Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: darlingm on September 24, 2012, 04:09:46 am
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I don't make many small prints, but have had a few wedding photographers ask lately about 4x6's and 5x7's.
I know these jobs wouldn't make me rich, but I'd batch print them without editing, so they wouldn't take much labor. I figure having the client would lead to some larger prints (including stretched canvas.)
Looking for thoughts...
I don't think my Epson 9900 or HP Officejet 7000 (which I only use for personal desktop printing) would work well.
I see Walmart sells 4x6's at $0.09, 5x7's $0.58, 8x10's $2.84. Snapfish $0.09, $0.79, $2.99. Sam's club $0.08, $0.34, $1.42.
Not going to be hitting those 4x6 and 5x7 prices, or Sam's 8x10 price. But, what's the most economical way to do this, so I can throw a quote at him and see what happens?
I see Epson has a PictureMate, which says it runs about $0.29 per 4x6 print, but I'm guessing that's ink cost only, not including paper or amortized printer cost, and it doesn't do 5x7's.
I see the 3880 can handle this, but I'd never recover my investment. (And, I'm purchasing a 4900 soon because I want a smaller 9900 for proofing with the exact same color gamut and extra capacity. But the 4900's minimum cut sheet size is 8x10.)
As a side question, does borderless printing always lead to ink spray on the back like my HP Officejet 7000 does? (If you aren't printing with bleed and cutting, that is.)
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I would gang the images on one large 'image' in PS and print to larger sheets (13x19, 17x22) and trim with a rotary cutter. I had to do 225 single sided invitations (and the same number of response cards) for my niece's wedding. I printed them on 17x22 Epson Cold Press Natural White, no space between images and trimmed using a Foster-Keencut Advanced Rotary Cutter. I wouldn't have attempted this without the cutter! BTW, CPNW is capable of double-sided printing if you need graphics on both sides of the invitation.