Colour Laser Printer Advice Needed

Bristolian

Bristolian

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Steve
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Hello good folks,

My wife is a keen crafter and makes hundreds of cards for birthdays, anniversaries, etc., every month. She has an Epson colour inkjet which creates lovely prints but my God the cost of inks is crippling - at least £90 per month for genuine inks! We've tried the cheaper "compatable" brands but they really don't cut the mustard.

So, I've been thinking maybe a colour laser would be better (i.e. less costly to run) but have no idea about them. A quick Google brings up plenty of possibles but how do I know which is best - what parameters should I be looking at? HP appear to have plenty to choose from, as do Brother and Kyocera, but I figured I would ask here for recommendations before diving in. It needs to be able to handle card up to 280gsm.

Is anyone using one for a similar purpose?

Just to be clear, I'm not thinking of printing photos with this.
 
Laserjet needs laserjet compatible paper. That normally means the white office paper. For cards you would need to research if you have to get special ones, etc. Personally it sounds like you should be looking for a better inkjet. Something like 2nd hand HP T120 with 3rd party pigment inks would do well for this use I think. You have to get to the large format to find cheaper ink.
 
A couple of thoughts, pop in to your local estate agent and pick up one of their printed for sale/let sheets.
The odd are it will be printed on a colour laser and that will give you an idea of the quality, from experience when I worked for an estate agent that's what they used and the quality is not brilliant but it was OK for what was effectively a throw away print.
Secondly have a look at the HP Instant ink package ( Learn more about HP Instant Ink – HP Ink Delivery System | HP® United Kingdom ) my wife has it and its quite good but you do need an HP printer with an internet connection
 
I've had several colour lasers over the years, the thickness material any of them would take was 160gsm and that had to fed in from the rear to maintain as flat as possible feed. Jamming was frequent and sometimes caused toner to get on parts of the machine it shouldn't which resulted in the next n prints being corrupted, where n was a very variable number,

Not recommended, find a better inkjet solution, perhaps one that can be adapted to a continuous ink system.
 
I don't know if you can still get Xerox Phasers with their solid ink system. I had one on page pack for several years (you pay for how many prints you make and ink is "free"). Print quality was *stunning* and it could handle anything I asked it to - it was the only printer I've ever had where I could load with paper and ask it to make 200 double sided colour prints and walk away knowing it would be fine :)

If you do find one, be aware that they take a *lot* of ink to turn on and off so either plan to leave it running or get somebody else to pay for th eink.
 
For relatively short lived items (birthday cards tend not to need to be colour-fast for more than a week or 2 and commercialmas cards only need a month or so), I reckon compatible inks might be the way to go. Might need a bit of tweaking to get the colours right straight out of the printer but if the inks are cheap enough, that shouldn't cost the earth. With the frequency of use that it sounds like the printer will get, head clogging (a problem with some cheap inks) shouldn't be an issue - it's leaving a printer idle that usually causes the problem.

David ( @Mr Perceptive ), were the jams only with the thicker papers? How was the print quality for non photographic photos (think flyers rather than framed prints!)?
 
Nod said:
For relatively short lived items (birthday cards tend not to need to be colour-fast for more than a week or 2 and commercialmas cards only need a month or so), I reckon compatible inks might be the way to go. Might need a bit of tweaking to get the colours right straight out of the printer but if the inks are cheap enough, that shouldn't cost the earth. With the frequency of use that it sounds like the printer will get, head clogging (a problem with some cheap inks) shouldn't be an issue - it's leaving a printer idle that usually causes the problem.

David ( @Mr Perceptive ), were the jams only with the thicker papers? How was the print quality for non photographic photos (think flyers rather than framed prints!)?
Click to expand...

Jams were with thicker papers, transparencies and sometimes labels - laser printers are great IMO for 80-120gsm.
 
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280 gsm seems a bit challenging for a laser. I do use laser "photo' paper in the normal tray in my brother 3150 cdw but that's only 120 gsm and the results are only OK standalone and poor compared to a decent injet.

You can ( and I do ) get refill kits for the toner cartridges ( urefilltoner.com and others ). Really cuts cost down.

