Evaluating color laser printers 19
Evaluation
This section offers guidelines for conducting your own printer performance evaluation. It is
important to test files like those that are printed in your workplace. Most print samples included
with a printer have been optimized for that printer and may not reflect the type of output you will
receive.
When evaluating printer performance, test a group of sample documents that represent what the
end-user will print on the printer. Your samples should include multiple documents and file types,
each created in the applications that will be used by the end-user. You might want to use the print
samples that you created for evaluating print quality (see “Creating samples“ on page 15).
Evaluation guidelines
Before you print the sample documents, make sure that your test environment simulates the end-
user’s and that you make a fair comparison between printers. Follow the guidelines below:
Measure how a printer will perform from the end-user’s perspective.
• Print from computer systems that closely match the typical end-user’s machine.
• Test multiple media sizes and types.
• Test print features (handout printing, booklets, duplexing, etc.).
• Test and compare default settings. (What settings will end-users use most often?)
When evaluating more than one printer’s performance, it is crucial that you make a fair
comparison between printers.
• Print the same files on all printers, using the same or equivalent print mode settings.
• Use more than one software application to make sure software/driver conflicts are not
affecting print quality.
• Use the same type of paper for each test.
• Use the same operating system, software application, printer language, and manufacturer’s
print driver to test all printers. (Each of these components interacts with the printing process
and can affect print performance.)
• If printers are networked, use the same client and isolated or controlled network to provide a
controlled and repeatable environment. Network traffic can affect performance; therefore,
when comparing relative performance of printers, an isolated network should be used so that
network traffic is the same when testing all printers. You can use a sniffer on your network to
record the amount of network traffic being generated. To make a valid comparison, be sure
that the amount of traffic on the network is consistent when testing each printer.
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