Oxymoron: Small-form factor large format printer

[seanjkanderson]

Perhaps this has been discussed elsewhere, and I believe it's a general grail for printing for photography as opposed to graphic design. What I'm wondering is, is there a printer say 24" or 44" that is of considerable less weight/size than the competition?

Say I want a printer that is either 24 or 44 and is reasonable to move (I'm a grad student who tends to move and live in smaller residences). If it made a difference, I don't care if a print takes quite some time as my overall volume would be low.

[dgberg]

If you can find one the HP z3200 24" or 44" is 50% smaller then my Epson's

[Dan Wells]

I've been advocating for this for years. Printers for individual photographers don't need to be built on the big, fast graphic arts chassis. HP actually had a desktop 24" printer many years ago (DesignJet 130?). It weighed about 50-60 lbs. It was only a 6-color machine, so something with 12 colors would be heavier - but should be able to be under 100 lbs. It would lose the big ink cartridges, but 100-150 ml is fine for a lot of photographers, and should be doable in a smaller printer. A desktop 24" printer and/or a skinny stand-mounted 44" printer that pushed right against the wall when not in use would be a vast improvement over the current generation of Hulking Giants for a lot of our uses...

[mearussi]

If you're not real fussy about image quality there are 6 color plotters that are both lighter and smaller than pro printers. I see them quite often for sale on Craigslist.

[seanjkanderson]

If you can find one the HP z3200 24" or 44" is 50% smaller then my Epson's

Thanks for this recommendation Dan. I was previously oblivious to the HP z3200 line but now I see it's quite common in this section of the forum. I'll look further into it and see if I can source one locally!

I've been advocating for this for years. Printers for individual photographers don't need to be built on the big, fast graphic arts chassis. HP actually had a desktop 24" printer many years ago (DesignJet 130?). It weighed about 50-60 lbs. It was only a 6-color machine, so something with 12 colors would be heavier - but should be able to be under 100 lbs. It would lose the big ink cartridges, but 100-150 ml is fine for a lot of photographers, and should be doable in a smaller printer. A desktop 24" printer and/or a skinny stand-mounted 44" printer that pushed right against the wall when not in use would be a vast improvement over the current generation of Hulking Giants for a lot of our uses...

I imagine the market is too small to drive a large company to build such a machine? Or is there a different reason for lack of such a machine? I'd be interested in whether any one has sketched such a design up or if a small company has taken this on.

If you're not real fussy about image quality there are 6 color plotters that are both lighter and smaller than pro printers. I see them quite often for sale on Craigslist.

I am looking for something that's on the finer side, and would tradeoff on having too big of a machine rather than losing quality I think.

Thanks for these thoughts!

[dds]

I too would be interested in a smaller, lighter, high-quality 24-inch printer. I had to give up my big Epson when I moved. But I could easily accommodate a 35- or 40-inch wide unit if it was space-efficient and under 80 lbs.

I think something like the Epson T3170 CMYK printer could be developed in this direction. More inks would be needed, i imagine. On the other hand, with evolving print tech, some light inks and kicker inks could become less necessary as screening algorithms and print heads improve.

[seanjkanderson]

I too would be interested in a smaller, lighter, high-quality 24-inch printer. I had to give up my big Epson when I moved. But I could easily accommodate a 35- or 40-inch wide unit if it was space-efficient and under 80 lbs.

I think something like the Epson T3170 CMYK printer could be developed in this direction. More inks would be needed, i imagine. On the other hand, with evolving print tech, some light inks and kicker inks could become less necessary as screening algorithms and print heads improve.

I’m not familiar enough with printers yet, but I’d be interested to look at the breakdown of parts by volume and by weight. Then could assess how to optimize it for space and weight. I’d imagine that there’s just too much knowledge required and too small of a market for a new company to break into printing but it’s be cool if someone made a zombie machine that used the heads and specialized components with a stripped down mechanical body.

[dpirazzi]

They are by no means small, but Canon's latest large format printers are smaller than those they replaced. The 4100 is a full foot shorter in length than the 8300 I had previously, greatly appreciated in my small office.