... what about color laser printing?

How do they manage to produce a quality printout so fast?

Many of you probably know that in the beginning of laser printing technology there were only black printouts. This is known as monochrome printing. But why not have color as well since a successful technology already exists? The color printout is produced the same way as the black one (refer to: What does laser have to do with printing?), however the whole process repeats for every color – cyan, yellow, magenta and black. Different combinations of these 4 basic colors can generate the full color spectrum.

The color laser printer works in either of two ways. Each color can be applied on the drum and consequently on the paper one at a time OR all colors are first applied on a plate and then pasted on the paper at the same time. There are also more advanced and thus more expensive printers, which have a full printer unit (including laser, drum and toner system), for each color. The paper goes through a small journey inside the printer and collects all the exact proportion of each color on the way.

Usually the resolution of color laser printers is 600 or 1200 dpi. Printers with lower resolution generally do not give a nice continuous color tone on the printout.