The release of Version 4 of the SpencerLab Printer Test Suite was announced by The SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory.

SpencerLab, assisted by over a dozen key industry sponsors, has applied its expertise in testing of Throughput Speed Performance and Cost-per-Print as well as Print Quality, to develop an expanded suite of standard test documents. Users and vendors have, for the first time, a precision tool to allow real-world “apples-to-apples” comparisons.

Consisting of over 50 test files, the SpencerLab Printer Test Suite, covers the full breadth of markets, including photographic, office/enterprise, consumer, commercial/graphic, and large format markets – and works in Mac OS as well as Windows environments. Files include monochrome and color; CMYK and RGB; PostScript, PDF, and applications. Output sizes range from 4x6" and 8x10" through A, A4, B, A3, and large format, for domestic U.S. and international markets.

The prior CHQF Test Files, since its 1990 introduction, had become generally accepted as a de facto standard to facilitate the evaluation of Print Quality. This success also made it clear that the need had become acute for a broader standard to identify continuing innovation in improving Throughput Speed Performance and Cost-per-Print. Test files in the SpencerLab Printer Test Suite complement recent and forthcoming ISO/IEC standards (SpencerLab has been a continuing participant in their development).

More than a dozen firms sponsored development of the suite, including Adobe (ADBE), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Eastman Kodak (EK), Canon (CAJ), EFI (EFII), Lexmark (LXK), Konica Minolta (KNCAF), Okidata (OKIEF), Océ (OCE), Toshiba (TOSBF), Xerox (XRX), and Ziff Davis Enterprise (ZFDH). Sponsorship of the development of the SpencerLab Printer Test Suite does not require sponsoring firms to use SpencerLab testing services or methodology. For others, as well as themselves, could have more meaningful measurement tools and standards, these firms sponsored the development.