new small business printer

eleanor.hayes

hi all, I am setting up an online personalised print business and i am unsure wether to print my self or send it to a local printers who would charge around €3 a page. I'm not sure what is the best printer out there for what i need have done alot of research and as i'm just setting up don't have the budget for a large scale printer. need one that would have a very high quality colour print but not too savage on ink costs. need to be very clear crisp prints and don't want to go too much over the €200 mark. any advice appreciated.

Inquitus

eleanor.hayes wrote: »

hi all, I am setting up an online personalised print business and i am unsure wether to print my self or send it to a local printers who would charge around €3 a page. I'm not sure what is the best printer out there for what i need have done alot of research and as i'm just setting up don't have the budget for a large scale printer. need one that would have a very high quality colour print but not too savage on ink costs. need to be very clear crisp prints and don't want to go too much over the €200 mark. any advice appreciated.

How many pages per day would you need to print? What sort of dpi would be required? If this business is going to be in anyway successful and its for more than printing off the odd Ryanair boarding card for someone you will need a Colour Laser Jet. The initial investment will be higher than €200, but if you outsource, unless your personal design is adding a lot of value, the person getting the printing done would be better off going straight to the printer themselves, and even if your work adds value, you are just donating margin from your business to your print partner.

eleanor.hayes

i wouldn't say more than one or two a day at the start as it is personalised items it will take a bit of effort on the design side. would have to be a hign enough dpi i was looking at over 1200 anyway was thinking of just offerring them finished goods as .png prints so that the customer could just get them printed themselves at the start. and then maybe go down the route of selling printed and framed items once i have built up some income to purchase equipment. I want the printer to be a good quality so don't want to purchase one that ends up not being up to scratch becuase it was withing my budget

Inquitus

eleanor.hayes wrote: »

i wouldn't say more than one or two a day at the start as it is personalised items it will take a bit of effort on the design side. would have to be a hign enough dpi i was looking at over 1200 anyway was thinking of just offerring them finished goods as .png prints so that the customer could just get them printed themselves at the start. and then maybe go down the route of selling printed and framed items once i have built up some income to purchase equipment. I want the printer to be a good quality so don't want to purchase one that ends up not being up to scratch becuase it was withing my budget

This is within your budget(ish) and does up to 2400dpi. In the long run it will pay for itself, and 18 pages a minute seems like more than fast enough for your intentions.

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing-accessories/printers-scanners-and-ink/printers/brother-hll3230cdw-wireless-laser-colour-printer-10184588-pdt.html#tab1

https://www.brother.ie/printers/laser-printers/hl-l3230cdw#:~:text=The%20HL%2DL3230CDW%20offers%20up,produce%20high%20quality%20professional%20prints.

Go down to PC World and ask them to print some demo pages so you can inspect the quality, you can then probably find it cheaper online if you want to save a few euros.

Laser is much better in the long run, I prefer the quality, and also cheaper for refills than inkjets.

eleanor.hayes

thank you so much for your help it is much appreciated.