I need a good, fast, printer...

[RyanSpaulding]

Hey guys,

 

I'm looking to get a nice printer (laser?) that can do borderless printing up to 11x17. It needs to be fast so we can churn out high quality prints in a short amount of time.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions as to brand and/or model?

[Jeff Mottle]

If you need fast and quality you are probably going to have to look for a dye-sub printer. They can do 8x10 in around 10-15 seconds. Unfortunately most of the affordable ones don't print larger than full bleed 8x10. A Fuji pictrograph I think can print bigger. I don't know if they still make them. The tonal range of these are not as good, but quicker than an inkjet. I just bought the Epson 3800 Pro, but have not been able to run it through its paces yet. A high quality print at that size is probably in the 5-10 min range, or more on an inkjet. I've never seen a nice print from laser. They always look pretty muddy.

Edited January 17, 2009 by Jeff Mottle

[DarinClifton]

You probably need to indicate some kind of budget... You can get $100-$10K+ we use a Xerox Phaser 7750, it does great great photo quality, up to 12x18. Put's out 3-4 full bleed color 12x18ppm, and more like 20ppm 8.5x11 but they also run around $5-8K (current model is 7760)

D

[Brian O'Hanlon]

Jeff, I noticed in this photograph you have a basic model of lazer printer and scanner combo. A neighbour of mine intends to invest in one of those in the coming days. What model is that in the picture? Would you recommend it for general low volume office printing at A4s, documents, text etc?

 

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=29941&d=1226447945

Edited April 15, 2010 by Brian O'Hanlon

[aaronrumple]

I've never seen a nice print from laser. They always look pretty muddy.

 

Agreed. Laser will give you speed for "ok" color prints. But not really very good for high quality work.

[Brian O'Hanlon]

News Update: Lazer Printer economic analysis.

 

Update, can't find 'Develop' maker of printers on Linux printer list that P4 man referred to. 'Develop' is a part of Konica/Minolta group from what I can understand. But the big supplier here in Ireland does that make. You are looking at a lazer printer capable of taking 500 sheets, and doing double sided with NIC, which can scan, fax etc, in a compact 530x460x460mm size and 20kg weight without paper for: €1,200-00 (€200-00 for NIC inclusion).

 

In terms of consumables it is actually surprisingly cheap to run per year. Say at rate of 500 sheets per month, or around 6,000 sheets per annum, you would not even consume a full box of toner. A toner cartridge sets you back around €100-00, lasts about 8,000 pages. And the 'drum' is around €100-00 and lasts over 16,000 pages. So in other words, for a small scale, self employed consultant printing a moderate volume of reports to read etc, can comfortably get away with a running cost of a couple of hundred euro per annum. And assuming you spread another €200-00 of capital costs over a few years, the hardware would still be in warranty (I am assuming they will stand over a 5-year warantee) for most of the payback period of the initial capital amount. In total, lets guess-imtate, circa €500-00 per annum over a 5-year period.

 

But as I say, the Linux compatibility is surprising a question mark. I checked in the driver downloads part of the website and no cigar. I guess one could scrap the NIC controller, go for the lower down model, the D162F rather than the D191F, which doesn't do double sided duplex mode, and save considerably on the capital cost. But still retain some of the economic saving in consumable costs. I reckon the duplex mode printing will be a crunch point however.

 

Here is the web page of the D191F which does have duplex capability.

 

http://www.develop.de/en/products/office_products/70__produkte-detail.htm

[Jeff Mottle]

Hey Brian,

 

That combo printer/scanner is the HP laserjet 3320n. I've had it for about 8-9 years and still works as good today as it did when I first purchased it.

 

I only use it to copy and print documents. In time I've had it it's printed 21,000 pages and scanned about 2500. So for what your friend is intending to use it for, I would highly recommend a combo unit HP. I've always had HPs and have always been happy with them.

[Brian O'Hanlon]

Thanks Jeff.

