What paper is best for printing a very fine resolution test chart on a 1200 dpi laser printer?
Asked 10/27/2021
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I want to print a very small test target to evaluate camera and lens resolution. My printer is an HP laser printer rated at 1200 dpi, and I’m trying to understand whether paper choice matters for this use.
Should I look for a specific type of paper to preserve very fine line detail? Would glossy paper help, or is standard office paper already the limiting factor? I’m mainly concerned that the toner or paper surface may prevent the printer from reproducing the line spacing accurately enough for a meaningful test chart.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
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Typically, finely printed details are created with photo lithography. The source image is created at a larger scale than the final image to reduce the effects of mechanical tolerances. The larger image is then optically reduced to the smaller final size.
In the extreme this is how silicon wafers are turned into semiconductor chips.
For a photographic test chart, the simplest method would be to use film to photograph an oversized original source image, and then to use traditional darkroom printing on a polyester paper to produce the test image at the desired size.
This would allow precision down to the fineness of silver crystals at the photographic and printing steps.
Ordinary computer system printing simply is not designed to that level of accuracy.
The 1200 dpi of a laser printer does not provide 1200 line pairs per inch. It is designed to provide high quality output at a nominal 300 or 600 dpi by filling in the spaces between dots.
Films designed for microfilm work are still available. That would be a good base material for high precision work.
Of course the requirements may be over specified. In that case, it is probably best to empirically test available papers and printers to see what best fits the job because paper is a highly variable material at small scales.
In addition, Mylar or other plastic media might be a better substrate for test images due to higher dimensional stability with changes to temperature and humidity. Again, testing is warranted if such things matter.
Originally by user95237. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user95237
4y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For this purpose, paper choice is not the main limitation. A 1200 dpi laser printer is generally not accurate enough to produce a truly precise micro-resolution test chart, regardless of whether you use standard or glossy paper.
Community guidance suggests that very fine test targets are typically made by photolithographic or photographic reduction methods: create the chart at a larger size, then reduce it optically to the final size. Traditional film/darkroom methods on stable photographic material are far better suited to this than ordinary computer printing.
So while smoother, better-coated paper may look cleaner than plain office paper, it won’t turn a laser printer into a precision chart-making device. If you need a meaningful high-resolution target, the better approach is to use a professionally made test chart or create an oversized original and reduce it photographically.
In short: don’t expect paper type alone to make a 1200 dpi laser print suitable for fine lens-resolution testing.
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