Why does my old HP 6L print images better than my newer HP laserjets?

[smeelah]

Hi!
I've always used an HP 6L laserjet to print small detailed images for my jewellery design business. I've been having new issues with the printer and so I've started trying to find a replacement but with my HP 1018 and HP M28w laserjets, the images print with jagged edges and the dots and lines are visible. The images are not smooth.

I've printed as a jpeg, psd, pdf, and from photoshop cs5, preview and acrobat reader. I've increased the image resolution. I've increased the image size. No results close to what I was getting with the 6L laserjet.  I'm using Mac OS 10.12 at the moment.

I'd really appreciate any help. Is it possible to fix this or know which newer HP laserjets will print like the 6L?

Thanks,

Leila

[Valsimot]

The new printers are more eco friendly, they consume less power, and their toner dust is made of polymer, they print faster but they can't get sharp results like most of the old-school printers. 
You can forget to get the print result as you have on 6L, there is no driver setting that can make a new printer print like the 6L.

[smeelah]

Hi,

I really appreciate your response, although it's not what I wanted to hear;)

The 6L is also very good for my process because of the iron oxide levels in the toner but there aren't too many around these days. I had been hoping that I could make a newer printer work with micr toner. 

Would you be able to recommend any other old enough HP printers that might be a good compromise, provided I can find one?

This is a list of some HP printers that are supposed to have adequate iron oxide levels:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printers-Archive-Read-Only/iron-oxide-in-current-laser-toner-cartridge...

Thank you!

Leila

[Repairatrooper]

I would suggest that if you can find a used P4014/4015/4515 that this is probably one of the more current better printers to consider as they are designed to be serviced, more so that smaller models like the 6l.

[smeelah]

Thank you for the recommendation. I've been trying to stick to smaller printers as I probably only do a couple prints per month but it looks like I may have to consider one of the big ones.