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Ink jet for promotion...
Good Day All,
Over the years I've used personal inkjets to produce promotional items and an occasional print for sale -- commercial stuff. I generally produce postcards and portfolio items. I've used the epson 1280 or 1290 fitted with various MIS continuous flow systems. I have ruined or run 4 of these into the ground (epson's QA tolerances may also have contributed). I killed my last two epson's a few months back and need to get a replacement.
As mentioned, I print postcards mostly and will not need it for finished prints, or diginegs or anything archival. I do want the output to be good. I don't need a wide format or at least wider than ~12". Cost is an issue, I like to pay under $500.00.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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 Originally Posted by jd callow  Good Day All,
Over the years I've used personal inkjets to produce promotional items and an occasional print for sale -- commercial stuff. I generally produce postcards and portfolio items. I've used the epson 1280 or 1290 fitted with various MIS continuous flow systems. I have ruined or run 4 of these into the ground (epson's QA tolerances may also have contributed). I killed my last two epson's a few months back and need to get a replacement.
As mentioned, I print postcards mostly and will not need it for finished prints, or diginegs or anything archival. I do want the output to be good. I don't need a wide format or at least wider than ~12". Cost is an issue, I like to pay under $500.00.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. The new Epson 1400 is slated to cost about $400 - a 13x19 printer. Of course these are dye based inks but they may be improved from previous dyes from Epson and be less fade resistant.
Don Bryant
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The 1400 is Claria dye inks. I've been testing these inks on several matte papers for about 6 weeks in the central New York "sun light", fading is not going to be an issue with Claria and matte papers. The dmax is not very good on matte papers though, about the same as Ultrachome Photo black on matte papers (i.e. not very good). For glossy work they will be very impressive and the single glossy paper I have in the test (PGPP) shows almost no change after 30 days, and what was shown could have been measurement or mathmatic errors in building the profile. I dropped a message about this in a thread at DPReveiw that got very little notice, and also a thread in the Yahoo digital B/W the print group which was received a little better. The targets are back in the window, and aging.
Depending on exactly what you need, I have an Epson cx6600 with an InkRepublic CIS attached. That thing has been going for more than a year, and more than about 5000 pages. More than 250ml of each color. No problems.
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Beware of running costs with the claria ink printers. Epson will sell you the cheap printer and you'll run out of ink almost the same day you bought it. Maybe the 13" wide printer will not be the case but the smaller units certainly are. Google the thing before buying.
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See my first impressions of the HP B9180 over at the LF Forum. I am busily putting it through its paces for a full review/evaluation in View Camera and, so far, have nothingbut praise for this printer. It uses pigment based inks similar to the larger Z2100 sries and to the Canon and Epson pigment based printers.
Th results are outstanding and you will find street prices from a hair over 500 to 540 or so.
I have been using a pair of R800's for three years for the sort of production work you describe, including printing notecards for sale. One of them is dying and I suspect the other is not far behind. Unless something changes I will replace them with a B9180 which will also allow me to do some presentation printing (up to 13x19) without cranking up oen of the big wide format printers.
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Would the ability to print on CDs be useful? That's one of the main jobs I use my R800 for.
Best,
Helen
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Yes, direct CD printing would be prefferable to labels. Roll feed on the 1280/90's was nice as well.
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Originally Posted by Greg_E The 1400 is Claria dye inks. I've been testing these inks on several matte papers for about 6 weeks in the central New York "sun light", fading is not going to be an issue with Claria and matte papers. The dmax is not very good on matte papers though, about the same as Ultrachome Photo black on matte papers (i.e. not very good). For glossy Do you know anything about the UV blocking of the Claria dye inks? I am hoping to use this printer for making digital negaitives for alternative printing. Negatives from the 1280 printed smoother (less grain) with alternative printing than negatives from the 2200, though the latter produced more sharpness, and I am hoping that the 1400 will print smoother still since its ink drops are much smaller than those of the 2200 (or 3800). In any event I decided to bit the bullet and buy a 1400 and give it a try since I am having Venetian blind problems with my current pigmented ink printer.
Sandy King
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Sandy,
Please let us know your thoughts regarding the 1400. New egg has it for 362.00, but I've yet to find a CFS system for this printer.
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No idea about the UV blocking abilities of the Claria inks.
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