26/11 yes Canon Pixma MG /07/10 yes Canon Pixma MG /07/10 yes Canon Pixma MP /31/09 yes Canon Pixma MX /18/10 yes Epson Artisan /26/09 yes Epson Stylus SX535WD /03/11 yes Epson WorkForce No date yes HP DeskJet /06/10 No HP DeskJet /04/10 No HP OfficeJet 6500A /26/10 yes HP OfficeJet 6700 Premium /12/09 yes HP OfficeJet 8500A /26/10 yes HP OfficeJet J /01/08 yes HP OfficeJet Pro /12/09 yes HP Photosmart B210A /06/10 No HP Photosmart Premium /14/09 yes Kodak ESP /02/11 yes Kodak Hero /25/12 yes Kodak Hero /30/11 yes Lexmark Prevail Pro /06/09 yes Lexmark X /15/08 yes Timed results were rounded up to the nearest second. When rounding, all results were rounded in the same direction. Calculated print speeds as well as time to first print are provided without rounding. The speed results are as follows: 7

8 Printer Name T1 (sec) T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 Time 1 st print Print Speed Kodak ESP Kodak Hero Kodak Hero Kodak Hero Canon Pixma MG Canon Pixma MX HP OfficeJet 6500A HP Photosmart B210A HP DeskJet HP OfficeJet Pro HP DeskJet HP OfficeJet 6700 Premium Lexmark Prevail Pro HP OfficeJet 8500A HP Photosmart Premium Epson Artisan Brother MFC Canon Pixma MG Canon Pixma MP Canon MG Lexmark X HP OfficeJet J Epson Stylus SX535WD Epson WorkForce Brother MFC-J410W