Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., CDTobie@a... wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 5/6/02 2:08:53 AM, roy@h... writes:
> 
> >I entirely agree that there's no way for the Piezo driver to make 
> >the printer move in a way that it wasn't designed to do.
> >I've always viewed the 2160dpi number as martketing hype
> >that loosely translates to "the piezo driver because of the fact
> >that there are 4 gray inks prints a grayscale image as if the 
> >printer were capable of the higher 2160dpi" 
> 
> As long as you view Epson's 2880 claims in approxomately the 
same light, then 
> we are in agreement.. 
> 
> C. David Tobie
> Design Cooperative
> CDTobie@d...

I haven't any inside knowledge of Piezo or Epson so I can only
read the claims that they both make.  No doubt there's 
marketing hype throughout the high tech business.  For this
case though at least Epson is making a claim about their own
printer hardware.  It's probably worthwhile taking all claims with
a grain of salt -- i.e. the 2880 printer isn't twice as good as a
1440 printer but that's because there are other factors beside
the dpi of the printer.  

The Piezo claim seems to me to be quite different.  They claim
that they make the printer hardware do something (2160dpi)
that the manufacturer of the hardware (Epson) doesn't claim
is possible.  If the Epson 3000 printer was capable of 2160dpi
why has Epson always stated in their specs that it is a 1440dpi
printer?

Here's a couple of other interesting claims on Piezo's website:
See the following for the whole paragraph:  
http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/piezography-comparisons.html

What does this mean? 
"It (Piezography) renders more than 1000 gray values in 8-bit 
mode."
8-bit = 256 levels so where do the 1000 grays come from?

What about this one?
Unlike EPSON drivers which interpolate at 1440 and 2880, the 
Piezography™BW driver delivers true optical resolution!
I just don't see this as having any real technical meaning.
Its just marketing words -- and thats OK.  But when numbers
creep into the marketing language putting precise technical
meaning to them is suspect.

Roy