topic Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA in Installation & update

11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:30:27 GMT

My printer feeder gave out the week and I am having a hard time finding reviews of what to replace it with. I like the 11" x 17" color format for ArchiCAD 3D views and quick plans etc to the client. Any one got a recommendation to fill that need ?
Thanks

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:57:50 GMT

have a look at CANON'S PIXMA series

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Rex Maximilian — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:18:56 GMT

I am really happy with the Epson R2400. 13x19, 8 (to 9) inks for extremely high photo quality prints. About $900 SRP. Sometime you can get them with a $75 rebate.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Dwight — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:21:52 GMT

Just got an Epson 3800 that has a 17" carriage width and the extra black inks for fine photography. Around $1300. but with $600. worth of ink pre-installed - representing a bargain in my book....

I do quite a volume of printing here and appreciate the economy of individual ink replacement.

Top quality. Fast. Quiet.

You get spoiled printing 17x22" construction documents from it.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Thomas Holm — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:59:59 GMT

Dwight wrote:
Just got an Epson 3800 that has a 17" carriage width and the extra black inks for fine photography. Around $1300. but with $600. worth of ink pre-installed - representing a bargain in my book....

Ink cost is significant. In my country, Canon's ink costs tend to be lower than both Epson's and HP's. Worth checking out.

But if you want the speed of a laser, it gets more expensive if you want color with quality. For lasers, good quality needs true PostScript, no emulation. We have a KonicaMinolta bizhub C352 11x17 copier/printer/scanner with a Fiery PostScript RIP. Expensive, but the quality is worth it.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:39:33 GMT

I've had the Canon i9100 for several years. (It's out of production now.) It is (was) a 6 ink printer, up to 13 x 19 page size. Fast, clean for line drawings, and fantastic photo results on photo paper. Ink is reasonable in individual tanks, but I have guilt about all of the plastic in the cartridges since there is no convenient recylcing chanel here.

The comparable current model is said to be way better according to reviewers: Pixma Pro9000. Only $309 after rebate at amazon with free shipping at the moment. Amazing:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Pro9000-Professional-Printer-9995A001/dp/B000J1HPK8/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1195756031&sr=8-2

This is an 8 ink printer.

I would upgrade, except my old i9100 is still doing just fine.

Karl

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Rex Maximilian — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:18:56 GMT

The R2400 has the swappable matte black/glossy black cartridge as well.

B&W photos (good ones that are created properly using channel mixing) are STUNNING! Even high contrast color photos on enhanced matte paper are incredible.

I'm sure Dwight's is a larger version of this one. I have another ink-jet just for general stuff, like everyday print and ArchiCAD plots.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:37:25 GMT

But if you want the speed of a laser, it gets more expensive if you want color with quality. For lasers, good quality needs true PostScript, no emulation. We have a KonicaMinolta bizhub C352 11x17 copier/printer/scanner with a Fiery PostScript RIP. Expensive, but the quality is worth it.

Agree with Thomas, although networkable color 11 x 17 lasers are expensive; the speed, low toner cost per copy (ie full color 11 x 17 = 10 cents), colorfastness, and other features sure make them nice. We got a Xerox MR24 Workcentre about a year ago as the primary copier/printer/fax/scanner for the office and sure don't regret it. The ability to scan and email as a pdf to any workstation sure make getting almost anything into ArchiCAD easy.

This "laser" photo montage was output on photo quality paper as large as could be printed on 11 x 17 for each image. Matted and framed it was nearly 3' x 4' and only those who know can tell it's not "real" photos.

Dave

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Dwight — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:43:25 GMT

Just a note that i got a promotion for the Epson 3800 today. Now it is a 17" wide inkjet for only $1250!!!!!

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

KeesW — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:09:37 GMT

I've got an HP9860 (A3) as one of our printers. It is fast, very good quality and not very expensive. I'd recommend it.

My previous printer was an Epson 3000 (A2). Good printer but terrible drivers - Epson never updated them after Windows 2000 - even though this printer remained in production well into the Windows XP era. I couldn't continue using it because because of inconsistent performance - apparently due to dodgy drivers. If you are considering an Epson, check driver availability and their update policy.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Dwight — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:12:32 GMT

I hope that you still have it in the back room.

The aftermarket for the 3000 is good because the t-shirt guys like it.

See your dealer about resale.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:49:55 GMT

KeesW wrote:
If you are considering an Epson, check driver availability and their update policy.

I've had an on again off again relationship with Epsons. The printers are generally very nice, but their drivers seem to vary from great to awful. The early 1500's (17x22) were a nightmare networking with Macs (only painful with Windows). My 1280 was a trouble free workhorse. My current 1800 is a good printer with nice output, but I keep having to tweak and adjust to get acceptable output, and have a very hard time getting the top quality results the machine is (theoretically) capable of.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Dwight — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:42:43 GMT

I agree.
My first Epson was a disaster communicating - counseling didn't help.

But this 3800 is a dream with simplified firmware updates.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Ignacio Azpiazu — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:44:20 GMT

KeesW wrote:
I've got an HP9860 (A3) as one of our printers. It is fast, very good quality and not very expensive. I'd recommend it.

I am very happy with the HP B8350 too (I also decided to go HP after a lifetime of unending headaches with drivers with my old Epson 1520). One thing that I didn't quite understand when buying the 8350, and still don't understand, is the black/grayscale cartridge option.

The printer has the 6 color inks typical for photo printers, but they offer an alternative black and grayscale cartridges setup which is supposed to give better blacks and that I guess would be the way to go for text printouts? Black text with the 6-color-ink setup (I assume it uses only the basic 3 CMY for text) looks fine, but I have not been able to compare with the black ink setup which should look better.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Dwight — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:00:56 GMT

The ink schemes are thus:

1: a simple matte black - the routine black for drawings and basic Archicad renderings made without photographic backgrounds.

2: The Photo Black and its associated greys - for photographic reproduction.

The printer switches between modes at some expense - about US$5. because the black line must be flushed. This is a problem when printing both drawings and photography since print runs must be carefully planned to minimize shifting gears. Of course, you can always fool the machine into making plain paper prints using the photo black ink. Works fine.

Inkjet printers have always had difficulty with subtlety at extremes - at both the light and dark. They have long used dilute magenta and cyan to smooth the transition to white [yellow, being weak and transparent, needs no lighter tone]. These dilute colors prevent a shattered edge of perceptible dots as the image transits to white - another reason to never print absolute white in a photo. Additional greys build up a subtle, almost metallic sheen in monochrome photos that is quite beguiling when applied to the correct papers.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Dwight — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:50:25 GMT

And then there is this:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2225806,00.asp

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Thomas Holm — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:22:51 GMT

Dwight wrote:
And then there is this:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2225806,00.asp

That's OKI C9650.

If I remember correctly, Xerox has a Phaser series printers that use the same LED print engine as the OKIs, but have true Adobe Postscript and thus better color and better calibration options. Price is more or less the same, at least over here. This is IMHO the best budget color "laser" 11x17 (A3) option available.

The next quality step costs about the double, then you get true laser too.

Next again is the EFI Fiery RIP option - overpriced but still worth it, if you can afford the leasing costs. Available among others in KonicaMinolta, Xerox, Canon and other color laser printer brands.

Re: 11' X 17" COLOR PRINTER IN USA

Dwight — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:36:23 GMT

And, just in:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2232711,00.asp

as cheap as they come.