|
Post by highlandpiper on Feb 5, 2013 23:30:59 GMT -9
So my Epson SX200 seems to be having some problems and I need a new printer. Here is what I want out of a new printer
Wireless Printing
Photo Quality Prints
Can handle thick cardstock
Individual Ink Cartridges
Possible use of 2nd party inks
Scan & Copy
For our hobby purposes does it matter if it is front or rear loaded?
I can not afford a laser printer. I have to use 2nd party cartridges most of the time.
|
|
|
Post by cherno on Feb 8, 2013 15:09:02 GMT -9
I'd say one of the Canon printers in the $100 range should do the trick; My iP4850 does everything in your list save for the wireless printing and copy&save function and it cost only $80 when bought more than a year ago.
The back-loading rack is often required for thicker cardstock.
|
|
|
Post by glennwilliams on Feb 9, 2013 11:13:46 GMT -9
I've been using a Canon MP850 for about two years and love it. Inexpensive, meets all your criteria--but I've never tried third party ink cartridges.
|
|
|
Post by highlandpiper on Apr 10, 2013 11:46:51 GMT -9
Well after the house move and getting the place redecorated I could not splash out on a laser printer so I got the Canon Pixma MG6250 A4 Colour Multifunction Inkjet Printer
3 Paper Trays 9600 x 2400 dpi 6 Print Cartridges A4 (I couldn't find an A3 I was happy with)
should arrive in 3 working days
I can see some paper mini's coming out soon
|
|
|
Post by markem on Jun 16, 2013 13:40:57 GMT -9
I realize this is a bit late but....
The Epson WP-4020 is an excellent printer to print up to cardstock (100lb) paper. However, to get really sharp images - Royal Brites' Photo Matte paper is better. It is something like 80lb paper but the matte finish makes all of the images pop on the paper. The Epson WP-4020 has CMYK cartridges but this is a business class printer (costing only $160.00 at Office Max). The cartridges last a very long time and they are large. Each one only costs around $27.00 each. I have had my cartridges in the printer for year and they are just now asking to be replaced. Black still is working well although the electronic detector is saying it is getting low as well. This printer will do photgraphic images but the biggie for me is that the printer's ink is waterproof. So not only are you getting a great printer - but you are getting a great printer that uses waterproof ink. I got mine on sale for $99.00 at Office Max online and picked it up at a local store. After setting the entire thing up - it did not work. It was then that I went back and re-looked at everything in the box. There were several items in the box that made no sense. A CD for another product, a cable for some other device, and several other small items that made no sense. So I packed up the printer, called Epson, they gave me an RMA, and I went back to the Office Max where I had picked up the printer. They took one look at the RMA and went and got me another box. I had them go ahead and set up the printer right there. They did so and it worked beautifully. They even took the ink cartridges out of the broken printer and put them into the new printer's box. I then took the printer home. At the time I was working on making a board game and I went through all of that ink pretty quickly. But then I put in the other inks and have (as I said) only just now been asked to buy more.
The one thing I believe I have to say is that I think the printer has an ink reservoir inside of it for each of the ink cartridges. I say this because the first set of ink cartridges were gone through very quickly while the second has lasted a very long time. It makes me wonder if the printer does this (ie: sucks in a lot of ink, stores it, but by doing so the first set of ink cartridges are drained quickly). There isn't anything in the manual about it doing the above - it is just a feeling from how it worked.
In any event - the printer works like a charm, prints beautiful full color images, can use up to around 110lb paper, and prints very quickly - even in full color mode. I highly recommend this printer to anyone. Some of the other features are: rear feeding of paper, front paper tray (up to 250 sheets), self cleaning, online updates, Wifi connection, double sided printing, and probably a few more things I'm forgetting.
