#Color Printers ?
11 messages in this thread
I'm in the market for a "good" color printer so that I can print
single frames for various purposes including proposals…
The problem should be obvious: I'm looking for as good a printer
as I can get for as little money as possible…
Awhile back I saw a Mannesman Tally printer at PC-Expo that looked
really great, but I can't find a distributor…
Any ideas ?
Regards —
— Matt
have you tryed the panasonic vcr that lets you print a single frame as a
photo?. i have not seem them work yet but the ad looks impresive.
sherwood
Sherwood…
No, I haven't even heard about the Panasonic VCR that prints frames as a
photo… I'll need to look into this ! It sounds really neat.
On the same front, though, I think I still need a high-res (300x300x256 ?)
color printer so that I can print from COREL as well
as ANI PRO… I need to prepare proposal packets, and presentation
overheads among other things…
I appreciate the tip about the VCR — it sounds like a nice touch…
Another front is I need to get into creating VCRs — any recommendations on
this front ?
Regards —
— Matt
Matthew,
What kind of printer are you looking for? What budget? You could
look into the color inkjets (under $2k) from HP or Tektronix. Similarly,
you could pay more for thermal transfer technologies (usually higher
resolution), or phase-change (solid ink) on plain paper. It would be
easier to respond to your question if you could provide some limits as well
as important features you might require/desire.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin —
I appreciate the questions… They're all valid.
I stated in my *first* message that I'm trying to get as much printer for
as little money as possible. I realise that that statement is quite
relative, but I'm looking to get input on alternatives (in other words the
budget is flexible if the expense is justifiable).
What resolution could I expect from the Color InkJets and will they print
on transparencies ? Like wise, what are the fundamental spec's and
starting price ranges of the other options (resolution, colors, etc…)
Unfortunately, I haven't found a store that I could walk into to look at
options, and few catalogs I've seen advertise color !
I'm sure this reply doesn't make the issue black-and-white (aw, you knew it
was coming)… But I'm fairly flexible — just cheap.
I need to print from ANI PRO, COREL, and PowerPoint — currently, I send
the work out to a place that does a great job on a Kodak Printer that I
believe costs around $20K — forget that option !
— Matt
Matt:
You can get the HP500C for under $1000. (probably under $800). It does
300dpi, B&W or color. I've seen the output. B&W is not as crisp as a
laser, but good nonetheless. You probably wouldn't want to use it for DTP
except as a check print machine.
Color looks great. I saw some of the CorelDRAW samples printed out and
they were beautiful. It is s-l-o-w! The Corel "grasshopper" sample
supposedly took 20 minutes to print. That might be o.k. for light use.
Blacks are not really black when using the color cartridge; more like a
dark green-ish black. I've also heard that color reproduction is not too
faithful, but the samples I saw looked pretty good. Oh yeah, it works on
plain paper and transparencies.
Someone suggested a better solution for serious use is a B&W laser printer
for routine printing tasks, and a HP PaintJet for color.
I've also output to a friend's Mitsubishi dye-sublimation printer. Its
about the same size as a standard laser, but I think they cost over $8K.
Best output I've seen, though. Did a fine job on my TARGA files. Uses a
funny paper (chemically-treated).
There it is. The "low-tech" answer to a high tech question.
Regards,
Jeff Hester
Jeff,
The Mitsubishi dye-sub is actually about $14k. The new unit from
RasterOps is $10k, but it works best if you add 36MB (!) RAM to the base
unit. The paper runs about $4-$5/print. No transparencies.
My own preference is either the Tektronix Phaser II PX ($5995), Phaser PXi
($7995) thermal printers ($.47/print, $1.10 transparencies), or the
plain-paper Phaser III Pxi ($9995, and $.05 for a print, although
transparencies are still about a buck). These, BTW, are PostScript
printers. The PXi takes about 2 minutes for the grasshopper. Corel Draw
is really geared to PostScript printing.
Since Matthew probably isn't talking this kind of money, I think he'd be
best served by either an HP Paintjet (or XL) or the Tektronix ColorQuick
inkjets. Slow perhaps, but good color, and transparency output is good.
Both are available with Windows drivers.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin —
You're quite right that the >$5K printers are not in the $$ I was thinking
of, although I'm still interested in knowing what I should be paying for…
I think I can live with the speed as long as I can count on the resolution
and color representation.
Now… Any ideas on purchasing channels ?
Thanx !
— Matt
Matthew,
The HP & Tektronix ink jets are both available through distributors.
Thus, any computer dealer with good credit (if there is still such a thing)
can get them.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
I guess there's no other way around it…
I'll have to use the phone !!!
Thanx —
— Matt
Jeff —
Thanx very much for the very detailed "low-tech" info !
I saw Kevin Krell's response to you, and he's right, he's getting out of my
immediate intentions, but not perhaps my longer-term…
I'll reply to his message directly regarding the difference between the
PaintJet and the XL, unless you've got some insight there…
I think I can stand the wait re print speed, and I'm not concerned about
B&W since I've got an HP IIIp to handle that (& a Pacific Page PostScript
cartridge, although PCL5 does a very close equivelence when output from
COREL directly !).
Thanx again…
— Matt