Advice for semiprofessional printer to buy. Pls.

[newspost]

Hi all there,

I would like to buy a semi-professional printer.

Well, I am not sure I can define "semi-professional" what I am
looking for.

My requirements are:
· Good quality colour (not sure about which dpi)
· Separate Colour and Black ink (of course)
· Different paper formats (business cards, envelopes to A4, possibly
A3)
· Software driver able to print "booklet" format (not easy to
find)
· Possibly duplex printing
· Possibly photo printing too

Or is it better to buy a separate printer for photos?

It does not matter so much about print speed (it seems to make so much
a difference in price)

I have been suggested to buying an Epson because, despite other brands,
it is able to print think paper too. (?!?)

Could you please give me a suggestion?

Or

Do you know about a price comparison site/consumer association site
that compares different models?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Fabian

 

[me]

Hi all there,
I would like to buy a semi-professional printer.
Well, I am not sure I can define "semi-professional" what I am
looking for.

My requirements are:
· Good quality colour (not sure about which dpi)
· Separate Colour and Black ink (of course)
· Different paper formats (business cards, envelopes to A4, possibly
A3)
· Software driver able to print "booklet" format (not easy to
find)
· Possibly duplex printing
· Possibly photo printing too

What is the budget? To some semi-professional may mean a business inkjet
for a couple of hundred pounds, to others it may mean a networked A3
colour laser for a couple of thousand.

 

[newspost]

What is the budget? To some semi-professional may mean a business inkjet
for a couple of hundred pounds, to others it may mean a networked A3
colour laser for a couple of thousand.

If it is worth it, I can think to spend 2000 GBP, yes.

Thanks.
Fabian

 

[Fabian]

What is the budget? To some semi-professional may mean a business inkjet
for a couple of hundred pounds, to others it may mean a networked A3
colour laser for a couple of thousand.

Hi Timothy,

If it is worth it, I can think to spend 2000 GBP and because of the
quality, I prefer Colour laser.

What it is not clear to me is what makes the difference between 200 and
2000 £. The printing speed? The networking capabilities?

I don't mind so much about both of these two features.

Thanks.
Fabian

 

[Al Dykes]

What is the budget? To some semi-professional may mean a business inkjet
for a couple of hundred pounds, to others it may mean a networked A3
colour laser for a couple of thousand.

The OP asks a single printer to do a lot. In general the more
"professional" a printer is the fewer bells and whistles it has. IMO
the OP is looking for features found in a home printer.

The OP asks for "good quality color" and then also "possibly photo
printing". Based on what I think he's looking for, any modern inkjet
printer will be fine for quality. The OP should narrow his choices
based on paper handling.

In general, the more expensive the printer the cheaper the cost per
page for ink.

"booklet format" is a function of the application software as far as I
know. Maybe something like this comes with some pronter but I haven't
seen it. Take a look at "FLipAlbum"
http://www.flipalbum.com/products/fa/

 

[me]

If it is worth it, I can think to spend 2000 GBP and because of the
quality, I prefer Colour laser.

What it is not clear to me is what makes the difference between 200 and
2000 £. The printing speed? The networking capabilities?

I don't mind so much about both of these two features.

Generally, the more you pay for the machine the less you pay for
consumables.

If you look at the £2/300 colour lasers they will _tend_ to be windows
printers (the computer does the 'thinking' for it). Typically you need
to pay extra for duplex, for networking, for postscript. You need to
pay a lot more for a3 colour laser. Depending how far you want to push
the budget it may be worth considering a networked colour photocopier
which will act as both printer and photocopier. Without all those sorts
of extras at the £2000 mark I would be considering the Kyocera FS-C8008N
(I think they are currently introducing a newer model) these have low
running costs and will do A3 as well. There is a photocopier version of
the same machine KM-C850 which can do as much as you are prepared to pay
for. Reviews I have read for these machines (or more likely the c5016
(a4 version) rate it very highly, and the sample prints I was sent were
quite impressive. Everybody else will produce similar machines at
similar prices as well, I would guess most notably Xerox.

If you are looking at spending that much I would suggest you talk to
someone like printware lnl or theprinterdatabase, I've had consumables
off all of them and machines from printware.

Alternatively you may like to look at second hand professional items on
ebay. For instance
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3296&item=751850
9030&rd=1 or
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3296&item=751887
2391&rd=1

 

[me]

The OP asks a single printer to do a lot. In general the more
"professional" a printer is the fewer bells and whistles it has. IMO
the OP is looking for features found in a home printer.

The OP asks for "good quality color" and then also "possibly photo
printing". Based on what I think he's looking for, any modern inkjet
printer will be fine for quality. The OP should narrow his choices
based on paper handling.

