Konica Minolta magicolor 7450 User manual

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Lab Testing Report
prepared for
Konica Minolta, Inc.
Report on Testing Results of
Konica Minolta magicolor 7450 Color Laser Printer
Testing Dates: October 17 - 27, 2007
Report Date: October 29, 2007

2
GrCI Laboratory Testing Report
Between October 17 - 27, 2007, a series of quality tests on the magicolor 7450 color laser printer
were completed by and under the immediate supervision of Professor Michael Blum of the Graphic
Communication Institute at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. This testing was conducted on behalf of
Konica Minolta, Inc.The tests were designed to determine the suitability of this particular printer
for the Macintosh-based graphic design, production, and creative marketplaces. Since professionals
in this field typically work using high-end Apple Macintosh computers and design applications
such as Adobe Creative Suite and QuarkXPress, the tests were structured accordingly.
Testing Methods
A test suite was developed using popular design, production, and creative applications commonly
run on the Macintosh platform. No testing was performed using the Windows platform. The
applications selected included the typical design programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop,
InDesign, and QuarkXPress. In addition, FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Office, Keynote, Mail, Preview,
and web browsers were tested. In most design, creative, and production environments, all of these
programs are used for a variety of office and presentation needs, and therefore a color laser printer
would need to be able to print successfully from each of these programs as well as the standard
design applications.
The following programs and versions were tested:
Acrobat 8.0
Adobe Reader 8.0
Camera Direct
Excel 04
FileMaker 8.5
Firefox 2
Illustrator CS2
Illustrator CS3
InDesign CS2
InDesign CS3
Keynote 4
Mac Mail 2.1
Photoshop CS2
Photoshop CS3
PowerPoint 04
Preview 3
QuarkXPress 6.5
QuarkXPress 7.2
Safari 2
Word 04

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Testing was completed by faculty, staff, and students in the Graphic Communication Department
at Cal Poly State University (www.calpoly.edu) under the supervision of Professor Michael Blum.
The Department is one of the leading institutions of its kind in the nation, and offers a BS
degree in Graphic Communication with concentrations in Printing and Imaging Management,
Design ReproductionTechnology, Electronic Publishing and Imaging, Graphics for Packaging, and
Individual Study.The Department also houses the Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly
(GrCI). The GrCI provides services to industry including research, testing, product evaluations,
consulting, seminars, workshops, and conferences (www.grci.calpoly.edu). The documents tested
ranged from previously printed faculty and student work, to new documents created for this
project.The page lengths of the documents tested ranged from 1 page to 735 pages per document.
As part of the test suite, paper handling capabilities of the printer were utilized from the various
applications, including simplex and duplex, collated and non-collated, portrait and landscape, and a
variety of paper sizes including Letter,Tabloid, 12” x 18”, and 12.25” x 40” banner stock.
A range of substrates was tested on the 7450 to note both the ability to feed properly and the color
quality obtainable on each. During the testing, the following substrates were used:
Futura Laser 100# Gloss Text
Futura Laser 100# Dull Text
Futura Laser 80# Gloss Cover
Future Laser 80# Dull Cover
Kromekote 12 pt Cover
Technisource 80# Gloss Cover
Technisource 80# Matte Cover
Technisource 28# Copy Writing
Technisource 80# Copy Cover
Technisource 10 pt Super Gloss Cover
A database was designed for this project to track the testing on the 7450 printer. Each job printed
during the course of testing was entered into the database including the application used, substrate
size and type, coverage, document type, page count, run length, print quality, and results.A typical
entry screen for this database is shown below.
Konica Minolta
magicolor 7450 print result
New
application
Illustrator CS3
print size
12 x 18
page count
1
coverage
Heavy
document type
Poster
results
Complex Illustrator file with tonal gradations.
Excellent job of handling different transparent
effects. Beautiful looking print and a nice job
on knockout areas. Print quality OK.
date
10/19/2007
run length
15
job number
62
paper type
Technisource 80# Matte Cover
clicks per job
15
total clicks
6338
Print quality OK
Yes
No

