 | | Inkjet Printers vs. Laser PrintersAs a rule of thumb,laser printers produce crisp, speedy text documents and decent images, whileinkjet printers produce top-quality, long-lasting photos and not-so-crisp text, all at an uncomfortably-slow pace.
Inkjet printers are best if printing high-quality photos are much more important that high-quality text and graphics and if speed is not an issue for you. Their major selling point is their superior color accuracy and print resolution for vivid photos, so this does add time to printing each page. They are also best if you have light printing needs and are more concerned with the cost upfront since replacing the ink cartridges can get pricey if you start to print a lot, but you can often find a good inkjet printer for under $100 or $200.
Laser printers are best if high-quality text documents are more important than high-resolution photos and that speed is essential. Laser printers major selling point is their ability to quickly print crisp documents at a very low cost per page. Color laser printers major selling point is their ability to print documents with a mix of text, graphics and photos at a fast speed, but they do run a bit more expensive because they can "do it all." Overall, laser printers and color laser printers cost much less to maintain and operate and have a lower cost over the printers lifetime, but have a higher price-tag initially.
Its worth explaining in detail the huge difference in the cost of ownership of the two types of printers. An inkjet printer costs a lot less initially but its cost per page is much higher than a laser printers cost per page. In fact, companies practically give away inkjet printers because the profit for most manufacturers is in the ink cartridges, or consumables as they call them. On the other hand, a laser printer costs a lot more initially, but over time itstoner will cost much less per page. For example, lets say you print 5000 pages in two months. You would have to replace the inkjets ink cartridges about 25 times compared with the two times you would have to replace the laser printers toner cartridge. The cost of the inkjet ink cartridges would almost double the cost of the laser toner cartridges. If you print a couple hundred pages per month or a thousand pages per month, laser printers are more cost effective overall.
Conclusively, if your business output volume is moderate to heavy, your best bet is to go with a laser printer due to the laser printers total cost of ownership. If you print very infrequently, whether its for personal use or for your small office, then an inkjet printer would be more cost effective. At the end of the day, the types of documents you need to print may determine what printer, or printers, you select. If youre printing mainly photos and documents for personal use, such as directions in which you dont care about the quality, then you should get an inkjet printer. If you print a lot of text documents and are cost conscience, then a budget monochrome laser printer would be your best fit. Finally, if you print a moderate volume of text, graphics, and mixed documents, then a color laser printer would definitely best suit your needs and would be a good investment.
HP printers are great in both the inkjet printers and laser printers categories. Epson printers, Canon printers, and Kodak printers are very popular for inkjet and photo printers. Brother printers, Xerox printers, HP printers and Samsung printers are best in class for laser printers with Xerox probably the best in class for color laser printers for businesses. So figure out your printing needs and do your research and you will find the right printer for your needs at the right price. |
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| Photomatix Pro
by HDRsoft |  | HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo processing
Platform: Windows, Mac
Media: CD-ROM
| Product Features:- Creation HDR images
- Tone Mapping
- Exposure Fusion
- Automatic alignment hand-held photos
- Reduction of noise and chromatic aberrations in HDR images
| About the Product:
If you have ever photographed a high contrast scene, you know that even the best exposure will typically have blown out highlights and flat shadows.
Photomatix offers two ways to solve this problem:
- HDR Tone Mapping: Reveal highlight and shadow details in an HDR image created from multiple exposures.
- Exposure Fusion: Merge differently exposed photographs into one image with increased dynamic range.
Photomatix Pro is a stand-alone program that creates and processes HDR (High Dynamic Range) images, and runs on Mac OS X and Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista. Some of the features of Photomatix Pro are also available as a Filter plug-in of Photoshop CS2/CS3/CS4 and an Edit plug-in of Aperture 2.1. | Benefits for Professional Photographers:
- Save on Lighting Equipment
No need to acquire expensive lighting equipment -and carry it- when you shoot high contrast scenes. Just enable the Auto Exposure Bracketing feature of your camera, and let Photomatix merge your photos into an image with extended dynamic range.
- Great Cloudy Day Pictures
Shadowless hazy sunlight or an overcast sky usually results in dull-looking photographs. The tone mapping tool of Photomatix Pro can turn them into great-looking images.
- Saving Time in Post-Processing
Photomatix Pro is designed for productivity -- automatic blending, unlimited stacking, easy comparison of results and batch processing save hours of masking and layers work in image editing programs.
- Well-Exposed Panoramas
A panoramic scene is almost always a high contrast scene -- you can't limit your view to areas with the same brightness when shooting a 360° panorama. By taking views under several exposures and processing them in Photomatix Pro, you can create a panorama that will show details in both the dark and bright areas of the scene. Photomatix Pro offers both exposure blending (also knows as exposure fusion) and HDR tone mapping.
| About the Developer:
HDRsoft develops innovative software in the field of High Dynamic Range imaging for photography.
The first version of its HDR software Photomatix was released in February 2003 as the result of a research project started in July 2002. The project was awarded a grant from the French Ministry of Research, as laureate of the national contest 2003 organized by ANVAR (National Agency for the Valuation of Research).
The company is owned and controlled by its two founding members, one of them being a professional photographer with over 25 years' experience. HDRsoft was previously known as MultimediaPhoto (the company changed its name in December 2006). |
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