What about the canon megatank or epson ecotank printers ?
 
Thanks for all the comments so far. I hadn't realised you need laser compatible papers - that could be a deal breaker on its own. Ditto the difficulty in using card stock. The printer we are currently using is this one https://www.epson.co.uk/viewcon/corporatesite/products/mainunits/overview/21506

The 3rd party ink solution for the existing Epson printer is a no-no. We've tried dozens of different ones and none of them give clear crisp colours like the genuine inks. Even using custom icc files don't compare - we had some created by Fotoprint.

I will look into the HP Instant Ink deal - thanks for the heads up on that.
 
Mr Perceptive said:
Jams were with thicker papers, transparencies and sometimes labels - laser printers are great IMO for 80-120gsm.
Click to expand...
Sorry for the slight de-rail, Steve.

Mrs Nod currently uses a Samsung Mono laser for text but still does (or will be, once "normal service" is resumed...) short runs of 10-20 flyers (A5) for workshops at her yoga studio. Currently does them on an inkjet (Canon) but as Mrs Bristolian has found, ink costs are a significant factor! We put a 3rd party toner in the Samsung and they work very well, so might go over to laser when the inkjet dies. Having said that, the last one she had lasted 8 years so by the time this one dies, she might well have retired (or at least have sold the business).
 
We've had a HP M454DW laser printer for a few months now and it seems solid and reliable. The few images I've printed on it are fine for my needs. It's loaded with the cheap paper from our local convenience store...

HP M454DW laser printer D600 4666.JPG

Print of Austrian Hang glider pilot PA310001.JPG
 
Looks like the quality would be OK for Mrs Nod's needs but the HP toner isn't cheap!
 
I've had a Minolta printer for over twenty years and it is capable of outstanding results. Three downsides: it's massive and needs two people to move it (!), colour toner is expensive >£100 each; there are other consumables which go after a while and none of them are cheap. It doesn't need "laser" paper.

Admittedly this is an old machine but when my supplies run out I shall not be rushing to replace it. Most of my non-photographic colour printing nowadays is done on a cheap HP printer with the inclusive ink deal. The quality is nowhere as good but it's cheaper and often quicker.
 
Have you consider Epson Eco-tank, full set of inks for my ET2600 is £45 for genuine (70ml each) and they last approx. 6500 pages !
It also has a relatively straight paper path so ideal for card, I often use 167gm photographic paper for greeting cards.
 
Nod said:
Looks like the quality would be OK for Mrs Nod's needs but the HP toner isn't cheap!
Click to expand...
I have a HP colour laser for work, never bough an original HP toner cartridge in the 7 years I’ve had it. I get 3rd party ones from Amazon, about £45 for 3 colours and the black. Print quality is perfect.
 
Depending on your budget how about a used Epson Sure Colour P600 and use Marrutt inks. You can buy the ink in bulk and print quality is no different to Epson ink. I buy 125ml bottles but you can also buy 250ml bottles if you use a lot of ink. At full set of 125ml inks is around £260 which would cost you nearly £1k in Epson inks.
 
srichards said:
It also worth looking into continuous ink systems for normal ink jet printers.

www.cityinkexpress.co.uk

Ciss for Epson printer | CISS Ink for Epson printers

Ciss for Epson printers by specialist ciss ink cartridge suppliers City Ink Express. If you need a ciss for Epson printer then look no further than City Ink Express.
www.cityinkexpress.co.uk www.cityinkexpress.co.uk
Click to expand...

They are probably good if you use your printer frequently ( as it sounds the OP does ) I used their refillable cartridges and found the colour etc similar to OEM ( Canon cli 571 ). I did profile inks/media with a xrite spyder.

BUT: I tend to leave my printer idle for long periods and their ink irrecoverably ( trust me I tried everything ) trashed printer heads on my TS8050. Going back to OEM inks solved this problem at a cost.

I have some octopus-de inks which are supposed to be near Marrut in quality but I haven't tried them yet.
 
I think I'm leaning towards an Epson ET-7750 EcoTank printer. If the number of prints available from one tank is half what they claim the cash savings will be significant and it can handle card stock up to 300gsm. Win ... Win :)
 
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