 

Update:

 

The business quoted me for only a 1 year machine guarantee, with an option to buy a service contract for €250-00 per annum. They are obviously aiming at a different kind of customer I think to the friend I have, who is a one man operation in retirement. But obviously, if a business had the volumes required in terms of printing output and needed the service contract, then the deal does make sense.

 

Also, I had got the consumables mixed up too, over the phone. The quotation I am now reading for the 'Develop' Konica Minolta lazer shows - the toner kit does 16,000 prints, the replacement drum does 30,000 prints, at the costs I mentioned above. I.e. €100-00 each. Which is better value again, but I cannot see my friend doing over 6,000 prints in a year.

 

So from a volume point of view, and a warantee point of view, this model of printer is not exactly the glove like fit for a retired consultant scientist that I first thought it might be. All the same, if the man wants to pursue this route, at least I have this option to show him.

[AJLynn]

That sounds like you were quoted a KM Bizhub model - a freestanding, large machine you'd see in the copy room in an office. But it sounds like what you're looking for is a desktop model. For example:

[Brian O'Hanlon]

Aj Lynn,

 

Yeah, I know the kind you mean. We have two hp5550 colour lazers in work going side by side all day long with around 200 people using them for double sided colour printing. They have loads of paper trays underneath them, for different kinds of paper, or spare capacity. They do A3 size also. It is handy to have two, in case one isn't working, or IT support don't have time to change the toner kits, or something.

 

You are right, it would be way over kill for a small home office. HP LaserJet M2727 Multifunction Printer, gets some good product reviews by customers here:

 

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ie/en/sm/WF25a/18972-18972-3328064-3328083-3328083-3377075.html

 

 

-

Edited April 15, 2010 by Brian O'Hanlon

[Brian O'Hanlon]

I am printing brochures for some of the Brother models of lazer combos here at the moment. Luckily, there are penguins jumping around all over the place in the Brother dot IE website. That is the Brother equipment supports Linux, supports Apple, supports just about everything that is likely to use a printer. Furthermore, the mom and pop store a 15 minute drive away from my retired old friend, sells all Brother stuff (supplying basic fax machines to the area you understand), so it looks like that is the direction to go. I'll suggest to him, he goes with a high end Brother model, that will be very cheap to run. This particular model seems to do duplex.

 

http://www.brother.ie/prod/products/all-in-oneprinters/monolaserall-in-one/dcp8085dn.htm

 

Hewlett Packard are very online sales based here in Ireland. So I guess, there are different models, but the Brother brand seems to have the mom and pop channel conquered outright. The mom and pop retail channel will work best for my old buddy I think, because he can shop locally then, at his convenience. What I really do like about the Brother website also, is you click 'where to buy' (top right hand corner) and it takes you straight to a list of local stores in your area who supply printers and consumables. Very neat.

 

The 'Develop' brand is sold through a channel consisting of one big 'total' office solutions provider nationwide here in Ireland (they even sell, deliver, install office furniture and so on - they will lease you a lazer printer, and sell you the service contract for such). My old school pal runs a commercial printing business, where he does printing by the tonne load for a large town and surrounding area. I was interested in his opinion, as he runs printers and copiers into the ground, like a haulage company goes through lorries. I would imagine the backup service with the 'Develop' model of printers is so good, he doesn't shop anywhere else. Time is money etc, if you print, print, print for a living.

Edited April 15, 2010 by Brian O'Hanlon

[Brian O'Hanlon]

Jeff,

 

what did you do to the cgarchitect forum website - the forum posting and editing interface is really fast from this end in Ireland. My experiences of old, weren't always like that. Thumbs up.

[jeanlee411]

If you need fast and quality you are probably going to have to look for a dye-sub printer. They can do 8x10 in around 10-15 seconds. Unfortunately most of the affordable ones don't print larger than full bleed 8x10. A Fuji pictrograph I think can print bigger. I don't know if they still make them. The tonal range of these are not as good, but quicker than an inkjet. I just bought the Epson 3800 Pro, but have not been able to run it through its paces yet. A high quality print at that size is probably in the 5-10 min range, or more on an inkjet. I've never seen a nice print from laser. They always look pretty muddy.

