Pro Tip: Looking for a 13x19 Large-Format Printer? Go PRO for (really) cheap.
Reblogged from fox-orian
So, some of you may be thinking about a printer to get yourself to produce your own high-quality, large sized prints at home. Problem is, a lot of these higher-end printers can be pretty costly — way more than you’d like to spend on *just* a printer. On average, a semi-professional printer can be found for cheapest $400 to $500 online. So what’s the value in one of these? (If you want the ProTip, you’re gonna want to read this through.)
Well, aside from typically printing on paper up to 13x19 inches, they can print on thicker, higher quality paper stocks, including all-cotton archival rags, even watercolor paper. Almost all of these types of printers have 8 inks instead of the basic 4, whose tones vary on the model. Most contain two types of blacks, (a matte and gloss black,) variations of deep/light cyan, and magenta, a yellow, and one or two special colors such as red, orange, blue, or green. These extra cartridges offer higher quality color fidelity and smoother gradations over subtle tones, such as skin or sky. Better yet, each color has its own specific cartridge, making replacing the inks easier since if one goes out — you don’t have to replace the entire magazine. And to add additional value, you can easily refill these cartridges yourself with refill kits and chip-resetters. With a refill kit, you can typically get 4 to 8 times the usage of a single cartridge for the cost of a new retail one. If you do a lot of printing, you can stock up on previously refilled cartridges to keep things running smoothly.
Sounds a lot better than your run-of-the-mill 8.5x11 printer you can get for $60 at Best Buy, doesn’t it?
If you were to ask me, EPSON and CANON are the only companies you should be considering when looking at a semi-pro printer. The two you should most definitely consider are…
1. The Epson Stylus Photo R1900, which retails for roughly $550 online.
2. The Canon Pixma PRO9000 Mk.II, which retails for roughly $400 online.Now you’ll notice the Epson is more expensive, there. The reason for this is that the EPSON is a full-archival PIGMENT ink system, and is capable of printing from a ROLL as well as cut-sheet paper. The Canon can only print from cut-sheet paper, but can print on thicker materials (as thick as corrugated cardboard!!) in exchange. As for the ink, “pigmented” means that the color of the ink comes from tiny crystalline structures suspended in the solution. These crystals are never actually absorbed into the paper when the ink dries, which vastly improves the shelf-life of the print in terms of color fading/aging and water/humidity resistance. A regular printer will typically use DYE based inks, which the Canon uses. The one pro of a dye based system is that the inks are typically denser in color, and thus print much more vibrantly when needed. They also don’t reflect light at angles like pigment inks can be known to do. That said, due to the supreme archival nature of pigment ink, it’s also supremely expensive to refill. So unless you need your print to stay behind glass in a gallery for the next 300 years, the value offered by a dye-based system will undoubtedly be all you need. And hey, dye ink still lasts a good 100 or more years if printed on an acid-free paper!
So if you were to REALLY ask me, I’d really suggest only ever looking at the Canon Pixma PRO9000 Mk.II. But at $400 on amazon, it’s still a bit of a pain isn’t it? I mean, that’s more expensive than any current video game console, and a whole lot less fun than one! But… there is ONE special secret about the Pixma PRO9000…
Lots and LOTS of people are trying to sell theirs, BRAND NEW. Turns out, the PRO9000 is typically offered as a free gift to Canon’s Professional buyers, who make large, expensive camera purchases on pro equipment such as EOS 5D and 1D’s. Many of these professionals either already have one, or have a printer which is better, so they put it up for sale on eBay. The volume of these printers on eBay has driven their price down to between $150 to $210 depending on when you’re looking. And yes, almost always brand-new, never opened. Full warranty, you name it. You can’t go wrong.
Above: Don’t be fooled - this printer is HUGE at over 2 feet wide. And very heavy at about 33 lbs. It has wheels on the bottom-back edge for easier repositioning.
This is a serious amount of printer for only that much money — and I should know! I bought one of these last summer when my old Epson Stylus Photo R1800 completely broke, and considered going Canon instead of upgrading to the R1900. I had read that Canon printers consume far less ink per-print than Epson does, (and I can confirm that the Pro9000 is incredibly less wasteful with its ink over the R1800/R1900,) and has a bit better color fidelity due to its color cartridge selection over the Epson. Sure, you lose the ability to print with 13” wide rolls on the Canon, but at $300 cheaper, I’m not even going to miss that feature, especially since all I own is cut-sheet paper. I haven’t noticed any MAJOR difference in print quality from my R1800 to Pro9000, though. I mean, that’s a good thing. Both are great printers. I mean, really great. I loved the way my R1800 printed. And at the insane $150 price tag I nabbed the Pro9000 for, (with free shipping even,) it somehow just makes it look that much better after each and every print.
So, if you’ve been thinking about getting one of these for some time now, and don’t want a cheap bottom-rung no-name model from Buy N’ Large, what are you waiting for?!
GO GET YOURS NOW, MAN! And print like you’ve always wanted to!
Above:Test strips from my PRO9000 Mk.II.(Anyway, all that said, you’re going to have to get some good papers. Regular office copy paper isn’t going to cut it anymore. I highly suggest EPSON ENHANCED MATTE paper, EPSON LUSTER, and CRANE MUSEO SILVER RAG. They can get expensive, but they are full archival, incredibly high-quality papers. Always save one sheet to do small test prints on before doing a full size print on another sheet. This can save you lots of wasted paper on badly calibrated settings. I think I’ll do another article on this in the future. Next hurdle? A kickass printer makes you want a paper-trimmer to get rid of white edges. But a high quality one, such as a rota-trim can be more expensive than the printer itself! Best bet for now is to just get em’ trimmed at Kinkos.)
How did I NOT see this back when it was posted?