In general, the more expensive the printer the cheaper the cost per
page for ink.

I think the other question is how much printing is intended? I'm using
two lasers at the moment at 2-3000 pages a month.

 

[measekite]

Hi all there,

I would like to buy a semi-professional printer.

Well, I am not sure I can define "semi-professional" what I am
looking for.

My requirements are:
· Good quality colour (not sure about which dpi)
· Separate Colour and Black ink (of course)
· Different paper formats (business cards, envelopes to A4, possibly
A3)
· Software driver able to print "booklet" format (not easy to
find)
· Possibly duplex printing
· Possibly photo printing too

Or is it better to buy a separate printer for photos?

It does not matter so much about print speed (it seems to make so much
a difference in price)

I have been suggested to buying an Epson because, despite other brands,
it is able to print think paper too. (?!?)

Could you please give me a suggestion?

Or

Do you know about a price comparison site/consumer association site
that compares different models?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Fabian

If you are more heavily weighted to photo printing I would look at the
Canon IP4000. If you intend to do more business document printing go
for the IP5000. If you want the wide format look at the Canon i9900 but
this printer does not have dual paper feed nor does it print full
duplex. It is a pure photo printer but can do a few acceptable business
documents.

 

[wmreinemer]

If you are more heavily weighted to photo printing I would look at the
Canon IP4000. If you intend to do more business document printing go
for the IP5000. If you want the wide format look at the Canon i9900 but
this printer does not have dual paper feed nor does it print full
duplex. It is a pure photo printer but can do a few acceptable business
documents.

**
The major expense of printers is the consumables. Why do you think HP
can sell the apollo for $50.00? I have used up a color cartridge
cleaning the heads on a black cartridge.

A tech told me, "If a printer does not cost $300.00, it is not worth
fixing."

This samsung looks like a good buy.
http://www.superwarehouse.com/Samsung_CLP-550N/CLP-550N_XAA/p/406185

Walt R.
**

 

[Fabian]

Thanks to you all for your feedbacks. Many different nice suggestions.

Maybe it is better I tell you what I need my printer for.

For my business, I want/need to print on demand company correspondance
(invoices, commercial letters) with letterheads, envelopes with Royal
mail digital stamps, a few hundreds leaflets or brochures or business
cards when required.

I would need to be able to print 200/300 sheets each time and also good
quality a bit thick paper.

I would also to be able to print booklets (on demand).

At the beginning, I will not have to print that much but later on
hopefully, I could need to print 2000/3000 pages per month (guess).

Cheers,
Fabian

 

[Fabian]

In general, the more expensive the printer the cheaper the cost per
page for ink.

"booklet format" is a function of the application software as far as I
know. Maybe something like this comes with some pronter but I haven't
seen it. Take a look at "FLipAlbum"
http://www.flipalbum.com/products/fa/

It can be in the application, however when it is in the printer's
driver...it is much better. So far I have seen this feature in some
Canon's.

If I want to print a booklet, I do not need any alternative to Ms Word:
the printer's driver does all the formatting.

Cheers,
Fabian

 

[measekite]

Try looking at the HP series of business inkjets or Color LaserJets. I
would look at models that have duplex printing and larger input and
output trays.

HP seems to have a better line of business printers than the other makers.

 

[me]

Thanks to you all for your feedbacks. Many different nice suggestions.

Maybe it is better I tell you what I need my printer for.

For my business, I want/need to print on demand company correspondance
(invoices, commercial letters) with letterheads, envelopes with Royal
mail digital stamps, a few hundreds leaflets or brochures or business
cards when required.

Business letters, leaflets and brochures will be better done on a laser.
A laser will need more expensive envelopes (special laser ones otherwise
the glue melts when it goes through the printer!)

I would need to be able to print 200/300 sheets each time and also good
quality a bit thick paper.

I would also to be able to print booklets (on demand).

If you are going to be doing much of this you will probably need
automatic duplexing, and possibly a prog like fineprint that will
organise the order of page printing for you.

At the beginning, I will not have to print that much but later on
hopefully, I could need to print 2000/3000 pages per month (guess).

This level of printing is also suggesting to me that you would be better
off with a laser. Doubtless people will now tell us how many millions
of pages they print on inkjets every month!

 

[Fabian]

Try looking at the HP series of business inkjets or Color LaserJets. I
would look at models that have duplex printing and larger input and
output trays.

HP seems to have a better line of business printers than the other makers.

Hi,

I snooped the HP website: very very instructive.