Remember that this is a business class printer. So it is built to handle a large volume of printing. It does have a storage area for ink which is used when it cleans the print head or if it detects it is using too much ink at one time. This has as of yet to fill up on me but when it does you do have to replace that part (it is like an oil filter. Once used - it can not be cleaned and reused - you just have to throw it away and get a new one. They are not expensive. Something like $10.00 if I remember correctly.
|
|
|
Post by styxx42 on Jun 16, 2013 14:36:13 GMT -9
Does anyone use a Laser Jet? Like one of the lexmarks? Does not an inkjet dry out the individual cartridges?
I am working an a load of free ink cartridges but totally plan on getting a laserjet of some sort.
Any advice or suggestions on this? Now I have two young kids that I know are going to be printing a ton as well in the future if they get any of my Hobby.....what ever you want to call it so the added expense of a laser IMO and situation(older with more money then time to fiddle with a bloody inkjet) is worth it.
|
|
|
Post by styxx42 on Jun 16, 2013 14:39:37 GMT -9
reviews.cnet.com/laser-printers/oki-b431dn-print-server/4505-3159_7-34128927.htmlI have personally purchased one of these OKI printers for 149 for a friend. Installed it and it is a BEAST of a machine. Awesome Quality, separate toners, lasts for ever and looks beautiful. It is one I am keeping my eye on. I double posted so I thought I would post this instead. Problem with posting and Watching Jack the Giant Killer. Good B Movie FYI.
|
|
|
Post by Reivaj on Jun 18, 2013 14:46:39 GMT -9
My HP Color laserjet 2600n is the best investment that i made. ItΒ΄s another dimension in printers. I use it for 5 years, i printed my wedding invitations (200 invitations), and just now i must change the black toner, the other 3 are about 50%. When you print even in common paper the print are with a satiny finish. A laserjet is the best option for me
|
|
|
Post by bravesirkevin on Jun 18, 2013 15:06:20 GMT -9
Laser print quality is fantastic and the colours are really vibrant! And it's true... the cartridges do last forever. I've had one for over a year and a half and I've printed easily over 1000 densely coloured pages and I'm still on the starter cartridges. I've just bought a new black because the blacks are starting to look a little faded now, but other than that, it's still going strong.
That said, colour laser prints are not good for anything that needs a lot of folding and definitely not great for anything that's extremely fiddly because the toner rubs off very easily, so while I do use it for paper minis and dungeon tiles and maps, I tend to stick to my ink jet for any papercraft models.
|
|
|
Post by cowboyleland on Jun 20, 2013 4:04:32 GMT -9
The last few printers I have had have been inkjets that friends were getting rid of for some reason or other. I really want the next one to be a laser printer. Has anyone ever tried some kind of fixative on a laser printed page to make it OK to fold?
|
|
|
Post by bravesirkevin on Jun 20, 2013 6:31:14 GMT -9
The last few printers I have had have been inkjets that friends were getting rid of for some reason or other. I really want the next one to be a laser printer. Has anyone ever tried some kind of fixative on a laser printed page to make it OK to fold? It's not really something a fixative would fix. Laser toner consists of incredibly fine ground plastic dust. The dust is attached to the paper with static electricity and baked in place with heat forming a thin plastic veneer on the page surface. There are some models that use a fuser oil to help the plastic veneer survive the baking process better, but nothing will change the fact that it's still a plastic film on the surface of the page and not a liquid ink that's penetrated into the page surface. Because of the nature of the beast, any sharp creases are going to cause that film to crack, and any friction is going to cause it to flake off, an added varnish on top of that plastic film surface will just be a layer on top of the film surface (because it can't reach the paper) and will merely flake off along with the toner. I once took advantage of this fact to create a library of grunge textures by printing solid black pages and then crunching them up, reflattening them and scanning the damaged toner surface. Another way I've taken advantage of this is to print out "blue lines" of my rough drawings to do my clean pencil work over: The toner erases away as easy as pencil so if one area's a complete mess I can knock it back to white and redraw it from scratch. Just to illustrate, I printed the Humble Hovel model that I used for product photography with a laser printer: The detail is incredibly crisp and every nuance of the shading is captured perfectly. The exterior model consists mostly of clean flat planes, so it's not taken much of a knock, but if you look at the pic quite closely you can see a few patches that have flaked off a little during building. Now take a look at the roof beams on the interior: You see how it's worn down from all the folding? The quality of the print is fantastic, but as soon as you start dealing with the folding, you're going to run into a lot of issues that you'd never even have to consider with an ink jet. I'd just like to add one more thing. Looking above, you'll notice that the model's not edged. This is because the ink in the markers I had available at the time had a solvent that didn't play nice with toner so I instead resolved to photoshop in the edging afterwards. Many solvent based glues have the same problem, so it's likely that any spray varnish or fixative would eat the surface as well.
