Since continuous tone printing does not require multiple dots to give the visual impression of a single color, it can create very good looking output at much lower resolutions. In fact, most continuous tone printers print at just 300 dpi. Dithered images need much smaller individual dots to create the same quality image. To compete with continuous tone printers, dithering printers typically offer resolutions of 600 dpi or even 1200 by 600 dpi. Printer Speed Color printers are not known for their speed.
Color images require three or four times as much processing and printing as black and white images.
In addition, color documents are usually much more complex than the typical one-color page. Color lasers are typically the fastest type of color printer. Thermal wax and dye sublimation printers tend to be much slower. These machines must heat and apply the colors to a page, which increases both warm-up times and printing times. Only a few thermal wax machines offer a rated speed of 2 ppm, and most actually operate at well under 1 ppm.