How Good is Good Enough?

What is Quality?

Most people's perceptions - and expectations - of quality are based on the familiar appearance of offset printed materials, especially for books, magazines and a broad range of marketing materials all printed at 1270 dpi or higher. These production documents share higher requirements for print and image quality over transactional documents such as bills, statements and invoices which, for many years, were routinely printed on computer-driven impact devices such as dot matrix and line printers. The limitations of these devices restricted print quality for transactional documents. Even when laser print engines with 240 dpi resolution came to provide the output for most transactional applications the quality was still not deemed sufficient for other types of documents.

Meanwhile, black and white production documents have come to include pages transitioning from offset printing, such as the growing volume of books being produced on digital presses at 600 dpi. These include directories, product manuals, and short-run books, both as new releases and new copies of previously out-of-print volumes. The key shift is the broad acceptance of 600 dpi as a standard print resolution. With virtually all high-speed print engines now delivering 600 dpi even for transactional documents, the expectations and acceptability of print quality is shifting for both production and transactional pages. Corporate America and consumers alike have decided that the 600 dpi print resolution offered by most LED printers is acceptable for most uses (Figure 1).

Expectations and Quality Expectations
Expectations and levels of quality change depending on application and the environment. However, production printers, data centers and service bureaus—along with their customers are widely agreeing that 600 dpi resolution is sufficient for most needs.

"If you look at the basic hard cover best-seller by John Grisham you'll see somewhat grainy paper, possibly recycled stock, in an off-white shade which makes for easier reading. Someone looking for the highest quality isn't going to be satisfied because the book isn't designed or printed to meet those standards. It's not up to that person's expectations."
- Guy Broadhurst, Océ Printing Systems

How Good is Good Enough?
Understanding and defining the functional and business needs of an application is the first step in determining the print quality required. This is usually the job of a designer or document creator. An annual report for a telecommunications company, for example, probably requires a six-color document with spot colors, varnishes, and high-resolution halftones all lavishly printed on heavy, coated paper. The product manuals for the company's mobile phones, however, are more than adequate if printed four-up on 20-lb. bond on a roll-fed LED printer at 600 dpi, maybe with a four-color cover. Each of these documents matches the quality expectations of both document creators and end users. The annual report projects the corporation's image and face to the world so it has to look the part. The seldom-used and destined-to-be-forgotten phone manual dictates low to moderate production values.