I discovered that starting from a colour laser of barely 300$, I need
to spend about 1599$ for getting the automatic duplex (and a bit of
more speed, a bit of higher printing capacity/month, but who cares).
:-(

Than, I have also noted that if I want A3 or photo printing, I'd better
go to another category of printers as the all-in-one printers (as
someone suggested me).

So, these huge differences in prices are due not to software, not to
electronics, but to mechanics. I know that I am probably saying obvious
things for you...ehi, I'm just learning.

Thanksa lot.

Cheers,
Fabian

 

[Fabian]

Business letters, leaflets and brochures will be better done on a laser.
A laser need more expensive envelopes (special laser ones otherwise
the glue melts when it goes through the printer!)
If you are going to be doing much of this you will probably need
automatic duplexing, and possibly a prog like fineprint that will
organise the order of page printing for you.

Fineprint? Ok. I saw a few Canon's that had a "booklet" format directly
in the (software) drivers. I thought that every brand had its own
"booklet" printing format, but apparently it is not.

This level of printing also is suggesting me that you would be better
off with a laser. Doubtless people will now tell us how many millions
of pages they print on inkjets every month!

This is a surprise for me: if I want/plan to print millions of
pages/months I'd better buy an inkjet?

I started thinking about a laser because of the better quality of the
colour. And because colours are more stable, indipendent by weather
conditions (but, is this correct?).

And what about particular kinds of papers and thik papers as the ones
for the greeting cards?

Thanks.
Fabian

 

[Fabian]

The major expense of printers is the consumables. Why do you think HP
can sell the apollo for $50.00? I have used up a color cartridge
cleaning the heads on a black cartridge.

A tech told me, "If a printer does not cost $300.00, it is not worth
fixing."

This samsung looks like a good buy.
http://www.superwarehouse.com/Samsung_CLP-550N/CLP-550N_XAA/p/406185

Well, comparing to HP prices..it's amazing.

However, I have never seen Samsung printers in offices. How's the
quality/reliability?

Thanks.
Fabian

 

[me]

This page:
http://www.theprinterdatabase.com/search/index.ehtml
Allows you to play with typing in various options and you can see what
suggestions it comes up with.

The other thing which has been mentioned in passing is running costs. If
you end up doing 3000 pages a month a saving of only 1p per page soon
adds up.

You may also want to consider various leases at a fixed cost per page
type thing.

 

[me]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

Fineprint? Ok. I saw a few Canon's that had a "booklet" format directly
in the (software) drivers. I thought that every brand had its own
"booklet" printing format, but apparently it is not.


This is a surprise for me: if I want/plan to print millions of
pages/months I'd better buy an inkjet?

No! I reckon you need a laser but it wouldn't surprise me if someone on
here says they manage to print thousands of pages a month with an
inkjet, personally I would find that excruciating.

I started thinking about a laser because of the better quality of the
colour. And because colours are more stable, indipendent by weather
conditions (but, is this correct?).

If you are wanting to print lots of photos on quasi photographic paper
then you probably want an inkjet. If you want to print a batch of a few
hundred leaflets/flyers then you want a laser.

As you move into the professional end of the lasers they change from
halftone dithering to contone and have a much wider gamut - range of
colours available.

And what about particular kinds of papers and thik papers as the ones
for the greeting cards?

In the laser you need to use different glossy paper, I tend to use HP's
laser soft glossy paper (largely because its fairly cheap and fairly
available!) there are others around, Xerox has a very nice single sided
glossy (photographic) paper (a sample came with my Xerox Phaser) but I
suspect this is rather more expensive, but still cheaper than similar
options for inkjets. The lasers tend to have a special tray/side entry
for thick stock/envelopes or various other weird things you may want to
put through it.

 

[me]

Well, comparing to HP prices..it's amazing.

However, I have never seen Samsung printers in offices. How's the
quality/reliability?

I think you will find the Samsung looks remarkably like the Xerox
http://www.theprinterdatabase.com/profiles/by-id/6322/

There is also something else that needs to be said about the low end
machines: WORK OUT THE RUNNING COSTS

If you search the reviews the cost of an a4 colour page from this
machine is about 10p more than the Kyocera fs-c5016 if you end up at
3000 pages pre month, thats quite a difference.

 

[Fabian]

This page:
http://www.theprinterdatabase.com/search/index.ehtml
Allows you to play with typing in various options and you can see what
suggestions it comes up with.

The other thing which has been mentioned in passing is running costs. If
you end up doing 3000 pages a month a saving of only 1p per page soon
adds up.

You may also want to consider various leases at a fixed cost per page
type thing.

Thanks very useful link. Just what I was looking for.

Cheers
Fabian