New printer for A4, A3 - not looking forward to this...

tikkathreebarrel

tikkathreebarrel

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,150
Edit My Images
Yes
Well the truth is that my photo printing needs are, shall we say, sporadic?

We have a domestic Lexmark inkjet printer which does for the normal domestic household printing chores but isn't my best friend when it comes to printing photographs onto gloss photo paper.

So what's wrong? Well printing can start in accurate colour, or indeed B&W, but then changes tone as the page progresses. It eats ink cartridges every time I go near it, it can grind to a halt partway through an A4 print as if something's going s..l..o..w.. in the printer memory buffer. Then I have completely reboot my computer to delete items in the printer queue - even though the computer provides a "deleting document" message I know from bitter experience than nothing happens until I reboot the 'puter when I can actually perform delete if I can get there before it starts to reprint the photo using/wasting even more ink. When all this happens I give up and resign myself not to print any photos.

I've just had 2 hours of this process: the wife's had me up the loft to get all the empty photo frames which are arrayed across the dining room floor. I've trashed 8 sheets of gloss photo paper, I've replaced a colour cartridge and I've acheived a magnificent total of two A4 prints, one colour, one B&W.

I've had enough. Time to explore what Dixons can do for me, time to see what printer technology is available for occasional home use and which will actually work right every time.

If I drank alcohol I'd have uncorked something by now!!!!
 
This may not help.

But I gave up printing at home a long time ago as I found it more cost effective to send stuff to a lab and I get better results too.
 
RichardtheSane said:
This may not help.

But I gave up printing at home a long time ago as I found it more cost effective to send stuff to a lab and I get better results too.
Click to expand...

Richard, that's not only lightning quick advice but probably 100% sound common sense too.
 
tikkathreebarrel said:
Richard, that's not only lightning quick advice but probably 100% sound common sense too.
Click to expand...
On reflection, this is the printing / presentation forum and my post could have come across as dimissive to the whole concept - I wasn't. Many folk who print a lot I'm sure benefit hugely from home printing, as well as enjoying the process.

If I printed a lot I too may look at home printing, but like you I am sporadic! For the cost of a decent printer I could probably pay for a lot of lab orders before I even look at running costs!
 
RichardtheSane said:
If I printed a lot I too may look at home printing, but like you I am sporadic! For the cost of a decent printer I could probably pay for a lot of lab orders before I even look at running costs!
Click to expand...

after owning quite a few printers ( still have a colour laser and canon s9000 ) over the years i feel exactly the same way
the laser is good for documents and the s9000 is very seldom used nowadays because of the sheer cost of ink ( originals ) it's just cheaper to send off and have them printed than to print at home and usually better quality too

if i "was" going to buy another printer i think i would stick to canon my experience with canon printers has been better than epson although i know epson are capable of excellent results i think they clog easier than canon but this is my personal experience others will no doubt have different views
 
In my experience being a sporadic printer, Epson's definitely clog up more, I got that fed up of it when my latest Epson went tits that I promised myself never again and bought a canon, and so far it's been fine
 
I haven't had a Canon clog on me. I have had an Epson rust on me.

I like to print my own pictures, because I immediately get feedback as to how it comes out. Even though my monitor is calibrated, I adjust a photo to how I want, then dd +10 brightness before either printing or sending to a lab. When I have sent pictures to a lab, I get nervous that they are not going to look right.

On the other hand, doing the calculations using the manufacturer's guidlines, a 6x4 print costs the same in ink as a photo from asdas.
Unfortunately the cost of the paper adds on to that.

Consider how much whichever printer you decide to get will cost, and then divide that by the cost of 2nd class delivery from a lab, see how many sets you could get back and how many years that might cover you for printing.
 
