inexpensive A4 (A3) office printer, that does casual photo printing ?

[menos]

I look for a new office printer for daily B&W text document prints.

I print daily apr. 20 − 30 pages B&W text (mails, drawings, …).

I would like, to print occasionally photos with good quality photo paper (mainly B&W, a few in color).
I have access to Epson photo paper of different qualities.

I big bonus would be an A3 printer, as quite often I miss to print bigger than A4 for technical drawings, that do not go to the plotter.
I don't want to have a all in one printer/ scanner/ fax unit. All other devices are already available and running. If the all in one device is the best pick in class, I do not shy away though.

I use a Mac with Snow Leopard.
I would like to print over:

USB or
Firewire or
WiFi

Budget cap would be 300,- EUR
What are my best choices? I am lost in the endless possibilities here ;-)

[neil snape]

I look for a new office printer for daily B&W text document prints.

I print daily apr. 20 − 30 pages B&W text (mails, drawings, …).

I would like, to print occasionally photos with good quality photo paper (mainly B&W, a few in color).
I have access to Epson photo paper of different qualities.

I big bonus would be an A3 printer, as quite often I miss to print bigger than A4 for technical drawings, that do not go to the plotter.
I don't want to have a all in one printer/ scanner/ fax unit. All other devices are already available and running. If the all in one device is the best pick in class, I do not shy away though.

I use a Mac with Snow Leopard.
I would like to print over:

USB or
Firewire or
WiFi

Budget cap would be 300,- EUR
What are my best choices? I am lost in the endless possibilities here ;-)

30 or so pages per day needs an inexpensive ink running cost. That isn't compatible with photo printing on photo papers.

For my text documents I kept an old HP 8750 which is A3+, dye printer except the large capacity 339 pigment black cartridges which are fairly economical for office printing in B&W, and still can print nice colour on photo paper.

The idea with that printer is when you change cartridges you are changing the print head at the same time. So basically when you buy a used printer, you change all the cartridges and you have a new printing state quality.
It is Ethernet too so nicely integrated into a network printer.

[menos]

30 or so pages per day needs an inexpensive ink running cost. That isn't compatible with photo printing on photo papers.

For my text documents I kept an old HP 8750 which is A3+, dye printer except the large capacity 339 pigment black cartridges which are fairly economical for office printing in B&W, and still can print nice colour on photo paper.

The idea with that printer is when you change cartridges you are changing the print head at the same time. So basically when you buy a used printer, you change all the cartridges and you have a new printing state quality.
It is Ethernet too so nicely integrated into a network printer.

Neill, thanks for the answer.
It looks like a second dedicated printer then.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Budget cap would be 300,- EUR
What are my best choices? I am lost in the endless possibilities here ;-)

While I do not know how bad the photo quality could be (Durabrite inks, CMYK only, minimum 3 picoliter dots) the Epson B300 and B500DN are interesting with their Pro heads, 360 nozzles each and large® carts. A4 size. The B300 fits the budget quote. The Epson 3000, 10 years ago, had CMYK only too, dye ink, 64 nozzles per head and fixed size 12 picoliter droplets. Ten years of R&D must have improved image quality too and the 3000 then was what we thought photo quality. I have seen the two Epsons on the Drupa or Photokina 2008 but didn't pay enough attention to the image quality then. Metamerism and lower gloss quality ?



met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/