Brother laser printer aparently not good enough to print e-Reader dot codes. What do you guys suggest?

[CZroe]

OK, so I followed the news from Slashdot and printed out a test strip. First thing I noticed was that it was longer than a card's dot code and the paper would have to be trimmed to pass through the slot correctly (Trimmed PERFECTLY STRAIGHT I'd imagine). Also, I could clearly see that the dots were not clearly defined as they should be, but instead they seem to "melt" together at many places. I don't think the code is readable.Edit: Strangely, it is. Reed Solomon error correction must work wonders. Still, I'd like to find a laser printer with enough resolution that it can print actual squares where there is supposed to be a dot.

I'm using a 300x300 dpi Edit: Actually, "True 600x600DPI" according to the specs. Installed drivers but it doesn't print any code at 600DPI Brother laser printer which rolls the paper into some strange contortion that couldn't possibly be good for stiff card-paper..
I guess I'm looking for something that's higher DPI and prints with less of an edge and can take card-stock.
I certainly would rather find an inkjet for this. Any recommendations for printing e-Reader dot codes?

 

[Coquito]

sweetness

 

[Zepper]

Most ink jet printers can't make dots as sharp as laser. Look into a Lexmark laser.
.bh.

 

[kpb]

Before giving up on your lazer printer and looking for something new you might want to check into the printer settings. I'm not too familier with brother printers but I know most hp's have alot of Resolution enhancement, image quality settings etc. You want anything like that turned off because typically they work by changing what actually gets printed which is exactly what you don't want to happen in this situation.

 

[tart666]

did you make sure to set the print settings to "pure b/w" instead of "grayscale", or "dithered" ?

 

[Pretty Cool]

I used to own a 300dpi Brother laser and graphics was marginal at best. Unless, there is something I missed, there is no way you can print out those dot codes with any accuracy. According to that website, 600dpi is required. Luckily, almost all modern printers are capable of that resolution. I also would not be surprised if inkjets actually produced better output than a typical soho laser.

 

[dnoyeb]

The currently selling Brother Laser printer goes for about $110. It can do 300x600 dpi. Make sure you get a printer than can use additional memory. I loaded my borther with 32MB RAM, and it prints like a dream. 32MB cost like $5. Which Brother are you using?

 

[Ichinisan]

CZroe is using the Brother HL-1240 "True 600x600"

I installed the driver I just downloaded from Brother's website and it enabled 600x600 DPI. I tried to print another dot-code, but it appears to have been 'filtered' because the printout is completely blank between the spacer dots (where the data should appear as static).

Here is a dot-code:
http://pocketmedia.ign.com/pocket/image/ereadersample_041904_000.gif

 

[CZroe]

Well, I turned off all the half-toning options and stuff the first time but I couldn't get much out of it.
Anyone confirm that their printer can print these?

 

[Viper GTS]

How big do these have to be printed? The source image is pretty small...

I just printed it at 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25% on a Laserjet 2300 set to 600x600 dpi.

100 & 75 percent are quite clear, at 50% it starts to get a little sketchy but that could just be my vision.

At 25% I seriously doubt it's going to be feasible, but that's pretty darn small so I suspect you don't need to print them that tiny.

I then printed the same page at 300 dpi, again 100 and 75 percent are quite clear, 50% may or may not be good & at 25%/300 dpi it's clearly useless.

600x600 dpi should be MORE than sufficient if they're printed at anything 50% or higher.

Viper GTS

 

[0roo0roo]

yea, most new printers are 600dpi. and heck, inkjets can't touch the crispness of even 300dpi laser

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
How big do these have to be printed? The source image is pretty small...

I just printed it at 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25% on a Laserjet 2300 set to 600x600 dpi.

100 & 75 percent are quite clear, at 50% it starts to get a little sketchy but that could just be my vision.

At 25% I seriously doubt it's going to be feasible, but that's pretty darn small so I suspect you don't need to print them that tiny.

I then printed the same page at 300 dpi, again 100 and 75 percent are quite clear, 50% may or may not be good & at 25%/300 dpi it's clearly useless.

600x600 dpi should be MORE than sufficient if they're printed at anything 50% or higher.

Viper GTS

They have a companion application specifically for printing them. They fit on standard playing-card-sized cards.

BTW, I got 'em to work at 300DPI... They still look like crap so the error correction must be pretty good. I also had to slice the border VERY straight so it could pass the viewport

 

[RaiderJ]

From what it looks like on the website, you can take NES ROMs and somehow transfer them to e-Reader dot code. Or is that list of games e-Reader games?

 

[Markfw]

Whats the budget ? I got a great printer, but probably out of your league. Tektronix Phaser 850. Used on ebay, $1200 if you are lucky. (too bad you can;t get a new one, but they were $2500-4500)

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ
From what it looks like on the website, you can take NES ROMs and somehow transfer them to e-Reader dot code. Or is that list of games e-Reader games?

They are NES games. The eReader has always had a built-in NES emulator. There have already been three "NES series" sets released with several games in each series. Most have been slightly modified to remove two-player options and such (Urban Champion is listed as having corrupted graphics, though Nintendo's modified release works great). I think this was the first time I ever saw "emulator" in the credits to any Nintendo software (Though they've done it often in the past). NES games must be very small to fit on 5 cards with all sound and sprite libraries because they cannot access any of the eReader's built-in libs. Other eReader-native games use only one or two strips on one card and get all their music and game engine routines (Special effects like hardware scaling and rotation) from the eReader itself. NES games are probably going to be the only way to make homebrew eReader games unless someone wants toe figure out their libraries.

BTW, did anyone notice that Bomb Sweeper is only five strips? Excitebike has one-less strip than the usual 10 but this is the smallest NES game on eReader yet!

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Whats the budget ? I got a great printer, but probably out of your league. Tektronix Phaser 850. Used on ebay, $1200 if you are lucky. (too bad you can't get a new one, but they were $2500-4500)

Yeah, sounds like it I kinda wish I has gotten in on the color laser for $70 at Staples (After hundreds of dollars of discounts and rebates ) but I bet that was low-res and cheap.

Perhaps this can be used as a new printer benchmark? I mean, if a "True 600x600DPI" printer like mine refuses to print a single dot of code when printed as 600x600DPI, it shows that there's something more to it.

 

[Luthien]

My minolta QMS 2300DL $700 Color laster printer on sale prints it no problem. You can get the 2300 one without the built in ethernet (never got mine to work anyhow), for under $600 on sale at officemax usually.