how many printers to get

[Mike Guilbault]

I've had my 4900 for two years now and rarely have a clogging issue.  It sits idle for days (although usually not weeks) and fires up, does a clean cycle and is ready to go.  I think a lot has to do with the environment it's in.  I'm usually hovering around 45% humidity - sometimes up to 50ish, but not often below 38 except in the dead of winter. Still very few problems, if any.

My 9900, about 8 months old now, has also worked flawlessly over the summer while the humidity ranges from 42 to 50%.  I try to keep at least a print going through every few days, but often have long runs of printing to keep it happy. 

I'm very satisfied with performance of both these printers. 

[jrsforums]

If there is a secret it is that you should never ever run it on High Speed.

Could you explain why?

[Damir]

I have several printers in my studio from A3+ to 44"

Just got EPSON 9800 44"
Have HP DJ Z3100 GP PS 24”
HP Pro B 9180
HP Photosmart 8850
All pigment printers

Also dye printers
HP Photosmart 8550
HP Photosmart 8750

I use Z3100 most of the time, perfect machine but is not practical for small sheet prints. As I do a lot of fashion photography for models books I need A4 prints for which I mostly use Pro B 9180 it saves a lot of time on de-rolling prints and cutting them to a size. I also use that printer for everything in small formats, like promotion postcards and small promotion prints. Also for double side printing for books.

It just depend on your work I suppose. Regarding dye printers, I use them only occasionally when I have to print something that need strong colors and will be protected in use from moisture, like albums with sleeves. I have them because I still have ink and paper for them. Once when I spend all the ink and papers I will trash them, as prints are more expensive than pigment prints.

Anyway small printers are more expensive to run than big ones regarding the ink price, therefore I use refilling cartridges for 9180 and 8850 in which I reload genuine HP Vivera ink from bigger HP carts.

There is one more reason for me to have small printers, there are a lot of scrap papers left from big printer, also there is always some ink left in carts of big printer around 7 ml. Therefore I use it for small printers and I actually have free paper and ink for them to do some testing, promo prints even prints for model books.

Damir

[pudlofink]

that's very interesting. I keep having this internal back and forward between just a big printer or adding a small one. There are good arguments for both. One lets me focus, save cash in upfront costs, and time in learning and setting up. Two provides enticing flexibility in being able to run out very small prints straight off cut sheets with no trimming afterwards. Am I right in assuming that small prints can be layed out onto a roll and then trimmed after, but this requires decurl and trimming, as you say. Plus with what you have just said the refilling cartridges taking the cheaper ink from bigger carts, which sounds great!
I suppose it's not a big deal anyway, even without the ink price advantage, if the overall convenience of the desktop printer for small prints overrides the costlier inks in small carts I could simply factor this into my print prices by increasing them, but its still worth considering. It's an economic game when in it for actual business reasons and every factor contributes. On this topic I wonder too if that limiting the minimum print size to sell to something not too small (around A4) results in better revenue because do some buyers tend to go for the smallest print size on offer. Even if some more research results in my smallest print being A4, then you mention about promotional items and the small format would be valuable here.

I was actually looking into the Canon Pro-100 (a dye printer) and it's use with the swellable papers which hold and protect the dye and enable it to be quite resistant to fading although not to the level of pigment. My thoughts had been to possibly use this for the small version printer and run off snappy and vibrant prints because the vector artwork I have is colorful in nature, solid areas of bright color and sharp edges. In practice however I'm still evaluating though because I think pigments have more subtlely which may make the edges of colored areas more definite and tangible. The only way I can tell if dye vibrancy would trump pigment nuancy would only be if I get into actual testing it and getting samples of my specific work. But dyes somehow appeal, and I will be staying with the pigment printer for my large format, most likely the Canon 8400 is favourite at the moment.
From looking around (I searched 'Pro-100' in this forum for example) it seems that the dye printers aren't a favourite of printmakers and pigments are king. My search turned up only a handful of pages on the Canon dye printer. Also I thought dyes were cheaper inks than pigments? I would want my buyers to display their prints and unless they tip water onto the dye print hopefully it would still be suitable.

[Damir]

In my case, and I suppose in many other cases, small printers have fewer inks than big one, for example my Z use 12 inks or 11 if you don’t count gloss enhancer, but Pro B use only 8 inks. Print quality is much better. Learning time is not problem as usually printers from same company have same operating logic.

Dye prints on swellable papers are extremely sensitive to manipulation, even if you catch it with your finger moisture from fingers can ruin it. I am rarely selling prints as fine art, market here in Croatia is extremely limited for prints, but I am printing a lot for exhibitions and promotion, like invitations, high quality promotional flyer, promotional postcards and similar. For that always use small printers. It is easier, especially when you have larger quantities,