|
|
|
Post by cowboyleland on Jun 20, 2013 15:30:06 GMT -9
Thank you for taking the time to give such a COMPLETE answer. I can't see me ever needing to know more about laser printers : )
|
|
|
Post by markem on Jun 23, 2013 13:36:51 GMT -9
That is really neat! I would have to say that the edges actually give the inside of the roof a more archaic look than what an inkjet gives. The waterproof ink of the WP-4020 would look more like what an inkjet's output would look like plus it has the very rich colors of a laser printer. But I actually would like the "rubbed off" look more for something like wooden rafters because rathers do begin to pale out over time or turn darker (smokey) from lanterns and such. Modern incandescent bulbs can (and do) really change how something like wooden beams look over time. I once talked with some of the maintenance people at Walt Disney World and something like the Tiki Hut has to have touch-up paint applied every few months because the colors start to fade.
Have you ever tried laminating your printouts? I realize it would make them a lot stiffer and harder to bend but the lamination would stick to the printout and keep it from rubbing off. By just lightly dragging an X-acto knife down the back side, the lamination where you want to fold the image, it can be made to fold a lot easier than if you just tried to fold a laminated sheet. I'm talking about 3mil lamination which feels a lot different than 5mil or 7mil lamination. It is more like a thin skin on the paper rather than like an actual stiff, hard to even bend, layer (7mil).
|
|
|
Post by bravesirkevin on Jun 23, 2013 13:53:34 GMT -9
Have you ever tried laminating your printouts? I realize it would make them a lot stiffer and harder to bend but the lamination would stick to the printout and keep it from rubbing off. By just lightly dragging an X-acto knife down the back side, the lamination where you want to fold the image, it can be made to fold a lot easier than if you just tried to fold a laminated sheet. I'm talking about 3mil lamination which feels a lot different than 5mil or 7mil lamination. It is more like a thin skin on the paper rather than like an actual stiff, hard to even bend, layer (7mil). I imagine the trouble with laminating is that it would make things tricky to glue. With ink-jet printed photo paper I give that a heavy coat of protective varnish, which is much the same as lamination in that it protects and waterproofs the surface, and in those cases, the gluing is a bit of a mission.
|
|
|
Post by markem on Jun 23, 2013 19:28:20 GMT -9
Well - since I am just starting out creating these things - I would be really dumb to not agree with you. I will probably try it myself anyway (and be dumb about it ). I'm just that way. I'll probably wind up buying 15 types of glue just to see if I can laminate and then put the things together. If I can get any of them to work I'll post to let you know. It's more likely I will post that I just gave up on it and just printed everything and left the paper free of any kind of protection. As I said - I like it when things look worn from usage. I have found that people seem to appreciate things more when they look a bit faded or worn. It is like they are touching a bit of history. I think that is why I like putting together models and painting them. These paper models are really going to be great for our games. I have Campaign Cartographer and am basically just starting to create my collection of floor tiles. For all of these years (since 1982) I have been drawing maps on one of those rubberized grid maps. I use those Crayola water based markers to do the color maps. They are easy to wipe off and draw again on. My grid maps are something like 30 years old. With lots of very faded images on them. The new floor tiles I am making will be laminated so we can draw on them and then wipe them off. In this way, if a different party comes along - they get to see what happened before them (kind-of). I used to keep very detailed lists of everything that changed in the dungeons - but as with everything - it got to be way too much to keep up with. I'm hoping that by using these tile sets I can keep important information on the tiles rather than in notes. But I may be still trying to do way too much in my game.
