They don't compress the images - they are written as essentially bitmaps from the scanning engine then read back to the printing engine. Most actually record 8

They don't compress the images - they are written as essentially bitmaps from the scanning engine then read back to the printing engine. Most actually record 8bits/pixel even in mono because it lets you do lighter/darker and background level in software. so a typical page at 300dpi is something like 100sq in * 90000 pixels = 9Mb