ISO/IEC 24734 Method for Measuring Digital Printing Productivity

Have ever wondered how those printing speeds given by companies are really determined? The figures are found using a standard measuring tool, ISO/IEC 24734. HP has kindly summarized this method on their corporate site. This ensures real accuracy across both models and manufacturers. The tests performed according to this measurement method are conducted with the default mode of a given printer, with an array of test files and application, using plain paper.

• General Overview - The tests are generally conducted with single-sided printing unless there is a printer option for automatic duplexing (if it is a standard feature). The files are produced using Microsoft Word and Excel, and Adobe Reader. There are four separate jobs for each piece of software.
• Job Lengths - There are three different types of job lengths employed for testing: short, medium, and long. Short is defined as 1 set of pages. Medium is defined as 1 set of pages plus an additional 30 seconds of printing. Long is defined as 1 set of pages, plus an additional 4 minutes of printing. For long jobs, they incorporate Adobe Reader files.
• Timing Methods - There are also various timing methods employed for testing. The first test conducted is for First Set Out Time (FSOT), which is defined as the time from which the job was initiated to the time when the last sheet of the first set (4th page), lands in the output tray. The second test conducted is for Effective Throughput (EFTP), which is defined as the time from which the job was initiated to the time when the last page of the job lands in the output tray. The third and final test conducted is for Estimated Saturated Throughput (ESAT), which is defined as the time from which the last sheet of the first set (4th page) lands in the output tray to the time when the last page of the job lands in the output tray.
• What is reported - Overall, the average of all files is reported with specific timing methods reported for job lengths. For short jobs, the FSOT is reported. For medium jobs, the ESAT is reported. HP notes for the purposes of advertisement, this is the figure they use. EFTP is reported for all of the various job lengths.