print resolution and ink usage

[lighthunter]

hi
first of all i want to know what resolutions can we print with canon ipf6350
2nd
assume for the same paper and printing conditions
if we print a photo @600x600 dpi & the same photo @1200x1200dpi
will the second one consumes ((1200x1200)/(600x600))=4 times the ink for the first one ?!
     

[ronkruger]

Generally the higher the dpi the more ink it will use, but I don't think doubling the dpi doubles the ink volume, especially when you get into the higher dpi settings you mention. I would guess from experience, the difference would be more like 1/3 more or 1/4 more. Maybe even less. Big difference between 72 dpi and 300 dpi. No where near as much difference between 300 dpi and 600 dpi, presuming you are setting your printer on the highest quality setting for all dpi settings. I think it is controlled more by the printer settings than the dpi of the file used.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

hi
first of all i want to know what resolutions can we print with canon ipf6350
2nd
assume for the same paper and printing conditions
if we print a photo @600x600 dpi & the same photo @1200x1200dpi
will the second one consumes ((1200x1200)/(600x600))=4 times the ink for the first one ?!

Usually, the printer will use it's native resolution of 600 PPI (pixels, RGB image data) in both cases. The 1200 DPI (dots, ink droplet positioning accuracy) is internally calculated by the printer driver+firmware to blend intermediate ink colors. So in this particular case it will not make a difference.

For lower resolution settings (e.g. because of using non-gllossy media) the printer may default to 300 PPI internally, yet use 600-1200 DPI for intermediate color blending and smooth gradient transitions. Because the higher DPI blending probably uses more inks (but less of all different individual inks), some inks will be used more, others less. At the end of the day image brightness needs to be transferred to paper brightness, so a certain amount of ink is needed to build that density. Therefore the printer has a choice of laying down more density with a coarser dithering pattern, or less ink with a somewhat finer dithering pattern, but the desired density (with more or slightly less color accuracy) will have to be generated somehow. So I'd expect slightly more overall ink usage with a potentially higher D-max at the highest PPI setting, but I don't expect huge differences in total ink volume (mainly differences per color).

Printing applications like Qimage (Windows, or Mac with e.g. Parallels) will report which PPI settings the printer actually uses for certain media and quality settings, because the printer driver will give that feedback when interrogated by the software.

Cheers,
Bart

[hsmeets]

The Canon iPF range offers you in the driver software a choice of 300 or 600ppi.

The printhead itself is 1200x2400dpi but that is needed to dither. Roughly said/explained: it creates a 2 by 4 rectangle of single ink drops of different colors to create the 600ppi pixel of the file you send. aside the ppi setting you can also choose a quality setting, that setting will determine how often the print head passes over the same rectangle of 2 by 4 ink dots and places more ink drops onto the same rectangle. The more passes the better the pixel color and density of the file can be created on paper.

The choosen ppi 300 or 600dpi does not influences the ink usage, ink usage is a function of the number of passes of the printhead. More passes->more accurate color rendition, better D-max, also more ink (but not liniear) and slower printing.