On a different scale, actually attempting to answer the question. Have you considered that it might not be the printer that is causing the problem (certainly with deleting files/prints etc., this suggests the data is still on the computer, not the printer).
Do you think that you will be storing/keeping the prints for a long time?
Do you need an ink suitable for archival?
Would you prefer dye or pigment ink?
What do you print more of, B7W or colour. I believe that the epsons quite often require a cartridge change to get the best out of them for B&W?
 
sporadic printing is a good enough reason to just order online. You could get amazing printer starting with Canon Pro series, but that would mean regular printing just to keep it happy and clean in the first place. And ink is not very affordable before you hit the larger A2+ alternatives. A colour laser or good dye sub photo printer may be more suitable for you IF ONE EXISTS!
 
coldpenguin said:
On the other hand, doing the calculations using the manufacturer's guidlines, a 6x4 print costs the same in ink as a photo from asdas.
Unfortunately the cost of the paper adds on to that.
Click to expand...

Is that the Asda price for a single 6x4 or their bulk price? We don't have an Asda in town here but Sainsburys price for 1-99 prints is 19p/print (2 day service, 1 hour is 23p/print), falling to 8p/print (2 day, 14p for 1 hour) and a local camera shop's prices are 1-9 26p, 100+ 10p for next day and 1-9 40p, 100+ 15p while you wait.

Like you, I like the immediacy and control home printing gives me, especially on larger prints (up to A3+, 19"x13" IIRC) and I'm pretty sure that an A3+ print costs me less than the £4.79 Sainsburys want for a 12"x16". To avoid blockages, premature fading, odd colour casts etc, I always use genuine Canon inks but I use Ilford Galerie papers (and am hoping they continue to be available...)

I would echo the need to do regular prints. I always do a test print (6x4) before loading any big papers just in case there's a clog.
 
coldpenguin said:
On a different scale, actually attempting to answer the question. Have you considered that it might not be the printer that is causing the problem (certainly with deleting files/prints etc., this suggests the data is still on the computer, not the printer).
Do you think that you will be storing/keeping the prints for a long time?
Do you need an ink suitable for archival?
Would you prefer dye or pigment ink?
What do you print more of, B7W or colour. I believe that the epsons quite often require a cartridge change to get the best out of them for B&W?
Click to expand...

I don't print many photos but I do like to print now and again to frame and hang around the house and, as what I have is A4 paper and printer capacity, that's the size I go up to. So, put crudely, A5, A4. Just as likely to be happy snaps of the smiling grandson as modestly arty b&w scenery shots composed with equal care.

I don't have any feelings about ink type (sorry if this offends) but for me a printer is a means to an endd and I want it to be convenient.

Coming back to your first point I do wonder if it's a memory buffer issue. When a print "stops" partway through, I cannot clear the printer queue without first rebooting the computer. Now, explain this if you will. I tried an A4 colour print onto glossy photo paper this morning having rebooted overnight. Hoping it might be a memory/spooling issue I then left the thing "live" for an hour. When I came back the print had not progressed beyond 40% progress so I did the restart thing again. Before I could get through control panel to the printer queue the da** thing picked up the next piece of paper and printed the photo right off, 100% end to end, completely. How? Why?

Oh what a pity that the paper it picked up was 80gsm A4 copier and not glossy photo.
 
Save your prints up, put in an order infrequently with someone like DSCL. Their prints cost next to nothing and are very good quality *for the price*. They are certainly good enough that I'm happy to sell them to customers as my standard range.

The shipping is a bit, about four quid or so, but like I said, save them up and then send them all at once. I have a folder on my desktop where I accumulate images I've prepped and then just send them off all together when I get an order for something I've not got.
 
CharlotteM said:
Save your prints up, put in an order infrequently with someone like DSCL. Their prints cost next to nothing and are very good quality *for the price*. They are certainly good enough that I'm happy to sell them to customers as my standard range.