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A test suite was developed to determine the font-handling capability of the 7450 printer, including
TypeOne PostScript, TrueType, and OpenType fonts — all font formats commonly used in the
Macintosh environment.
The color capability of the printer was tested in several ways: demanding test images were printed
on the 7450 and were evaluated under controlled conditions by color experts; ICC color profiles
were created for the printer and tested along with industry standard ICC profiles on the Macintosh;
and the color profiles were analyzed using ColorThink Pro 3.0, a tool designed to evaluate and
compare ICC profiles by generating a 3D rendering of their color space.
Printer Setup and Support
When the printer arrived,it was quickly setup by our in-house InformationTechnology Consultant,
Jon Sehmer. Jon has set up many printers in a Mac environment and noted that the Konica Minolta
7450 was easy to set up. It unpacked easily, loading consumables was simple, and when turned on it
printed a startup sheet containing useful information, including networking.The printer supports
the main networking protocols found in an Apple Macintosh environment as well as the legacy
AppleTalk protocol.Because it is an outdated technology which is rarely used today, we did not test
the AppleTalk networking capabilities of the 7450, although we noted that the printer was instantly
able to correctly grab our building’s AppleTalk Zone Name.
Ethernet on the printer can be setup with either a fixed IP number or DHCP. It was tested both
ways and worked flawlessly. The printer’s settings are accessible via an internal web server and
we were easily able to access the printer’s home page and make numerous settings on the self-
explanatory screens. The printer is capable of sending a variety of notifications via an internal
e-mail capability, e.g., paper jammed or consumables low.We did not test this capability, although
in some settings it could be very useful.
The Konica Minolta printer came with a printed setup guide in several languages and 2 CDs:
one for printer drivers and one for documentation. Konica Minolta maintains an up-to-date web
site with extensive support information about the printer, and a link to purchase supplies and
accessories.We opted to download the most current Macintosh printer driver and documentation
from the web site. The User Guide is a clearly written 254 page PDF with bookmarks and hot
links in both the table of contents and index.The Reference Guide is 272 pages and is similarly
structured and provides comprehensive details about the 7450 printer. Both publications have
thorough information about using the printer in a Macintosh environment.
We successfully installed the printer driver on 37 Macintosh computers on our network, including
G5 Macintosh computers (PPC) and Intel-based Macs. After installing the driver, the printer can
be set up manually on each client using the Macintosh Printer Setup Utility or it can be accessed
within its Ethernet Subnet as a Bonjour printer which automatically installs and configures itself.
We tested both methods and both worked without problems.

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There were very few problems in setting up and using the printer, but we decided to contact
the technical support hotline listed on both the web page and the printed documentation to test
how well the product is supported by Konica Minolta. During the first call, we were immediately
handled by a technical support representative without going through any answering phone tree.
We were not quizzed about our product serial number, customer support contract, warranty, etc.
(we did not identify ourselves as product testers).We posed a fairly technical question specifically
about the Macintosh printer settings and received an immediate, knowledgeable answer. Our
second support call was answered by an automated attendant which estimated our wait time as
less than 2 minutes. Our call requesting very technical Macintosh-specific support was once again
professionally, quickly, and accurately answered. From our past experience with hardware technical
support, this level of service is very far above the norm.
Application Test Results
A total of 6,338 test prints were made on the Konica Minolta 7450 printer using 20 different
applications typically found in Macintosh design, production, and creative environments. Print
settings were modified from the control panel of the printer and from the Print dialog box on
the Macintosh. Both methods worked successfully and we eventually found it easiest to make the
necessary changes from the Print dialog box on the Macintosh.
A majority of the printing, 38.1%, was done from Adobe Acrobat Professional, which was judged
to be one of the most common applications for this environment.Adobe InDesign CS3 was used
for 20.7% of the printing. In these and the other 18 applications tested, settings such as stock size,
orientation, duplexity, and thickness, were varied. Files with coverage ranging from light to very
heavy were sent.The printer performed excellently in these tests, with very few exceptions.
We experienced a 1.2% failure rate in the testing.The main cause of failure was due to incorrect
driver settings (48 prints).We learned that it is important to set the correct paper thickness in the
driver prior to printing. If the thickness setting is too low, toner does not properly adhere to the
stock. In addition, subsequent jobs will have stray toner until the excess toner is passed through the
machine. Both the initial incorrectly printed job and the subsequent spoiled sheets were counted
as failures in this testing.
This error is purely operator-dependent and easily avoidable.The failure rate due to causes other
than incorrect Printer driver settings was 0.5% or 31 copies. Of these, 20 sheets exhibited toner
repelling from the edges of heavy solid areas in vector graphics; 10 sheets showed some minor
shifting of color during print runs, and one sheet had streaks through it for no known reason.
The distribution of the application testing is summarized on the following page.

6
Substrate Test Results
A total of 10 different substrates were tested for this project, ranging from 28# copy through 12 pt
Kromekote.The papers were tested in a range of applications and consistently fed well regardless
of thickness.We quickly learned the importance of setting the correct paper thickness in either the
7450 control panel or in the driver setting -- an incorrect setting results in poor toner adhesion.
The distribution of paper tested by type is summarized on the following page.
Paper Handling Test Results
In these tests, we used the most common paper sizes we would anticipate finding in a Macintosh
creative, production, or design environment: Letter, Tabloid, and 12” x 18”. We also tested the
optional banner accessory which makes it easy to print 12.25” x 40” color banners.The 12” x 18”
size is an important one for the graphic arts marketplace. Many color printers support 11” x 17”,
but few offer 12” x 18”. Full-bleed printing of 11” x 17” spreads in which the ink or toner goes
clicks
percent
Summary by Application
Acrobat
2,415
38.1%
Adobe Reader
1,138
18.0%
Camera Direct
120
1.9%
Excel 04
27
0.4%
FileMaker 8.5
45
0.7%
Firefox 2
19
0.3%
Illustrator CS2
15
0.2%
Illustrator CS3
56
0.9%
InDesign CS2
27
0.4%
InDesign CS3
1,315
20.7%
Keynote 4
50
0.8%
Mac Mail
10
0.2%
Photoshop CS2
60
0.9%
Photoshop CS3
134
2.1%
PowerPoint 04
34
0.5%
Preview 3
213
3.4%
QuarkXPress 6.5
227
3.6%
QuarkXPress 7.2
150
2.4%
Safari 2
27
0.4%
Word 04
256
4.0%
6,338
Total

