Color Printers?
Anyone have a good suggestion of a high quality printer? I tested a $800 laser(Minolta 2300DL) to a $250 inkjet(HP Deskjet 5850)... the inkjet won on quality. The laser may be cheaper per page, but the inkjet had the better quality. Anyone have any other suggestions? I'm becoming a realtor and thought that buying a nice printer would be a better investment than paying someone to print for me.
Thanks,
Chase
I have an Okidata c5100 and it's great! try it out. It ran me $800.
Its so hard to tell how good a printer is without seeing an actual print.
I am a hands down fan of xerox (tektronix) color laser printers and HP B&W laser prints.
The only feature I don't like at times with the color printers is that they use a solid ink (almost a wax) that is put on the paper. It leaves just a little bit of a shine to the area printed, not a flat look. Its great for everything but printing just black text. I don't recommend it as your only printer unless you are satisfied with the results.
Also keep in mind that your realty office probably has a color printer you can use. You may want to stick with a B&W laser or even a simple inkjet to save costs.
I have a HP(B&W) laser printer which is great. I have a cheap HP deskjet printer for color which I use infrequently.
I guess I should explain what I am going to be using this for. I planned on using it to print color brochures, flyers, postcards, etc. Not just day-to-day printing of B&W. I am trying to be cost-efficient since I am running on a very limited budget. I have seen some postcards that people have done on their home inkjet printer and they look terrible. These higher priced printers do a much better job. Still not the quality of professional work, but presentable for the price. By the time I pay $400 for 5000(only 1250 sheets, only a fraction of the life of laser toner cartridges) of the SAME STYLE postcards and a few other odds and ends things, I could end up being able to just buy a nice $500-$800 printer and do much more myself with more versatility. Instead of doing 5000 of one postcard I could mix them up in batches of 500 and see which work the best, etc.
Thanks,
Chase
I just got an i70 Canon as an early Christmas present...so I couldn't tell ya the price.
Not a laser printer though.
It's a mobile printer.
One of the fastest printers I've seen, actually.
Just a suggestion. I plan to use mine along with my laptop, in case I need to print contracts on the go.
I'm not a printer expert, so I'll end it here.
[addsig]
If you are going to running off envelopes and single, postcard sized sheets you best do a hands-on test of the manual feed capability first. I have yet to find an ink-jet that can handle an envelope with ease and consistency and most will not handle small sheets.
Yes. I agree. The postcards do come in one sheet though, four to a sheet. Come to find out my dad ordered that identical laser printer for my step-mom for Chrismas(great minds think alike eh?). So I was considering getting the ink jet in addition to it. I can find it online for $150. I haven't decided yet. We'll see. I am getting 500 magnetic business cards printed though. Those I cannot do myself and have them look good.
Thanks,
Chase Gochnauer
Any type of ink-jet will drain your pockets quickly because of ink. You will get anywhere from 150-400 pages out of a $30+ ink pack depending on how much color is on the page. We are using a HP color laser and the toner is about $70 each (times 4), but the lasts about 2 months (with 35 different people using it). The prints on cheap copy paper are as good an inkjet on cheap paper. If you use good paper in either an inkjet or laser, you will get better results (but at higher cost). I don't plan on ever buying an injet agin for home use.
My comparison was with the most expensive inkjet(only 250) to the $800 color laser. On cheap paper w/ each printer, the inkjets colors came out a little less "dotty". Now each printer also had a sample attached to it. The one on the laser jet was laminated, and looked great. The inkjet's picture on photo paper looked great too. But it's one of those things that it's just hard to tell which would look best without printing the thing I want to print on the paper I want to print it on. I would consider postcard paper "medium" quality. Although if I got postcard paper with one glossy side it might be just like printing on photo paper for a laser. Luckily now that I know my dad has gotten it, I am going to wait to see how his looks before I proceed any further.
Thanks,
Chase
I'll put in another vote for the Tektronix.
They are fast, very high quality and the little Crayons that they use for "ink" are very easy to work with and no mess (as opposed to laser ink)
I personally like the HP priters. I have one and it does phone, fax, print (Color and B&W), copy and scan. I use it to print my letters, envelopes and flyers and I have had great luck with it so far. Cant remember the type right off hand, but I am sold on HP for my use.
We bought a Canon i560s. It is photo quality on the highest settings. The pictures we have printed out look just like the ones we have had developed from film. The best part, the replacement cartridges range from $10 to $12. Oh yeah, the printer itself is only $100, less at Costco.
Best,
Ryno
I've had my HP Office Jet for 5 years now, and it has yet to let me down. The print quality rivals that of most newer printers. HP has always been good to me. Also, you can always use ink refills with any printer to save on cartridge costs.
This may be a goofy point to make and probably obvious to you, but I favor laser printers because the inkjet ink is water soluble. Lick your finger and run it across the page and it runs all over the place. Send out a postcard that gets a little damp and it's trash. You might as well forget brochures that you want to hang up. You'll come back to find a blank piece of paper after the first rain.
Just my opinion.
[addsig]
Thats actually an excellent point on the ink.... especially since it's winter here now and i plan on doing the mailings soon and theres snow all over.
Just FYI...
The printer manufacturers make all of their money off of the INK, not the sale of the printer. So, when you do a cost analysis, make sure you take into consideration the cost per page and compare based on this.
I used to have a inkjet because the printer was pretty cheap, but I kept replacing the cartridges every couple of months. I finally went out and bought a laser printer for 2x the price of an inkjet, but I can print 10,000 sheets before having to get a new toner cartridge. The Toner cartridge is only $50 on amazon, whereas my inkjet cartridges were $40 but I replaced them 5 times as often.
And that doesn't even take into account the NOISE of inkjets.
That being said, I would start out letting a cheap printing company print your brochures and postcards. This will allow you to spend your time with your clients, instead of trying to figure out how to print a double-sided brochure, etc.
If you buy a mediocre printer now, once you have a little cash, you will not be able to justify using a professional printing company because you will feel obligated to use your mediocre printer.
On the other hand, if you wait to get a printer for when you have some cash and get a high quality printer, you can then start printing your own.
In my opinion, there is nothing more unattractive than an ameteur print job soliciting services. I get probably four or five realtor postcards or "newsletters" a month and if I were to choose one of them, the quality of their media would be taken into consideration. Or, more likely, if one of these were of lower quality, they wouldn't get a second glance.
Work smarter, not harder.
iglooman