There are many color laser printers available at low prices nowadays. Some are older versions selling for less than they did originally, while others are small and only one year old. Now each small firm can have a high-volume printer other than an inkjet, because each seller has a stock of color laser printers at a price good enough for a single user workplace, not to mention one with multiple employees.
A fast laser printer will let you crank out lots of black and white pages. A good inkjet properly used can produce high-quality photographic images. For some of the best of each, the Phaser 8400 uses solid-ink technology to quickly deliver rich, even color. And with PostScript compatibility and color-tweaking, you get performance unmatched by an entry-level color laser printer.
The Phaser 8400 printer is known as a phase-change or a wax-jet printer. Its ink appears to be halfway between that of a laser printer and an ink-jet printer, or that used by offset printing presses. The four colors of ink come in small waxy cubes. To be more precise, the yellow, cyan, black, and magenta inks each come in slightly different shapes. They are inserted into the printer like a toddler's toys, each one into its own slot beneath the hood of the printer.
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Xerox Phaser 8400 is revolutionary. You no longer need complicated software or an over-used front panel LCD to tell you when the ink is low. By simply opening the front of the printer, you can see how much ink has been used directly. More importantly, you can add ink at any time without having to unload or reprogram. Simply drop a new block in the slot.
Phaser 8400 ink is friendly to the environment because there are no waste tanks or consumable cartridges to discard. Instead, a single plug-in imaging-drum lubricator or plug-in maintenance kit supplies all the ink that the printer will use for 10,000 to 30,000 pages. There is also a waste tray that needs to be occasionally emptied and replaced.
The short crayons melt within the printer, and the ink flows into a reservoir. The Xerox Phaser has a signifcant environmental impact because it draws up to 1500 watts, but Xerox says it averages less than 300 watts. A 600 by 600 dpi print head with 1236 nozzles sprays the ink onto a turning, warmed drum that transfer the ink to the paper in a sinle pass, compared to the four separate passes more cheap color lasers require.
The ink almost instantly solidifies again on the page, with no inkjet-style seeping or blotting on plain paper, and won't smear if swiped by a damp finger though it can scratch off if rubbed with a fingernail. The result is output that almost looks damp when it's dry. Solid-color areas appear practically painted on, with rich, glossy hues and absolutely none of the banding that plagues inkjets and, to a lesser extent, laser printers.