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past the printed edge is a very popular production technique which must be accomplished by
printing on over-sized paper.The 12” x 18” stock allows both production printing and proofing
of full-bleed jobs including register marks, color bars, and job information.We noted that all paper
sizes we tested worked equally well.
We also tested the duplex and collating features extensively. Initially our sample printer came
without an internal hard disk, which is required for collating.The internal hard disk was easy to
install and provided the memory needed for the printer to collate jobs. Both duplex and collating
features work well and are easy to control from the Macintosh Print dialog box.
The distribution of paper tested by size is summarized below:
Font Test Results
In Macintosh environments a printer must be able to handle a robust mix of fonts and font
types.We successfully tested the printer with many TypeOne PostScript,TrueType, and OpenType
fonts without a single failure. On our particular printer the fonts printed slightly heavier than we
are used to seeing them compared with similar print engines.We stress-tested the printer’s font-
handling capabilities by sending a single job which contained 412 fonts.The job printed quickly
and without problems.
clicks
percent
Summary by Paper Size
12 x 18
1,055
16.6%
Banner
45
0.7%
Letter
5,189
81.9%
Tabloid
49
0.8%
6,338
Total
clicks
percent
Summary by Paper Type
Futura Laser 100# Dull Text
1,835
29.0%
Futura Laser 100# Gloss Text
106
1.7%
Futura Laser 80# Gloss Cover
145
2.3%
Future Laser 80# Dull Cover
112
1.8%
Kromekote 12 pt Cover
113
1.8%
Technisource 10 pt Super Gloss Cover
177
2.8%
Technisource 28# Copy Writing
2,475
39.1%
Technisource 80# Copy Cover
437
6.9%
Technisource 80# Gloss Cover
364
5.7%
Technisource 80# Matte Cover
574
9.1%
6,338
Total

8
Color Test Results
To test the color capability of the printer we used the internal web page to vary the default
PostScript color settings to the native color space of the printer. A color test target was printed
using this native color space in order to create an ICC Profile using a Gretag Macbeth Spectroscan
scanning spectrophotometer and associated color profiling software.
This ICC Profile was compared with a profile commonly used for commercial printing, US
Sheetfed Coated V2, using the 3D graphing capability of ColorThink Pro 3.0.The results shown
below, indicate that the 7450’s color gamut is reasonably close to the commercial printing profile,
although slightly lacking in density, which is typical for toner-based devices compared with offset
lithography. It is clear that the 7450 is designed to work well in an Apple ColorSync workflow.
In addition to this quantitative color measurement of the printer, a number of demanding color
test targets were printed and were visually judged by color experts for quality. The test target on
the following page from the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation is one example.
This target is demanding because it has a variety of shades of gray which must all be produced as
neutral using Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan toner. It also has a variety of skin tones which are very
difficult to reproduce correctly.The 7450 performed very well in producing this and other color
test targets.

9
Conclusions
This study tested the capabilities of the Konica Minolta magicolor 7450 color laser printer for its
suitability in the design, creative, and production market in an Apple Macintosh environment.The
printer was easy to set up; excellent drivers for the Macintosh were readily available for download;
outstanding telephone support for the printer in a Macintosh environment was available; the 7450
performed excellently from all of the 20 tested applications; all substrates used in the test fed with
very few problems; the printer did a good job of handling a variety of paper sizes, duplex settings,
and collating options (when equipped with an internal hard disk); font handling on the magicolor
worked well (although the text was slightly heavy); and the color gamut and accuracy of the printer
was judged to be very good. In summary, the Konica Minolta 7450 appears to be an excellent
printer for the Macintosh design, creative, and production market.
The Graphic Communication Institute greatly appreciates the opportunity of providing laboratory
testing services for Konica Minolta, Inc. We hope that the preceding report provides a useful
analysis of the information and insights garnered during that process. Please call us at (805) 756-
2645 if you have any questions regarding this report or any of the conclusions mentioned within.
Note: The conclusions drawn in this report are based on the facts and conditions that were
observed by or reported to us. They may include Graphic Communication Institute (GrCI) test
results, observations, and/or information believed to be reliable. Since there are so many variables
in the process, these conclusions may not remain valid if the information given us was incorrect
or incomplete.We do not assume any responsibility for the use or application of this report. It is
confidential and was not prepared for quotation or publication.
Sincerely yours,
Michael Blum, Professor
GrCI Project Supervisor
Graphic Communication Institute
Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo CA 93407
805.756.2645
805.756.2733 fax