|
|
|
Post by bravesirkevin on Jun 23, 2013 19:34:31 GMT -9
Contact Adhesive/rubber cement should do the trick. You need to apply a little to each surface and wait a couple minutes before pressing the surfaces together and applying a lot of pressure. It's a pain, but it does work. It's the only way I can build stuff with varnished photo paper and not run into difficulties.
|
|
|
Post by markem on Jun 24, 2013 13:13:01 GMT -9
I could get some high pressure clamps from Home Depot and use those to keep the pieces together. They apply a lot of pressure to whatever it is you clamp with them and they come in various sizes (usually just small or large). I have got to find the time to begin printing out the trees I'm trying to use. There is a program called xFrog (http://xfrog.com/gallery/trees/) that has some great images for trees and other plants. I'm sticking to the top-down images (also called bird's eye images). These are going to be just simple 2"x2" images up to 4"x4" (for large trees). I'm planning on using the Frost King weatherseal tape (7/16) to make them be up and off of the floor tiles (grass or rocks or whatever else I'm going to be using). I know we are sort of wandering off of the topic here - but how/where do you store all of your models? Do they come back apart so you can just put them up somewhere? I've already filled one shoe box with tiles and I'm afraid that I will wind up with suitcases full of models. Not that that is a bad thing - except we are going to have to move out of our house while it gets fixed soon. I'm thinking what I need to do is to modify some of these things so I can take them apart and store them flat. (The old slit and flap kind of setup.)
|
|
|
Post by bravesirkevin on Jul 2, 2013 14:36:06 GMT -9
Next weekend there's a comic and games convention in my town and as it's my only opportunity to do these kinds of things, I've booked myself a stand there. Of course, all my products are digital, and I can't rely on folks to take the address and then remember to go home and buy stuff later so I've been creating some stock to sell at the event and hopefully recover some of the exhorbitant expenses I've had in preparing for this venture.
Long story short: I've had several A3 sheets of paper minis printed out professionally. As it's a short run, they used an industrial high-resolution laser printer. The colour and print quality are amazing! They're on par with the quality I'd expect from a full litho print. Every single nuance of detail has been perfectly preserved and the colours are rich and vibrant. I finished off by getting the surface laminated... I'd originally considered going with a matte laminate, but the gloss really made the colours pop, so that was clearly the best choice. It came out fantastically! Only the front is laminated, so I had no issues gluing the backs together, but in some spots where the plastic had not properly bonded to the surface the laminate did bubble up and peel away as soon as I started cutting the figures out. This has only affected one or two of the figures so far, but it does kinda wreck the aesthetic of those ones a bit. Going to keep an eye on the others and see how they hold up.
I'd still stay away from this with papercraft models, but I can honestly recommend it for paper minis although it will push the price up quite a bit.
