A good colour printer for a graphic designer?

[Sonia Potenze]

I have recently started to work as a freelance graphic designer, and
am about to buy my very first colour printer. I would appreciate very
much any advice about which one to choose.

I work on Mac OS 9.2, mostly Photoshop, InDesign and Freehand. My work
consists mostly of ads, CD-covers, brochures and flyers in PDF format,
with both text and illutration/photographs.

I would need a colour printer for checking colour and making proof
prints up to A4 size (about 9'" x 12"), as the final product is
usually printed at a professional printer.

Most of all I need a printer with good colour reproduction. I would
also like it to be good quality, so that it would last several years.
It would be also nice if the maintenance costs would be as low as
possible -I believe this is achieved if the printer uses large
cartridges and refill is possible.

My budget is about £200-£300 (300-500 euros).

So the big questions are:
Which printer would be the best for my porpouses?
Can I get anything good for this money?
Should I opt for an inkjet or a laser printer?
And what are the differences?

I'll appreciate any views on the subject very much!

 

[Lucas Tam]

(e-mail address removed) (Sonia Potenze) wrote in

My budget is about œ200-œ300 (300-500 euros).

Your budget is a bit tight for high-end printers:

Canon i9900 (~500USD) - 8 ink system
Canon i9100 (~500USD) - 7 ink
Epson Stylus Photo 2200 (~700USD) - 7 ink
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 (~399USD) - Older printer

As for lower end printers (Usually limited to Letter Size), here are some
choices:
Canon i900 (~250USD) - 6 ink
Canon i860 (~140USD) - 5 ink
Epson Stylus Photo R800 (~400.00USD) - 8 ink


More ink types is usually better, however, sometimes lower end printers
like the Canon i860 can produce VERY nice printers that give higher end
printers a run for their money. It really depends on how nice of a print
you need. Prints quality is also determined by the type of paper you use.
Glossy paper tends to give you better looking prints than plain paper.

Personally I would opt for the i9900 or i9100 (i-series) because the ink
for these printers is extremely cheap. However, the Epson Stylus Photo
2200 has a roll feeder, so you can print 13x44" prints! Epson has uses
UltraChrome Inks which are supposedly very good.

You may want to consider a Continuous Inking System if you do a lot of
prints. A CRS is an Aftermarket add-on system that feeds bulk ink into
the printer, thus allowing you to print many more prints before
refilling.

Finally, lasers are good for line art, but not as good as inkjets for
photographic reproductions. Another possibility is Dye-Sublimination
printers (Xerox Phasers), but these printers run ~1000 - 2000USD+.

P.S. You maybe able to pick up an older Canon i9xxx series printer for a
good price... check your local stores to see if they're clearing them
out.

 

[logicalnot]

The Xerox Phaser 8400 seems to be a good choice.

Don't buy the 8200 (as I did) because you can't put or choose enough
size of paper.

But,since I have thee 8200, I do not want to talk about ink jet printer
anymore. Baaah beuuuurrk.