Investing in a good printer

I was thinking it might be a good idea to invest in a photo printer. Not for making prints but for making some really sexy looking DVD labels, brochers, flyers, price list. Many of my clients value the high res disc so I want that product to look professional.

Overall presentation is very important for me. Do you think a photo printer would be a good investment? If so what would you recommend?

I have two photo printers, one I used for on site printing at sports events and the other I use to print directly onto discs (which looks awesome btw). Everything else I print at my lab. DVD inserts get printed onto photo paper (8x12 that gets trimmed down to size), pretty much everything else (contact sheets included) gets printed onto high quality paper on their laser printer. It's the same laser printer as my print shop (the ones that do my business cards and such) uses and they don't have nearly the work load on it, so I get in pretty quickly. It's cheap, looks great and I don't have to worry about buying ink/toner or maintaining the machine. I don't think I'd ever use my own printer to do that 'business stuff' on. Keep in mind that the most important factor in the quality is going to be the paper.

I use mine for printing on disks, not printing photos. It's a little Canon ip5000, but the ink smudges if it gets wet, so i'd get an epson next time. Make sure you can get one that prints directly on disks.

Love my canon ip4300. Direct to disc printing. I use it for disc printing and every day printing. Never for photo's, flyers etc, I get all of that professionally done. I do use it for studio session proof sheets, and am very happy with that.

Cheers,
Naomi

The problem is that you need pigmented inks for durable images.

The costs for the original printer is low, but you pay a fortune for the inks unless you buy an expensive printer with large tanks. For example the Epson 4xxxx series, which can print 17" wide.

More and more manufacturers chip the ink cartridges that only their product can be used and you can't use cheaper inks from third party. (Sometimes they are even more expensive than the original, this is dependent of the product).

The question is how many images and what size do you want to print. Calculate the costs of printer, paper and ink for about 3 years and compare it with costs you have from the lab.

If you have a good lab, it saves you a lot of work and trouble, as your printer should be profiled with ink and paper too that the colors are correct.

I have an Canon i965 which can produce photo quality (even if I don't print many images due the dye ink), but it's very useful for printing direct on CDs.
All BW printing is done with a laser printer, which has toner cost of about 1 cent per page.
Prints are done by the lab. If I order to 12:30 pm, I have it next working day in the mail.

I am personally looking as well.. I think I have limited my search down to either the Epson Stylus Photo 1400 or the Epson Stylus Photo R1800.

Both can do up to 13x19 and both support direct to CD/DVD printing

Epson has always been good to me, unfortunately they always get me on ink

I read great things about the new Epson 1400. Haven't tried it myself but I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has.

Woh, that 1400's pretty big. Is there a small version that'd be good for 8x12s and printing CDs? Especially if I can get it in a multifunction device that scans copies and faxes (that's helpful occasionally).

tim wrote in post #4169190
Woh, that 1400's pretty big. Is there a small version that'd be good for 8x12s and printing CDs? Especially if I can get it in a multifunction device that scans copies and faxes (that's helpful occasionally).

See Epson Stylus Photo R380

or Epson Stylus Photo RX580 (for multifunction)

i have the 1400, gr8 printer, lovely prints (ink seems to go on forever!)

CD/DVD printing is simple with bundled software - the quality is outstanding

Bobster wrote in post #4169214
i have the 1400, gr8 printer, lovely prints (ink seems to go on forever!)

CD/DVD printing is simple with bundled software - the quality is outstanding

Great to hear this.

Out of curiosity, PC or Mac?

PC (haven't touched a Mac since 2002)

I currently have an hp printer, scanner, copier. Its rather old but I've been having problems with the printing part. The print heads seems to never be clean and it drops ink on the print when its printing. Also, its not built to do photo quality prints either.

I'm looking at the Canon Pixma IP6700 and the Canon Pixma IP4500

I second the R380 for printing on CD's, and I also use it for small onsite prints 4x6 & 5x7. Very crips for images for a small printer.

I"ll third the Epson R380