color laser printer mostly to print pencil drawings

[saul11]

I'm looking to buy a color laser printer mostly to print pencil drawings, but I'm unsure what to get. For the quality I'm happy with my inkjet, but I want to get a laser printer to have no -or less- color degradation. I'm looking for a machine below $1000; The images I'd like to print are

http://www.rouwvormgeving.nl/images/boelgevoel.jpg

and

http://www.rouwvormgeving.nl/images/eenJaarEenDag.jpg,

but also other graphical material.
The best reviews I have found are the ones from macworld.com and I have sorted them from good to not good, see the list below. Is there anyone who has experience with any of these printers or maybe who has another recommendation?
(I'm not interested in additional features like scanning and fax)

The ratings (Scale = Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor) behind every printer's link are the print qualities respectively for 'Fine lines and gradients', '22MB Photoshop image quality' and 'Text quality'. With the '22MB Photoshop image quality' being the most important ffor me I guess...


good

Oki C6100dn color laser printer >

http://www.macworld.com/article/52664/2006/09/okic6100dn.html

> Very Good, Superior, Very Good > Speedy; Colored text not as clean as black.
Brother HL-4070CDW laser printer >

http://www.macworld.com/article/131853/2008/02/brother4070cdw.html

> Superior, Very Good, Very Good > First-rate print quality; fast; inexpensive, Less-refined color-text print quality > All in all, the unit produced exceptional print quality, especially in our Graphics
Ricoh Aficio CL3500N laser printer >

http://www.macworld.com/article/58418/2007/06/aficiocl3500n.html

> Very Good, Very Good, Superior > very good photo and graphics prints; Reds are a little strong in photo prints.
HP Color LaserJet 2605dtn >

http://www.macworld.com/article/53956/2006/11/hp2605dtn.html

> Very Good, Very Good, Very Good > Middling print speeds; photographic prints had some minor flaws.
Epson AcuLaser CX11NF multi-function printer >

http://www.macworld.com/article/52546/2006/08/epsoncx11nf.html

> Very Good, Very Good, Very Good > Inexpensive; speedy.
Brother MFC-9840CDW >

http://www.macworld.com/article/133208/2008/05/brother_mfc9840cdw.html

> Good, Very Good, Very Good > high-quality scans and print output.


unsure

HP Color Laser 2550Ln >

http://www.macworld.com/article/39034/2004/09/hpcolor2550.html

> ?, ?, ? > crisp text; vivid colors.


not good

Lexmark X500n multifunction printer >

http://www.macworld.com/article/59960/2007/09/lexmarkx500n.html

> Very Good, Good, Very Good > Speedy; inexpensive; produces very good text and color-document prints; creates high-quality scans; reds are too strong in color prints; some details don’t carry over when making copies; scanner is slow.
Xerox Phaser 6180/DN color laser printer >

http://www.macworld.com/article/59004/2007/07/xerox6180.html

> Good, Good, Superior > Some colors are dull; shadow detail in photos is lacking; slow when printing photos.
HP Color LaserJet 3600n >

http://www.macworld.com/article/49720/2006/03/hpclj3600n.html

> Very Good, Flawed, Excellent > Excellent text and fine line printing; Output was a little light, especially when printing photographic images.
HP LaserJet 2600n >

http://www.macworld.com/article/45830/2005/07/hplaserject2600n.html

> Good, Good, Very Good > Great price; increased paper capacity; good quality text and graphics printing; photo prints looked undersaturated; grayscale prints had a green cast.
HP Color LaserJet CM1017 MFP multifunction printer >

http://www.macworld.com/article/54655/2007/01/hpcm1017.html

> good, good, very good
Xerox Phaser 6130 >

http://www.macworld.com/article/134115/2008/07/xeroxphaser6130.html

> Good, Fair, Very Good > Slow; color prints look faint and lack detail.


there's a specific printer, that's not in this list, the OKI C5650N, which I can get for a good price, but I can't find any review for it. Is there anyone who has experience with it?

Thanks

 

[DansDadUK]

You also need to consider connectivity and driver availability.

Some of the printers you mention (e.g. HP Colour LaserJet 2600) are 'host-based' devices (alternatively known as Windows GDI devices) which require host-based drivers.

These drivers are generally provided for Windows systems, and sometimes for MAC & *n*x systems - but not always.

And some of these printers (if networked, but not directly connected) will apparently only connect through certain supported print server devices.

 

[saul11]

ah, thanks foor telling.
I'm on a standard windows (XP) box, so I guess the drivers won't be a problem like you say, but I'm not sure about the print server devices. How can I verify that a printer will work on my PC?