Photo Printer - Large File Sizes

[CatB]

Please note: I have edited this because the files aren't as absurdly huge as I first thought!

A slightly odd printer question and somewhat off the strict topic of photography (mods feel free to move if you think it should be in an off topic section) but I thought some folks on here may be able to help.

I have a to print a series of plates for my PhD thesis, these consist of SEM photographs that have been processed in photoshop to black out the backgrounds, then placed in groups (6 to 20) in Illustrator files and had scale bars added and a black background for the whole plate. Most of them are black and white but a couple have colour detailing or photographs added.

I need to print these good quality at high resolution (it's really important that the reader can see detail in the images) without getting stripes across the black background but on thin enough paper that 30 of them in a 250 page document won't be totally unmanageable (probably 100 gsm ish) - ie. photopaper is out. The uni only has a colour laser that makes nasty stripy images and they have suggested that I buy myself a colour inkjet and decent quality coated paper (not photopaper) and print them myself.

I'm happy to do this and I'm looking at the Canon IP4500 or Epson R285 printers but I have one big problem and that is the file sizes of these documents. The Illustrator files need to have the photos embedded if I don't want to faff with them constantly, which makes them huge. The best way to preserve them seems to be as pdfs which seem to have a file size of 15 to 20 MB which upsets lots of the uni printers.

So, has anyone had any success printing large files to either of these printers? Or suggestion for a better file type to use?

I have asked around commercial printers but they only want to print photos on photo paper which won't work in this instance. I am ultimately going to end up printing probably 3 submission copies and a further 6 final copies of this thing so cost is a factor too.

 

[photon]

My HP D7160 has 64MB RAM installed, as supplied. I've not installed the driver, as I print TIFFs or JPEGs from flash memory cards and use a B&W laser printer for office tasks. It prints borderless A4, but I've not yet calibrated it to avoid losing a bit from each edge - it prints about 98% of the area.

IrfanView can convert EPS to TIFF so if you want to upload a file I could see if I can print it and post you the result. The D7160 has been superseded and can be fleabayed for about £40, new. HP will warranty it for a full year, provided it was described as new.

 

[Steep]

I'm pretty sure the Canon and Epson printers you mention both use system memory and have none of their own so it would be down to how much memory your pc/mac has installed wouldn't it?

 

[CatB]

Thanks folks - I really appreciate the help.

I'd afraid I've been a bit of a muppet though, I checked the proof prints that I did on the Uni laser and it's actually the pdf that has come out OK and the eps that is awful.So that means that the file sizes I'll be dealing with are only 15 - 20MB ish. I'll edit the post accordingly.

Steep - I didn't realise that printers could use system memory, the uni ones all seem to have about 30 MB of internal memory and a file larger than that just makes them hang. I've got a newish MacBook with 2GB Ram so that should be OK. If they don't have internal memory that would explain why I couldn't find out what size it is!

Photon - Thanks very much for the offer, it always amazes me that people are willing to be so helpful to someone that they don't know! I hadn't thought about e-bay for an older printer. I will start by asking around uni whether anyone has an inkjet they can test on that I might be able to pick up on e-bay but if I need you to test yours for me I'll PM you. Thanks again