Printer Question...

[AndyNY]

Hey everyone
Have a question I need some help with.
I am not a graphic designer, but my girlfriend is and I need some help.
She is extremely talented and is wants to start doing freelance work out of the house in addition to her day job in graphic design. She has her computer already, scanner etc..but needs a good quality printer for her work as well.
I would like to buy this for her for Christmas and am unsure which brand/model to buy.
Any suggestions? Would like to keep it in the $300 range if possible.
Can I get a decent printer for home use in this price range?

any help is greatly appreciated!

[D-Frag]

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-i9100-Photo-Printer/dp/B00008IOQL

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/printers/canon-ipf5000.shtml

the 9100 is pretty old but you could find one for cheap. good luck in finding a good one for around 300. the ink alone is going to run you about 100 on every refill.

[morea]

what sorts of things will she be printing? Simple things like letters, invoices, and proofs, or will she want to actually do some basic short-run production work for her clients?

[AndyNY]

Im not really sure...
I dont think she needs anything TOO professional.
She could always go to a printing place and have them print it if its something big.

I think she just wants a really good basic printer for her work.

[mojoprime]

if she's printing anything oversized or wanting to print out full bleeds, she'll need a 13 x 19 inkjet. i have been looking myself (THANKS, PD) and the epson stylus photo 1400 is good machine. but d-frag is right. the ink is going to cost a lot.

personally, i like canon printers for letter-size and such. i have an older ip5000 that's a great machine, with great color fidelity.

[morea]

I had a cheap little HP printer that was all that I needed... I think that it was an HP Deskjet 920C, but I am not 100% certain that was the model.

I had it for a few years and it was pretty inexpensive even when I got it:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF13a/18972-236251-236261-14438-236261-28856.html

It was a good enough printer, but I only used it for basic things (like I mentioned above), not for photos or client quality work.

[Broacher]

>>She is extremely talented and is wants to start doing freelance work out of the house in addition to her day job in graphic design<<

I know that this is quite common, but doesn't it say a lot about our profession?

Imagine a world where advancement or career opportunities was only possible through moonlighting work-- for ALL careers, not just the creative ones?

The first thing I would do is invest in coffee bean stock.

[balou]

I'd find out if she'll need anything larger than 8.5x11. Sometimes is nice to be able to print 11x17's but I find it's not as necessary anymore. I've had good luck with Epson printers but the ink is expensive.

I saw an ad in Newsweek recently for a Kodak all-in-one (printer/copier/scanner) and the sales pitch was that the ink cartridges are only $14.99 and CMYK was all in one cartridge so $30 for a full set of ink. I haven't investigated it but I thought "it's about time someone addressed the ink prices." I know the all-in-one's aren't everyone's cup of tea.

[PrintDriver]

I'm not too keen on single cartridge CMYK inks. Or CMY and K, is what I think you meant.

[budafist]

I'm confused. I would prefer my inks to be in separate cartridges so that you replace when needed.

I had a home printer once that if you ran out of black you had to either buy a whole new set or wait until all the other colours ran out. So we would print our assignments in cyan, then magenta and then whe we were left with only yellow, we would buy a new cartridge. No good at all if you want to print images though!

[AndyNY]

anyone have any feedback on the Brother HL-4070cdw?

what about the HP 2605dtn?

[mojoprime]

i don't know about either one of those printers, but i would go with hp over brother for color fidelity alone.

but, you never said she'd need anything beyond a basic printer for proofs. she's not doing any production work, right, like printing things out that she's going give to a client to distribute, like flyers or anything? if she's not doing production work, take that 700 bucks for the hp and get a really good inkjet (letter-size) and then a larger format one for full bleed proofs and posters.

it just seems to me that unless you're printing a lot of stuff every month, color lasers are overkill, and the consumables will eat you alive -- often they're more than the printer itself to replace. but with two inkjets, you could print small quantities on nice paper at high-resolution, and have the other larger one for full-bleed jobs, something you can't do on either of these laser printers you found.

just my .02.

[AndyNY]

Sorry for asking so many questions here...I really dont know much about all of this..lol

What is the difference between Laser Printer and Inkjet?
From what i have been reading, is Inkjet mainly for printing photos?
Can all different jobs be done with the Inket?
If so I really like the Epson 1400 a lot.


What are the advantages to having a laser printer?
I can get a Xerox Phaser 6130N(laser) for the same price as an Epson 1400(inkjet).
What would be a better bet for my situation?

thanks again for all your help everyone...I REALLY appreciate it.

A

[mojoprime]

inkjets use a liquid droplet to apply ink to a page, thus requiring paper that's porous enough to allow the ink to "soak in." laser printers use powered toner which is heated and bonded to the paper. (forgive me if i don't get it just right.)

xerox makes a solid ink printer that uses wax-based ink that's heated and applied to the surface of the paper. i've heard mixed results with those, everything from having problems duplexing to not faxing well.

for high-volume (read = lots of prints) and speed, usually a laser printer is the way to go. however, since the process of applying the toner to the page requires so pretty substantial equipment, they tend to be fairly large-sized, especially if you want to print larger than letter/legal-size.

most inkjets today can print 25-30 pages per minute, plenty fast enough and approaching (and often beating) laser speeds. but if you do high-volume, they're not cost-effective.

now, remember, high volume is like 500+ prints or more, or production printing. most 1 person shops don't do that much, and rarely do production work. inkjets in that instance might be a better solution. it really depends on your budget.

[ChristinaMae]

if she's printing anything oversized or wanting to print out full bleeds, she'll need a 13 x 19 inkjet. i have been looking myself (THANKS, PD) and the epson stylus photo 1400 is good machine. but d-frag is right. the ink is going to cost a lot.

personally, i like canon printers for letter-size and such. i have an older ip5000 that's a great machine, with great color fidelity.

I've been looking at getting the 1400 this Christmas, do you have one? I'm wondering how the blacks print out.

[mojoprime]

no, but i just bought an r1800 after looking at both. i needed a little more than the 1400 had to offer, but had i not purchased the r1800 i would have bought the 1400. it's a fine machine, from everything i've heard and read.