Product Reviews
The Xante CL30 is an A3+ colour laser printer designed for high-volume colour production work, and it comes with the kind of options more often seen in office workgroup devices. The standard specifications are impressive: 1200 x 1200 dpi, 256Mb RAM, PostScript 3 output, and quoted print speeds of up to 30 pages per minute (ppm) for colour output, and 37ppm for monochrome. The maximum print size is 327mm x 1220mm, enough for bleed and crop marks. The CL30 also has some features that will appeal to designers looking for a bit more than a bog-standard A3 colour laser printer. These include automatic recalibration after every 500 prints; the ability to automatically print a single copy of a document in order to proof it before printing off the rest of the copies; and a Secure Printing feature for confidential documents. The CL30 ships with Xante's ColorMatch Software which allows users to adjust the colour output of the printer to more closely match the colour produced by the final output device. This is useful for proofing, but it should be noted that the CL30 is built for high-volume work and if you are looking for a device to use mainly for proofing purposes, your money would be better spent elsewhere. In its standard configuration the CL30 measures 665mm x 589mm x 462mm and weighs 70kg - having someone else on hand to help you set it up is essential. Its standard input comprises a 550-sheet cassette and an A3, 100-sheet multi-purpose tray. The output tray is 600 sheets. Optional extras include higher capacity input trays, a 10Gb hard drive, up to 1Gb RAM, duplex unit, a stand, and a finishing unit with hole-puncher, stapler and stacker. Getting started Setting it up under Mac OS X was a breeze, and connection is via Ethernet
Quoted consumable lifespans are 7500 A4 sheets at 5% coverage for the toner cartridges, and 39,000 continuous A4 printed pages for the drum. Pricing for replacement toner cartridges is £89 for a black cartridge and £199 for the colour toner. This gives a print cost of around 4p per page, excluding the cost of the media. You should bear in mind that these figures are only very rough guides and real-world toner life will depend on your print usage. In almost all circumstances you'll get fewer than the quoted number of pages from a toner cartridge. We tested the CL30 using MacUser's standard PostScript printer tests; a QuarkXPress double-page spread featuring text at multiple point sizes, colour and monochrome photographs, and vector artwork; and a PDF containing a large number of complex gradient fills created in Illustrator. Both these documents are designed to push even the most capable Postscript output device to its limits. The results were impressive: our speed test results showed that the CL30 is certainly quick, ripping through our XPress document in just over a minute. Good results Print quality was equally impressive. Straight out of the box, prints were crisp, with text being comfortably legible down to 2 point. The grey on black text or white on black text was also very clear. Colour reproduction in our tests was a little brighter than it should have been, but not enough to cause concern. The Xante CL30 is an excellent over-size A3 colour laser printer. A glance at its price may make you wince, as it seems expensive compared to the current price of A4 laser printers. It's certainly not the printer to go for if you want a device for occasional output in a small studio. However, the number of features and range of available settings make it ideal for environments where the ability to produce large volumes of high-quality documents is critical. By Kenny Hemphill |
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