You probably need to indicate some kind of budget... You can get $100-$10K+ we use a Xerox Phaser 7750, it does great great photo quality, up to 12x18. Put's out 3-4 full bleed color 12x18ppm, and more like 20ppm 8.5x11 but they also run around $5-8K (current model is 7760)

D

 

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[carlotristan3d]

Hey Brian,

 

That combo printer/scanner is the HP laserjet 3320n. I've had it for about 8-9 years and still works as good today as it did when I first purchased it.

 

I only use it to copy and print documents. In time I've had it it's printed 21,000 pages and scanned about 2500. So for what your friend is intending to use it for, I would highly recommend a combo unit HP. I've always had HPs and have always been happy with them.

 

I've always used HP, but I've noticed the new models seems to be ink-hungry. Or is it the cartridges now have lesser content than before. I get fewer prints for every cartridge used.

[Brian O'Hanlon]

I've always used HP, but I've noticed the new models seems to be ink-hungry. Or is it the cartridges now have lesser content than before. I get fewer prints for every cartridge used.

 

What I notice is there are a lot of small printer models than there used to be. I.e. Lazer printer/scanner/fax combo devices which can be bought for €200-00 here in stores, and obviously only take a 100 sheets at most, and I don't even know where they manage to fit the toner kit into the machine, it is such a small format. On the other hand, if one is cramped for desk or office space, and still absolutely need access to your own printing equipment, then the small format €200-00 units seem fine to me. Especially if you are a home office user, who only wants to send the odd fax, or print an airline ticket and so forth. But I think with those small models of printers now on the market (normally those are the ones you see in stores btw, the larger bulk versions you have to order from catalog as the stores don't stock them) you get a small printer, but you also get rising economic costs in terms of consumables - yeah, you bet the toner cartridges have less in them, in some new, smaller models.

 

I guess, there are different markets. I told my friend to invest in a system which can take 250-500 pages in 1/2 paper trays, and has a toner kit which at least does 8,000 or even up to 16,000 prints. I have to say though, the initial capital cost of the 16,000 print type of lazer equipment is high. Even as high as €1,000-00 some times, and comes with annual service contracts. Which is ideal if you have the use for that kind of system, and absolutely need the thing to work on all week days. Just some more thoughts to add into the mix.

[Brian O'Hanlon]

This might be a dumb question, and it might have a pretty simple answer. But I said I would throw it out there, in case anyone has any interesting answers or observations, or experiences to share.

 

I have an old Epson 1520 printer which I have for many years now, and I still hold it around for a little bit of large format printing I do at home. I haven't convinced myself yet that it is time to kick the printer out into the junk heap. I noticed recently, there was a new driver available at the Epson website after many years of using the same driver. So I said, to heck, I'll give it a lash.

 

I notice now there are '2' printers installed. One is the regular printer and driver interface I am so used to for all these years. The second printer, which is really the same printer - has a driver called ESC/P 2. It seems like a simple enough driver used for basic printing of some kind. I am wondering though what its purpose is, and is it for interpreting postscript files. Or is there any kind of instance in an operating system, where one can print to file or something, and then just drag the print file into this new ESC/P 2 printer, or something?

[AJLynn]

ESC/P2 is version 2 of ESC/P which stands for... something like "Epson Standard Communications Protocol". It's a printer command language from the 80's and early 90's for controlling dot matrix printers and really old inkjets. I guess Epson gave it to you for backwards compatibility, but there is no good reason to use it. You can delete the extra instance of the printer.

[Brian O'Hanlon]

I agree, I'll just delete it. It's something to do with dot matrix type applications. Amazing stuff really!

 

That is the technology that Bernie Madoff used to print his literature until recently! Maybe he asked for the legacy driver.

 

Someone else found this for me:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESC/P

 

I was interested to know what it was all about - since, it is so rare that an old printer receives a new printer driver after such a long hiatus.