Choosing the Best Original Type

To get the best results, it is important that you be able to assess your original document, and make a determination as to what types of images comprise the document.

The choices available in Original Type control how the system adjusts the sharpness, the contrast, and if necessary the screening level.

Original Types

Mixed Text and Graphics: use for most jobs, business graphics, charts, logos and maps.

Text: use for enhancing text only.

Mixed Text and Halftones: use for printed photos and halftones.

Photo: use for photographs and continuous tone images

For example, if the original is a paste-up, or has multiple areas of different types of information, Mixed Text and Graphics mode is the best compromise.

A good approach to making the best Original Type selection is to identify the area in the document of greatest importance. Perhaps, in a document composed of text and images, making the text legible is more important than a high quality reproduction of the pictures. If this is the case, use Text mode.

Photo mode is the only mode which applies a halftone; all of the others apply a form of error diffusion to minimize moiré.
For jobs which contain various types of documents e.g. some pages of text, some pages of halftoned context, the mixed mode is the best compromise. Alternatively, you're encouraged to use job programming to selectively define a different original type for each page.

Rendering Options

Mixed Original types

Diffusion Dither simulates gray values using collections of black and white pixels without disturbing sharp edges.

Hybrid combines halftones and diffusion in a manner determined by the local pixel classification.

Text

Diffusion Dither simulates gray values using collections of black and white pixels without disturbing sharp edges.

Threshold/High Contrast produces a very high contrast reproduction of black and white inputs.

Photo options:
125 lpi for high image quality results in output similar to magazines

106 lpi for medium image quality results

85 for low image quality results in output similar to newspapers

TIP: If you copy/scan a great number of the same type of original documents, you can set custom image quality defaults. For example, if the majority of your copying/scanning is of dark photographic content, the system defaults can be set to accommodate this, saving you job programming time. To set up your system defaults to match your original input, contact your System Administrator.