Professional Printer upto A3 size

Peter69

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I'm looking for a printer that can give lab quality prints for commercial sales.

At present I use an old Epson 1270 for poster etc and a PX830 for everyday prining.

Ink tech baffles me (do I need Epson ultrachrome printer - Dyesub??)

Any help much appreciated
 
Have a look at the Epson 3880.

It's an A2 Ultra-chrome ink printer at about £1000 a pop but the results are stunning using the correct paper and profiles.
 
after selling some prints on eBay & having to issue a replacement due to a complaint re quality, I now use a commercial printing firm located in the high st. their equipment cost £10k, better quality, and for my volume of sales more cost effective.

there is a booth at the local major branch of Tesco but the quality not as good

you can usually email pics over to be printed so only one journey to collect
 
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I'm looking for a printer that can give lab quality prints for commercial sales.

At present I use an old Epson 1270 for poster etc and a PX830 for everyday prining.

Ink tech baffles me (do I need Epson ultrachrome printer - Dyesub??)

Any help much appreciated

Much cheaper just getting a company to print them rather than investing in an a3 printer tbh
 
Much cheaper just getting a company to print them rather than investing in an a3 printer tbh

But if you are knocking them out at the right price it's an investment.

Selling 20x16's at £5 with the price of ink and paper plus the cost of the printer it will probably never be worth it but selling a 20x16 at £65+ you can't lose!

We have an Epson 7900 and the price of ink is frightening (it takes 11 cartridges) but eventually it will owe me nothing.....................if I live that long. :shrug:
 
canon pixma pro 1 is a worthy contender, canon currently have a cashback offer and it could cost about £550 after cash back
 
Prices of prints sold are £45 unmounted.
At present they are printed on Hahnemuhle Matt FineArt Smooth PHOTO RAG by a Epson 9900. Each print me costs £15. Sales so far =20 so £600 profit.
I just want better colour control as well as more profit ;)
I tried my PX830 and had good results although the paper will kill the printer and ends up too curly.
 
an A3 sheet of Hahnemühle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth 305gsm A3 costs £2.40 each, it probably costs £3 per print for ink say so £5.40 per print = approx profit of £39.60. You'll need to sell at least 13 to pay for an Epson R3000 printer at cost. using 3rd party carts such as fotospeed will reduce the ink costs but you'd have a higher start up cost.

can get carts for £20 each for 25.9ml carts or the fotospeed ink is £25 for 125ml.


the ink savings would be significant if you were to print a lot.
 
If you can get one, the Epson R2880 gives superb results up to A3+, Cost about £500.
 
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Dave are you still using the Epson 1400 or 1500 or have you upgraded to an Epson 3000. Spoke to Alex at Ink Express today great technical advice given. Will be going there for my inks. Unsure whether to buy the 1500 or 3000 though.
 
Hi Simon - sold the 1400 and now probably looking at buying the R3000 it has good reviews and creates great B&W images. You don't have to keep changing the matt/photo blacks over it does it automatically based on the paper type or you can do it in the printer driver.
I would buy the printer from ink express using their refillable cartridges system inks are much cheaper
My 1400 had an ink express cis and never had a problem with clogging.
http://www.photo-i.co.uk/reviews-2/printers/epson-r3000-review/
http://www.photo-i.co.uk/reviews-2/epson-stylus-photo-1500w-review/
Hope this helps
Dave
 
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