|
|
|
Post by mesper on Jul 2, 2013 17:02:09 GMT -9
As it's a short run, they used an industrial high-resolution laser printer. The colour and print quality are amazing! They're on par with the quality I'd expect from a full litho print. Hmm... wouldn't be so sure... hi-quality laser printing, vide some Print On Demand systems from vendors such as HP or Xerox (actually I'm using this one) is OK, at least far better compared to any mid-range SOHO laser printers and is better than enough for most minis/cardboard modelers but IMHO so far still can't even stand in quality terms against professional pro litho print. Then during pro-printing process you can use special cardboard, plus you can apply additional 5-th and 6-th colour (for example special "metallic" layer vide silver or gold for armour/weapons etc. - which gives amazing effects!) and at the end you can add finishing lacquor layer (shiny, mid or matt) for all surface or just defined parts. So overall effect is outstanding (and when printed in some minimum quantity much cheaper per copy than laser printing). I'd originally considered going with a matte laminate, but the gloss really made the colours pop, so that was clearly the best choice. It came out fantastically! What about fingertips on a glossy finishing (after some time, not just after printing)? According to my experience matt finishing is more friandly and "safe" (people are eating snacks during game etc. and fingertips aren't so visible on matt:))). Matt finishing (when addded during printing process) adds also some extra "bold" feeling and is more convenient/sensible as well (well, depending on individual feeling/liking here) Then quality matt finishing adds some kind of warm tonality and depth (assuming that colours are well defined/not blurred). Now even if matt finishing could result for first sight in less-shiny/bright result - knowing that you can adjust some colours/parts of figurines in order to bring these up - so in overall it will gain both warm colour tonality and some semi-3D effects. I've been creating some stock to sell at the event and hopefully recover some of the exhorbitant expenses I've had in preparing for this venture. That's very good idea! When I was actively promoting Kartonowa Armia printed issues concurrent sales were surprisingly high then there was kinda "after effect" visible (people who liked cutting and glueing figurines during exhibitions/panels/shows - even sample/demo sheet versions - returned later with individual orders and brings even more customers "recruited" among neighbourgs, friends etc.). However there was some "trick" used - during showcases, outdoor shows etc. everyone could sit down (there was NOT possible to just get some sheets and say thanx, I'll cut these later:))) at my stand and cut-off/glue for free as many figurines as they wish (well, some ppl spent hours, kinda exaggerate a bit, but well... it was worth it in overall + good PR;))) Some outdoor cutting'n'glueing (more galleries available): KA Malbork Outdoor GalleryOK, just some thoughts - anyway keeping my fingers crossed and best luck! --- EDIT - err... just realised that thread is about new printer selection not printing quality, selling and promoting etc - sorry!
|
|
|
Post by bravesirkevin on Jul 2, 2013 23:35:36 GMT -9
Hmm... wouldn't be so sure... hi-quality laser printing, vide some Print On Demand systems from vendors such as HP or Xerox (actually I'm using this one) is OK, at least far better compared to any mid-range SOHO laser printers and is better than enough for most minis/cardboard modelers but IMHO so far still can't even stand in quality terms against professional pro litho print. Then during pro-printing process you can use special cardboard, plus you can apply additional 5-th and 6-th colour (for example special "metallic" layer vide silver or gold for armour/weapons etc. - which gives amazing effects!) and at the end you can add finishing lacquor layer (shiny, mid or matt) for all surface or just defined parts. So overall effect is outstanding (and when printed in some minimum quantity much cheaper per copy than laser printing). Do need to point out that I have a background in printing, having worked in the industry for several years, so I know what I'm talking about when I talk about the quality of the print. Litho will always have advantages over high quality laser printing, but the point I was trying to make is that it was a perfect high quality print. Had I done the print on both litho and the digital press, it goes without saying that the litho print would be the cleaner and brighter of the two, but the untrained eye would not be able to tell the difference at a glance. What about fingertips on a glossy finishing (after some time, not just after printing)? According to my experience matt finishing is more friandly and "safe" (people are eating snacks during game etc. and fingertips aren't so visible on matt:))). Matt finishing (when addded during printing process) adds also some extra "bold" feeling and is more convenient/sensible as well (well, depending on individual feeling/liking here) Then