Choosing color laser printer for proofs

Question

Hello!
I need to buy a new small color laser printer to print proofs from InDesign. I have had bad experience with HP and Canon printers when transparent areas have been printed. However, Xerox smaller office printers as 6280 with true Adobe Postscript have always printed as expected but a little too dark and too much red in photos. When looking around I can only find Xerox with true Adobe Postscript. My questions are:
- which of the postscript emulations from other manufacturers do you know works perfectly with InDesign?
- which small color laser printers can you recommend for proofs?
The smaller the better. Print speed is not especially important as long as print quality from InDesign is good and toner cost isn't too expensive.
I'm looking forward your recommendations!
Johan
PS. I use Creative Suite 4 at the moment, not 5.5. DS.

Answer 1

I don't think you're going to find a "small color laser" that really does good proofs, but that's my personal opinion. You should make some sample PDF files and get sample prints from devices you are considering.
I just repalced my Xerox Phaser 790 last week. It was neither small nor very fast. I got samples of my files from a Phaser 7760, which is now in closeout and discounted slightly (but still not cheap) and they looked pretty good, until I looked at the prints from the newer model, the Phaser 7800, that was just introduced. Those prints blew me away, and that's what I bought. This is a tabloid size printer, commercial duty, very fast, and the base model is a little over $5000, so probably not what you had in mind. Toner is not cheap, either.
How often do you need to proof? Commercial printers tend to proof on Epson inkjets (not the cheapies you buy at the office supply, though). The big problem with inkjets, though, is they need to be used all the time to keep the print heads from drying out or clogging, and ink and paper for proofing are more expensive than for lasers.