What Printer?

[birder]

My hp's have been the best I've owned. I'd be surprised if you are unhappy with the print quality.

[Golden Bear]

Well, Ian, I use the 7280 and I actually particpate in print quality studies and whatnot. Remember, DON"T PAY ATTENTION TO REVIEWS. They are all motivated by money and they won't tell you whose.

Trust the people that you trust. I'm sorry but the home printing business is so crooked that you are unfortunately on your own. It is a sea of sharks who are pretending that they are life savers.

...and a note on refills and refillers... regardless of original manufacturer. I truly understand the cost and the hurt of buying ink, particularly for a hobby where you want to print a lot. However, HP (and Epson and Canon I am certain) spend MILLIONS of $$ every year to fight each other over producing better inks. Now, you want to dump in something prepared by an untraceable chemist who most likely does not have the labs and test reasources that the manufacturers do. Don't be surprised if the color maps don't work (your colors are wrong), your ink bleeds abnormally, it fades quickly in the light.

Also, from personal experience... I'm not an angel, you can only refill a cartridge a couple times before it starts closing up and it will only accept a small amount of ink. When ink gushes out the top as you refill you have overwhelmed the system and the back pressure - reverse pull to keep ink from dripping out the nozzles - is compromised and your pen should not ever work correctly again. If you want to use refillers I sugget using them only for test work, not for your final efforts. Anything you want to keep should be done with the real stuff. Refilled stuff works great for presentations that you throw out an hour after you use them, but not for real color work.

BTW, if you've noticed, I've ignored Lexmark and Dell. They're the same thing and offer awful products - the market has noticed and their share is disappearing. If you need a cheap printer, the examples offered by HP, Canon and Lexmark are all better, and actually cheaper to run.

Too bad most folks aren't willing to accept all this. This is the most honest presentation of the printing business and printers that you'll ever find. The systems I worked on are all out of production and I have no pride in the HP brand so all I get to use my native honesty.


Carl

[outersketcher]

I have access to an Epson stylus photo 1280 ink jet printer and a Ricoh color laser printer/photocopier at work. I have one of those Epson all-in-ones (cxsomethingorother) at home.

Since I work in the graphic arts industry... color is very important. And when it comes down to it... the Epson consistantly produces the most accurate colors. However thier inks are expensive. We tried to use refilled cartridges for a while at work, but after a while, every print took on a noticable pink cast to it. Didn't go away till we started using Epson inks again. No problems since then. I also like the Epson because I can slip just about anything through the feed and the machine will print on it. I've printed on wood veneer, matte sheet plastic, cardstock, cardboard, watercolor paper, gessoed canvas and even a sheet of homemade paper.

The all-in-one Epson I use at home works okay, and it has each ink color as individual cartridges. I'm not a fan of all-in-ones as a rule... mostly you get a machine that's not really good at anything. If you really want a machine that can reliably print beautiful sheets of color.. I'd suggest you choose a printer that is designed for photo and artwork prints. Every printing company makes thier own equivelant of the that printer.

[iantrader]

Originally Posted by Golden Bear

Well, Ian, I use the 7280 and I actually particpate in print quality studies and whatnot. Remember, DON"T PAY ATTENTION TO REVIEWS. They are all motivated by money and they won't tell you whose.

Trust the people that you trust. I'm sorry but the home printing business is so crooked that you are unfortunately on your own. It is a sea of sharks who are pretending that they are life savers.

Hence my post here . The best 'reviews' are by people who own and use the kit.

Originally Posted by Golden Bear

...and a note on refills and refillers... regardless of original manufacturer. I truly understand the cost and the hurt of buying ink, particularly for a hobby where you want to print a lot. However, HP (and Epson and Canon I am certain) spend MILLIONS of $$ every year to fight each other over producing better inks. Now, you want to dump in something prepared by an untraceable chemist who most likely does not have the labs and test reasources that the manufacturers do. Don't be surprised if the color maps don't work (your colors are wrong), your ink bleeds abnormally, it fades quickly in the light.

I only tried refills once and had problems simply getting the printer to print (my first Epson), never mind print quality.

What about CIS?

Originally Posted by Golden Bear

Too bad most folks aren't willing to accept all this. This is the most honest presentation of the printing business and printers that you'll ever find. The systems I worked on are all out of production and I have no pride in the HP brand so all I get to use my native honesty.

That's a shame. I've taken your comments on board - and bought your recommended printer!

Many thanks!

Ian

PS: It's just arrived! More later...

[John Bowden]

I too agree... cool thread.

I also agree with Carl on the ratings thing..... most people are not impartial and tend to rate according to "feelings".

That said I use (and have been using) a Canon printer because of the separate tanks for inks.

I did have a Xerox and got hooked on this feature and have tended to look for printers that have the separte ink tanks.

HP, Canon, and Epson are all good choices (as stated) just be sure to get the one that has the options you want......... handles the paper you want, network capable, ink selections, etc...

Barx2.... I think (my opinion) that when replacement ink(s) first came out for printers there was some problems with printer compatability, but that is a thing of the past.

Replacement Ink manuafactures have made great efforts in duplicating the different printer manufactures OEM ink specification. So as long as you buy a replacement ink that states it is for your specific printer manufacturer you should be happy with it.

As soon as my OEM ink tank runs out I have always used replecement inks and tanks...... and I have not had any problems.

john

[Barry]

For what it's worth I bought a cheap HP4280 Photosmart printer and I have always used HP ink and it is happily printing out Richelieu. I think it pays in spite of the pain. I used to have a part share in an all singing all dancing refill any cartridge machine sold out as quick as I could, if the ink is crap so is the cartridge. Saved me having to argue with the customers especially when I thought they were right.

[Airliner Art]

I have a Kodak ESP9 AIO. Separate print head. Seems to handle the card well. I've found a better ink than the Kodak brand though. It's LD ink carts from 4inkjets. They're inexpensive too. The Kodak ink appears to be designed for photo work on glossy paper. The LD ink gives me vivid color and respectable detail and I've never had a clogged head or a paper feed problem. If you search reviews for this printer, the response is for the most part bad...mine works great...maybe I just got a good one thats not a lemon. Other reviewers seem to like it as I do. I think every gadget has some failures in the mass produced world. I've been fortunate I guess. But this printer has been a God send for me. I love it.

Art Loveland