quality matt finishing adds some kind of warm tonality and depth (assuming that colours are well defined/not blurred). Now even if matt finishing could result for first sight in less-shiny/bright result - knowing that you can adjust some colours/parts of figurines in order to bring these up - so in overall it will gain both warm colour tonality and some semi-3D effects. Fingerprints are inevitable, but they wipe off eaily enough. Matte laminates are very attractive in their own way but they have their own set of problems. Matte laminates get dirty a lot quicker and while they hide finger prints, they do accumulate the oil from hands which after a little handling creates very obvious "shiny" spots that stick out like a sore thumb. That wasn't really a factor in my decision here though... I just liked the way the gloss finish pushed the colour vibrance all the way up to 11. Matte finishes tend to top out at about 6 in that regard. That said, if I find myself doing this again, I'll likely give the laminates a miss and go straight for UV varnish. It's a lot cleaner and much less likely to peel off! That's very good idea! When I was actively promoting Kartonowa Armia printed issues concurrent sales were surprisingly high then there was kinda "after effect" visible (people who liked cutting and glueing figurines during exhibitions/panels/shows - even sample/demo sheet versions - returned later with individual orders and brings even more customers "recruited" among neighbourgs, friends etc.). However there was some "trick" used - during showcases, outdoor shows etc. everyone could sit down (there was NOT possible to just get some sheets and say thanx, I'll cut these later:))) at my stand and cut-off/glue for free as many figurines as they wish (well, some ppl spent hours, kinda exaggerate a bit, but well... it was worth it in overall + good PR;))) Thanks for the support and advice! Unfortunately, I'll not have much space to allow people to sit and cut stuff out. My stand is only 2x3 meters and I'll need to use a significant amount of that space for equipment, displays and shelves of board games. The paper minis I sell will be pre-cut by me and sold as a finished product, while I'll have a laser printer on site to print my papercraft models on demand, which people will have to take home and cut themselves. I've also had some DVDs professionally made with all of the content I've created to date on them. Around here broadband internet is still a bit of a luxury, so disks still sell to people who can't afford to download a few gigs of data! EDIT - err... just realised that thread is about new printer selection not printing quality, selling and promoting etc - sorry!
Haha! Yeah, I was just replying to Markem about his idea to laminate stuff. I'll start a thread about the show in the general discussion board so that we don't pull this one further off topic.
|
|
|
Post by markem on Jul 5, 2013 12:32:02 GMT -9
Hey! Sorry I seemed to disappear! I decided to MagicJack one of our phones and the phone company completely cut me off of everything! DSL, second phone, etc... I'm presently using Clear's router to get to the internet and I finally managed to get my phone turned back on. No re-connect fees! Whoohooo! But now the phone company is saying they don't do DSL anymore so I'm looking at my options. Yeah - lamination can be hard to work with sometimes. I bought a small Scotch TL901 laminator instead of the Apache laminator which everyone just gushes about. The Scotch laminator was $25.00 - so I wasn't expecting much. However, after trying it with several types of lamination I have found the Royal Brites 3mil lamination to work pretty well. The problem though is that the laminator doesn't really get hot enough to melt the glue in one pass. You get this spiderweb of partially glued areas on the paper. So I flip the paper over and send it back through three times. THEN it is really glued to the paper. Being able to laminate on one side only is pretty nice. Things have been very hectic here so I haven't had time to give my laminate both sides and then cut it a try yet. Nor have I been able to run out and try various types of glue yet either. Hopefully this weekend. I think maybe I should start up another thread to talk about all of this (sort of like you starting one up about doing shows). Because I believe we have gotten completely off topic here. :-)
|
|
|
Post by pavaro on Jul 5, 2013 21:38:03 GMT -9
In my humble opinion it is recommendable HP 3525. It is multifunctional. You set the highest quality and give HP paper. Print very satisfactory as an inkjet printer.
|
|
|
Post by markem on Jul 12, 2013 12:41:44 GMT -9
More on the Epson WP-4020: They now have a Continuous Ink System (CIS) for the WP-4020. The ink you buy can be 480ml bottles and each container only holds 120ml of ink. They have a nice injectible method to refill the ink wells. So now you can print for even cheaper (after all - $80.00 for the inks is a bit less than just buying the new ink containers (around $26.00 per color). I'm sure the ink will, when you buy it by itself, be cheaper still. Later!
|
|