Printer suitable for graphic design stuff

seaner

HI,
Would anyone be able to help me. from time to time I design invitations etc for people, mainly for 21'st etc. And recently i've done a few wedding invitations, but I've always had to send my designs to a printer to get them done. And this works out pretty expensive. I've also tried printing some myself in work ,but i don't think that my work's printer is cut out for it! It took me a few hours, lots of paper jams and ink everywhere!

I'm thinking it might just be worth my while getting a decent printer to be able to handle reeling off a couple hundred copies of a something which I design. I would also need to make sure that it would handle printing on fairly heavy paper too. Would be willing to pay up to 1000 for this printer, as I think i'd need to if I was serious about maybe taking my hobby further.

Does anyone have any advice for me??

thanks

sean

heggie

your problem is heavy paper. A good colour laser would be ideal, except they won't take heavy paper until you spend alot. I have an epson r1800 which takes very heavy paper, but will not be as cheap to run.

seaner

thanks heggie,
is your epson a laser? So it prints a nice image and takes heavy paper?
I have an epson aculaser at the moment but it hates heavy paper!!
would you recommend your laser? what is cost you?

heggie

epson inkjet, sry. A heavy stock capable laser is big money, and would make big money for you! it's basically what most 'digital' printers use.

spidermonkey

i wouldn't see the benefit in getting a home printer for commercial use,
it'd drink ink, i'd prefer to hand the job over to a printer and let them deal with all the possible problems that might arise.
fair enough it is expensive to get printed proper, but you would waste a load of money on ink& good quality paper, not to mention wasting your time scoring, cutting& folding and what about laminating or varnish?.
its worth giving the money to a printer and upping your charge respectivly.

failing that i wouldn't get an inkjet, i'd get a xerox machine, nice quality % uses toner rather than ink so it wont run, very very expensive though:(

heggie

yup exactly. the cutting and backing up will be a nightmare unless you get a professional machine

seaner

spidermonkey wrote:

i wouldn't see the benefit in getting a home printer for commercial use,
it'd drink ink, i'd prefer to hand the job over to a printer and let them deal with all the possible problems that might arise.
fair enough it is expensive to get printed proper, but you would waste a load of money on ink& good quality paper, not to mention wasting your time scoring, cutting& folding and what about laminating or varnish?.
its worth giving the money to a printer and upping your charge respectivly.

failing that i wouldn't get an inkjet, i'd get a xerox machine, nice quality % uses toner rather than ink so it wont run, very very expensive though:(

fair point, but I think you've a misconceived idea of what I would be printing. I'm not printing business cards or anything like that. I was mainly thinking of attempting the wedding card business.

My sister is getting married and she has been to a good few places, gotten samples and been given quotes. At I nearly died when I saw what they were charging. And the samples were a joke. Hardly any time or effort went into the concept of the card, let alone the final production of it.

It left me thinking I could probably do a great deal better. I'd quickly done up a mock of one for my sister, and she loved it! It just leaves me with the question...how do I print 120 of these things?! Which is why i posted this thread.

I think i'll keep looking because I honestly believe that it would be more cost effective for me to own a decent printer - do the work , than to outsource it to some printer who's going to charge me an arm and a leg anyway..

cheers.

heggie

you could try lantz, the do wedding items. Printing for weddings is a generally a lot of trouble as there are a lot of different items and all short runs, not to mention metallic inks, specialist papers etc, and only a few companies truly specialise in it.

www.lantz.ie has some samples. never used these guys myself.

minikin

check out a xerox phaser (A4) or (A3)

shayser

I'm looking for the same thing.

Would this be suitable?

http://www.epson.co.uk/printers/ultrachrome_professional_printers/Epson_Stylus_Photo_R2400_printer_specs.htm

shayser

Anyone have any impressions of the printer above.?

Might it do, or does it have any obvious flaws?

Cheers.

heggie

its like my r1800, great printers for checking layout etc, but will cost you a fortune to print any decent run, plus there is drying time, offset when cutting, the list goes on!

shayser

heggie wrote:

its like my r1800, great printers for checking layout etc, but will cost you a fortune to print any decent run, plus there is drying time, offset when cutting, the list goes on!

Have you printed on card with it?

heggie

yep. takes up to 4 mm thick I think, i've tested it up to 450 gsm, the problem is getting paper suitable for it that thick, as with normal paper the ink bleeds in it a bit, so you cant get full quality at that thickness (because of the paper surface)

iconboy

For all short run colour work I use a digital printer. Try Absolute Print. They are cheap and produce excellent quality invite, mailers and labels. They can also courier printed material to you.

shayser

heggie wrote:

yep. takes up to 4 mm thick I think, i've tested it up to 450 gsm, the problem is getting paper suitable for it that thick, as with normal paper the ink bleeds in it a bit, so you cant get full quality at that thickness (because of the paper surface)

Thanks for the info. Would it be the case then that the print quality decresases as the thickness of the card increases? Something around 200gsm might be ok?

heggie

no its not that at all, its just finding the right media, the surface of that type of card isnt great for inkjets