The Framers Forum

Hi.

I have been asked quite often if I print photos, and as I need a new printer of was thinking of getting one that would also produce a good quality print. Having had a quick look I wouldn't know where to start.
My question is therefore is anyone using or can anyone recommend one that will print the standard range of sizes up to A4.

Thanks Keith

There are a plethora of desktop printers out there that will print up to A4. Canon or Epson are the usual suspects for photo printers.

You are limiting yourself if you only want to go to A4, personally I would look for at least an A3 or even something capable of roll feeding 17".

Buying the printer is the easy bit, it's getting a print out of it that the end customer likes.

Have you thought about 'farming out' your prints???

Hi Chris

Thanks for your reply I will take a look at everything and weigh up the cost,
and as you suggest I have the option of getting it done for me as well.

Thanks again Keith

An important point to also note is to get something that YOU are happy with. Try to get test prints from your choice of printers... Epson and Canon are among the usual suspects for great quality photo printing. They both have pros and cons in terms if ink costs and replaceable print heads. I have always been a Hewlett Packard Die Hard as I have always been more impressed with the vibrance of colour reproduction( most notable being the reds) I am slightly biased as my support to HP was determined over 15 years ago and I struggle to look beyond them now, but I know other manufactures have come on a lot over the years, but again HP have there advantages and disadvantages ie ink costs tend to be a little more than others but ink tanks have the print head built into their desktop printers so you do not have to replace them desperately.

Hi we produce a lot of both photographic and art reproductions for a wide range of customer both trade and private. It is not just printing a photo customers will have a very clear idea of the image they expect. We have got a photo printing booth with Epson D700 printers then it is down to the customer to print of there phone etc. Very tricky area. Good luck

Hi we produce a lot of both photographic and art reproductions for a wide range of customer both trade and private. It is not just printing a photo customers will have a very clear idea of the image they expect. We have got a photo printing booth with Epson D700 printers then it is down to the customer to print of there phone etc. Very tricky area. Good luck

I would agree with the suggestion to go with a larger printer, an A4 printer will quickly become very limiting. If the budget allows, go for an A3 plus, as a minimum, better still a 24 inch roll printer, Canon and Epson are most peoples first choice.

An equally important consideration, if you are going to print commercially, is colour management.

The larger Epson printers are really production machines, if they aren't used often enough they will dry out and clog, they really need using everyday ours often run all day.

I agree with that. We lost our Canon iPf 3650 for just this reason. It was always in trouble through lack of use.

canons are usually fairly good with no clogging. trick is to never switch them off. my iPF8400 goes to sleep and wakes itself up everyday and agitates the inks and does a nozzle check.
Not sure on the new epsons but the older ones were renowned for clogging.

I'll agree with the never off detail for the Canons and Epsons, and I'll throw in environmental issues for both. Our old (but still running) Epson 9800 used to clog on a regular basis when it was based in our print room (four mac towers four screens, office heating etc), but when moved to a cooler, moister environment (minus the computers, and on the periphary of the heating), has had scarcely a clog in four years.

We've just reconfigured our working space, and the Canon 8400, Epson 9800 and 7880 (running specialist Cone black inkset) are now in one airconditioned (in the heat) and heated (in the cool) space, along with the screens, macs etc. Will be interesting to see how they fare. So far (a nice hot month, with aircon running more or less constantly), we've not had a problem. Try to exercise them all, atleast every couple of days, and so far, so good. Not sure what'll happed when the heating eventually goes on.
Epson had a real problem with the xx90 series of printers, as far as clogs go. I resurected a 3800 last year, that had gone without printing for well over a year, and prior to that, had seen minimal usage. The modern machines are looking (thus far) to be more resilliant. The last two Canon 44" machines I've bought, I purchased the 3year warranty, and have been very glad of it - printheads on the Canons are a consumable item, at £500 a go, but that beats the cost of replacing Epson printheads...

If going for a smaller printer, then I'd factor in the size of the ink tanks, which has a direct relationship with the cost of the ink. When you hit the 17" machines, you start to get proper sized tanks - 80ml, though on the Epsons, you do have to go through a hassle of switching between gloss and matt black. The 13" p600 takes rather small 26ml tanks.
This is like buying your framing materials, hardware etc from HomeBase - you're paying retail for the ink. (https://lionpic.co.uk/p/7820/Picture-Pl ... lated--100 vs http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk ... ack-803804 ). Smaller machines have even smaller carts.

As mentioned earlier, buying the machine is only the first step - profiling and colour management are the next parts of the journey. Nothing overly tricky, but a steepish learning curve.

Let me echo the previous reply by Richard - most inkjet printers need work running through them constantly - as do more traditional wet process printing.

Now some people like to try and do as much as they can themselves - and some will try and do everything as they feel they have more control.

I come to the framers forum as a photolab - so understand the printing side far greater than the making frames - but unless you are looking to do lots of print - and are prepared to properly profile your workflow I strongly urge you to pass this part to companies who do this for a living.

The same goes for digitising artwork. The main reason that Giclee printing has not got as good a reputation as it should is that too many people try to photograph paintings with consumer quality cameras then spend days adjusting settings they really don't understand and shouldn't really have to mess with - and adjust by eye to get an "acceptable" colour match - and have a soft cross curved original that will never print correctly. As a lab we've had a wide format HP which prints superb output - but its only now that we've invested £10,000 in a proper Betterlight scanning system that we're marketing ourselves to artists - and no doubt some will consider what we do "too expensive" and will try and do things on the cheap and spend days trying to get it right!

Embrace what you can do well - if you can had finish and guild frames or hand line matts great, but if you don't have a good working background in colour management don't just buy a £1000 printer and expect it to give you the results that can be obtained by skilled operators. Fine if you work down to a price, but if you work up to a standard!