Oki 7300, 7500, 9300 and 9500 product evaluation reports now published in "Color at Work" - www.BERTL.com
Plus, feedback from Oki color customer
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Oki recently announced the launch of several new color LED printers, the Oki 7300, 7500, 9300 and 9500, all of which have been independently evaluated by BERTL analysts. Oki's new color printers range in speed from 20ppm color through to 37ppm black printing and are offered in a variety of configurations, each designed to provide levels of functionality geared to different customer requirements/environments.
Oki has been using single-pass color printing technology since the introduction of its Okicolor 8 in December 1999. At that time, most alternative color printers passed paper through the machine four times, applying one color per pass to create a complete four-color document. Since then, many manufacturers have switched to single-pass color as it generally speeds up the print process while reducing the potential for paper jams. With the introduction of Oki's 4 new LED printers, the company is now in its fourth generation of single-pass color printers.
According to Oki, the advantages of light emitting diode (LED) print technology includes higher reliability, because of the lack of moving parts and mirrors; a more direct optical path from paper in to printed document out; smaller dot size, leading to sharper resolution and a lower mechanical failure rate. Note : LED printers are generally offered at a lower price than color laser printers, due to potentially lower production costs.
While Oki, naturally, expresses considerabe enthusiasm over the benefits of LED technology, exponents of color laser printers claim that LED printing systems cannot reach the same sharpness of image as a laser printer. One physical difference is that an LED is a fixed array of diodes (in the case of Oki, 1200 x 600 dpi) whereas a laser beam can move to intersect other pixels. However, the fixed point of the LED mounting does mean it is not possible to distort a pixel due to hitting the image drum at an angle. While the debate rages over whether laser or LED is better, for many users, the base technology is not something they pay particular attention to or even understand, while for others laser versus LED simply boils down to personal preference.
BERTL's 12 page product evaluation reports are published in "Color at Work" and "LabCheck", services respectively, at www.BERTL.com.
BERTL analysts decided to take a closer look at Oki's new color LED printers, as well as Oki's corporate level fax products and have spent the last several months running evaluations across six Oki devices:.
Oki C7300
Oki C7300n
Oki C7300dxn
Oki C9500dxn
Oki C7500n
Oki C7500dxn
OkiFAX 5890
OkiFAX 5780
In addition to BERTL's own evaluations, BERTL has also received the following reported feedback from an Oki color user:
Over the past decade the fund raising activities of charities have reached new levels of professionalism, with many employing specialist agencies to attract contributions. United Christian Broadcasters is one of a middle tier of charities, providing Christian radio to its listeners. The charity has no sponsorship or advertising and relies on contributions from its 360,000 strong mailing list that receive regular newsletters and a quarterly publication, "The Word for Today." According to a spokesperson for the charity, the adoption of fast color printing using the Oki C7000 and C9000 Series digital LED printers has enabled the charity to bring much of its color printing in house, reducing costs and achieving new levels of professionalism in its fund raising activity.
Customer Demands High Quality Output
United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) was founded in 1985 by a small group of volunteers to bring Christian radio to the market. Prohibited by law from broadcasting terrestrially, alongside all political and religious broadcasters, the charity achieved its first station licence in 1993 and now broadcasts four stations via the Astra satellite.
Over that time the charity has grown from a small, volunteer organisation to a middle tier charity with 85 full and part time staff working alongside volunteers. With no sponsorship or advertising, fund raising is a major part of the charity's operation and is based solely on donations from the general public.
Phil Price, IT Manager at UCB explains, "We rely on donations and therefore need to have excellent communication with the public. This is achieved through monthly newsletters and the quarterly devotional booklet, The Word for Today, sent to our 360,000 strong mailing list." Publications are sent free - and disseminated free to many prisons and hospitals - with respondents asked to make a donation to the charity. The charity's dependence on this communication with the public means the quality of publications needs to be excellent.
Color Quality
Traditionally, UCB has relied heavily on the expertise of outside printers to produce both newsletters and magazines. However, during discussions with its office equipment dealer, GB Copiers, the charity saw material printed with an Oki color printer. As Price explains, "We were amazed at the quality of the material - it looked extremely professional." The charity was further impressed with the price of Oki's C7000 Series printers. He says, "We have to answer to the Charities Commission on the way we spend our money: we have to guarantee the best value for every pound we spend. Not only are the Oki printers extremely good value but they are also cost effective to run: the printers are so easy to use that we can replace components ourselves and have needed only one maintenance visit in 18 months."
In house Printing
The charity is reported as now doing all its design work in house, using external printers only for the 500,000 print run for "The Word for Today." Page proofs are printed on the Oki C7000 machine and reviewed internally - often numbering up to 20 versions. In the past, these proofs would have been created by printers and couriered too and from UCB's Stoke on Trent offices.
Price says, "In addition to saving time and money on the proof process, the quality of the Oki printing has made us more discerning customers. Indeed, the printer's final proof is judged against the quality of our Oki printed pages"."Proofs for the monthly newsletter and chief executive's letter, which is distributed to the majority of the mailing list, are also created in house and printed on the C7000. "In addition to the color printing, we also print large volume black and white prayer leaflets documents on the C7000 because it is quick and cost effective," he says. The charity has recently purchased an Oki C9000 Series printer, which handles A3 printing as well as a myriad of paper types. In addition to enabling the creation of full-page proofs, UCB is using the printer to create materials for exhibitions, including banners. "In the past this would have been printed externally. The adoption of Oki color printers has opened a door into a world we didn't anticipate when we originally purchased the first printer," says Price. He concludes, "We estimate savings of around 30% from the investment in the Oki printers. But more importantly it has increased the professionalism of UCB which is essential for a charity of this size."
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