Forums The Vibe Chat best PC printers?

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #1038938
    General Lighting
    Moderator

      I’m after a new PC printer at the moment; a decent quality inkjet one. The main output will be normal text documents with a bit of spot colour and the odd photo or two (i’ve already got a small dye-sub for photo quality prints) so I’m looking for something that performs well on normal plain A4 paper…

      I have always found HP printers to be good in the past but I’m looking at one with 4 seperate ink tanks rather than 1 black plus 1 colour. The HP “officejet” printers that used to be issued by the Civil Service providers with 4 colour ink tanks always seemed to have duff colour balance and make the pictures too dark though.

      A shame as otherwise they were decent robust printers.

      anyone got any suggestions (perhaps the HP ones have improved?) I’ve got a Canon laser printer at work and that seems OK so maybe Canon is worth a try?

      #1086974
      globalloon
      Participant

        i’ve had a samsung (laser) printer for 2 years… it’s B&W, but obviously they also do colour printers as well

        it’s pretty robust and the quality is very high

        #1086975
        Raj
        Participant

          colour balance on hp was not the best :groucho:

          i have personally used/own
          epson colour laser – ok if you take the time to adjust the settings :groucho:
          hp [dont like them] [cranky things – dont like old paper, damp paper [its daaamp here]
          canon BJ series [great photo real colour with special tanks; bottom of the range ones are robust and can be used with non proprietary inks and take a real thrashing :wink:]
          xerox thermal wax transfer printer [ the doggy’s doodahs but expensive to acquire :crazy:]
          brother laser [mono] real workhorse – we sold it on to someone else after 4 years of abuse and they ran it into the ground [ could no longer get replacement drums for it when it ran out…:wink: 2-3 years more continuos abuse ]

          have also maintained and watched others thrash
          star lc 10s [dinosaurs now]
          epson inkjet [cartridges seem to run out pretty fast]
          brother MFC printer [dont bother with it]

          what are you going to print on it mostly and how often are you going to use it?raaaraaaraaaraaa

          #1086969
          General Lighting
          Moderator

            it would mostly be letters and proofs for presentation type graphics and DTP – say an A4 sheet with mostly black text, some vector graphics in spot colours and the odd photo…

            perhaps printing 100 or so pages every month…

            #1086976
            Raj
            Participant

              i will go and ask my mate who services printers what he recommends if you want?

              i assume that bombproof and cheap to own/run would be the main criteria?

              and do you prefer inkjet or laser? [laser looks better for official documents / dtp proofing ][ and doesnt smudge if it gets wet!]

              any idea what you would be prepared to spend?

              /me is full of questions today :groucho:

              #1086970
              General Lighting
              Moderator
                raj wrote:
                i will go and ask my mate who services printers what he recommends if you want?

                i assume that bombproof and cheap to own/run would be the main criteria?

                and do you prefer inkjet or laser? [laser looks better for official documents / dtp proofing ][ and doesnt smudge if it gets wet!]

                any idea what you would be prepared to spend?

                * raj is full of questions today :groucho:

                yep, looking for something thats robust and consumables aren’t too expensive… looking for an inkjet around £150 price range max (got access to several mono laser printers at work already)..

                #1086977
                Raj
                Participant

                  ok

                  will grill my mate and get back to you; is quality of photos important? :groucho:

                  #1086971
                  General Lighting
                  Moderator
                    raj wrote:
                    ok

                    will grill my mate and get back to you; is quality of photos important? :groucho:

                    For this printer black text and spot colours are more important – but I’d want reasonable quality on plain paper (same sort of quality as a colour newspaper) and slightly better quality on inkjet specific paper (the 100gsm sort of paper sold in the office supplies shops).

                    if it can match the quality of a photo printed out on a normal HP Deskjet that would be fine…. already got a small dye-sub printer (really good quality but price per photo is quite high, about the same level as conventional film)

                    #1086978
                    Raj
                    Participant

                      :obey::obey::obey::obey::obey::obey:

                      #1086972
                      General Lighting
                      Moderator

                        did a bit more research and looking at one of the Canon Pixma MP or ip ranges with the separate colour ink tanks….

                        #1086979
                        Raj
                        Participant

                          ok

                          i will ask about them….:groucho:

                          #1086980
                          Shit Robot
                          Participant

                            Ive got a spare canon s9000 A3-Photo prints are fantastic,as are text and graphics,but the thing costs a fair bit to run,6 seperate ink tanks at 6-11 quid each.look it up and PM Me if its of interest to you.

                            #1086973
                            General Lighting
                            Moderator
                              GoodDoG wrote:
                              Ive got a spare canon s9000 A3-Photo prints are fantastic,as are text and graphics,but the thing costs a fair bit to run,6 seperate ink tanks at 6-11 quid each.look it up and PM Me if its of interest to you.

                              thanks for the offer – at the moment the running costs (and size of the machine!) could be a sticking point.

                              TBH if I had the money I’d get this but I don’t print that much A3 or photo content to justify it any more.

                              Sadly I haven’t had that much time for creative stuff at the moment as my times taken up by bean-counting…

                              OTOH remind me if you haven’t sold it in a couple months time. My employers are expanding and setting up a training centre and I might be able (although I can’t promise it) to convince them to buy the thing….

                              #1086982
                              managemysite
                              Participant

                                I always like lexmark printers for daily use, but HP lasers are good for heavy use.

                                #1086981
                                Shit Robot
                                Participant
                                  General Lighting wrote:
                                  thanks for the offer – at the moment the running costs (and size of the machine!) could be a sticking point.

                                  TBH if I had the money I’d get this but I don’t print that much A3 or photo content to justify it any more.

                                  Sadly I haven’t had that much time for creative stuff at the moment as my times taken up by bean-counting…

                                  OTOH remind me if you haven’t sold it in a couple months time. My employers are expanding and setting up a training centre and I might be able (although I can’t promise it) to convince them to buy the thing….

                                  Its actually potentially usefull as a spare,though to be honest Im fairly sure that just getting the odd A3 done at Jessops or somewhere works out cheaper,which is what I tend to do for photos these days.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
                                • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                                Forums The Vibe Chat best PC printers?