The shipping is a bit, about four quid or so, but like I said, save them up and then send them all at once. I have a folder on my desktop where I accumulate images I've prepped and then just send them off all together when I get an order for something I've not got.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Your advice is reinforcing my thoughts that I should give outsourcing a try next. I've got local supermarket and chemist' chains, I've got a local specialist who dev & scans my 35mm so he's next port of call I think.
 
tikkathreebarrel said:
Thank you. Your advice is reinforcing my thoughts that I should give outsourcing a try next. I've got local supermarket and chemist' chains, I've got a local specialist who dev & scans my 35mm so he's next port of call I think.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't personally use a local supermarket. You're likely to get some 16 year old part timer printing your photos who doesn't know anything about photos. Sending off to a lab like DSCL is pretty much the same price (or cheaper!) and you get specialists that know exactly what they're doing.
 
CharlotteM said:
Save your prints up, put in an order infrequently with someone like DSCL. Their prints cost next to nothing and are very good quality *for the price*. They are certainly good enough that I'm happy to sell them to customers as my standard range.

The shipping is a bit, about four quid or so, but like I said, save them up and then send them all at once. I have a folder on my desktop where I accumulate images I've prepped and then just send them off all together when I get an order for something I've not got.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. That's what I do.

The other thing I do is buy a pint from time to time for a friend at camera club who has a *big* printer with a continuous ink system, so his running costs are very low by comparison. He does me a print from time to time, I buy him a pint from time to time, everyone's happy.
 
CharlotteM said:
I wouldn't personally use a local supermarket. You're likely to get some 16 year old part timer printing your photos who doesn't know anything about photos. Sending off to a lab like DSCL is pretty much the same price (or cheaper!) and you get specialists that know exactly what they're doing.
Click to expand...

Gotcher. Good point.
 
A timely read! I need a printer, and was going to get one that could do photos as well. Reading this makes me think I should get a "photo capable" one and leave the quality prints to the experts.
 
Whilst I do use on-line labs for some printing there is one downside that comes with all of them ... time. You are stuck with a 1-2 day wait for the print to arrive and there's no guarantee their colour match will be any better than your home set-up. I've had poor colour matched prints from all the major labs over the years and ended up printing the image myself because I didn't have time to get it done again.

If you need a print done NOW then you have no real alternative than do it yourself - I disregard supermarket print shops as their quality is generally abysmal. To print successfully you need a colour calibrated workflow - everything from camera to paper and that takes time and effort to achieve ... but is so satisfying when you get it right :-)
 
I've decided to get A3 prints done professionally (so far with Peak Images), and probably continue to print A4 images on my little Canon Pixma (with Canon inks). So far I've not had any clogging, and it doesn't seem to eat noticeably more ink than when the printer is being used for occasional household printing (ie most is being used up by cleaning cycles, I think). I'm having to learn how to persuade Aperture to do what I want, which probably explains why my early black and white prints were a little more tinted than I expected, and the most recent print picked up plain paper rather than the glossy I'd put in the rear tray, but other than that, for sticking up around my study they have been fine! Oh, and I picked up a whole stack of Kodak paper that had been mispriced in WHS, so that's keeping my costs down as well.

I've recently become puzzled as to why (or rather whether) A4 is a good size to print (as opposed to 8*10 or other sizes, say).
 
ChrisR said:
I've recently become puzzled as to why (or rather whether) A4 is a good size to print (as opposed to 8*10 or other sizes, say).
Click to expand...
Print whatever size (and shape - DSLR images are neither A4 shape nor 8*10 shape) - you like.

I imagine there's so much A4 photo paper around simply because there are so many A4 printers around. Doesn't mean it's right or wrong for your image.
 
:plusone:

I sometimes do 3 6x4" prints on a single sheet of A4, straight from Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. I've also done a few 9 shot sequences on a single sheet, just need to fiddle with file numbers to get the sequence in the right order once printed!

I tend to shoot slightly loose to allow for the slight crop when converted to A ratio (1:1.4), possibly made easier by the less than 100% VFs on my bodies. Something I've always done, even back in self D&P days when most pix got printed at 10x8", an even greater crop than A!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top