What Plotter should I buy?

[Anonymous]

I would like to get some input on what the best plotter to buy for archicad 8.1. I am thinking about getting the new HP Desk Jet 430 24" but I am not sure if it will standard 24X36 plots. Do I need to get the HP 36" or can I print it in a landscape form.

I have a budget of about $1500.00 US and I would like to get color.

Thanks

Jon

[Steve Jepson]

Don't buy...lease!

HP800

[Anonymous]

Steve; Why lease? Where is the advantage. Why the HP 800. What does it have / do that the Epson and the Cannon don't have. If you are leasing this printer now, what is the cost per month? How long is the lease?

Thanks in advance.

[Steve Jepson]

I am leasing an HP800. My main reason is the 2400dpi!

The results are truly outstanding. I love working with color. The ink is all the same price anyway. Graduated gray scale fills are incredibly smooth. Event the most delicate variations is shade or pen widths are perfectly printed. What you see is what you get. If you can see the difference on your screen, you will see the difference in the print too. Very fast too for quick check sets.

I lease because the tax advantage for me is better than depreciation.

Like computers, their is no advantage in ownership. By the time you get it paid for is is obsolete and needs to be relpaced. Maintainance for a large format printer is not cheap. I have included with my lease, bumper to bumper coverage for the duration of the lease. I have no worries.

I have had mine for about 6 mo. It has worked flawlessly since I turned it on. Many, many media types including film, mylar, and weather proof fabrics kind of like Tyvek for outdoor signs and posters.

Good for tiny little things like business cards on hi gloss photo paper.
You can print on media as small as 8 1/2 x 11 single sheets or 42" X 150' or what ever your role length is.


Be sure to visit the HP website. you can get these for as little as $96-$100/mo. My lease payment for 36 mo. is $121.00 because I added some things like the stand and mainanence agreement, etc...

Don't buy a used printer. It's like buying used food.
Don't buy on Ebay. The plotter area is full of fraud. Very, very risky.
Lease direct from HP. Watch for the promos. Free shipping ect...

[Anonymous]

Anybody have experiences with the HP DesignJet 4000? We're looking into an additional plotter, and this looks to suit the bill. Does a mult-roll feeder work with the Mac drivers?

Thanks in advance!
Wes

[Anonymous]

I have a 430 and have used it for the last 5yrs.
I have never had a problem with it and it is fairly fast.
It will print 24" x 36". As a matter of fact, it will print 24" x ?.
I once accidentalyy printed a 24" x 42'-0" plot.
You can get a color upgrade from HP for about $500.
I have't gotten one yet, so I can't comment.

[Anonymous]

A final update on our plotter/printer purchase.
Our budget just did not allow us to go with the Epson Stylus Pro 7800 or the HP Designjet 500. What we settled on was the HP Design Jet 110 nr. It will do D size paper (on a 150' roll) (24" x 36"). It also will feed individual sheets from letter size to C-size. The delivered price was just over $1,000.00. Set up on our network was a breeze, using the included ethernet connection. The nice thing was that it only uses 4 inks. No, it is not a photo quality printer. For Cadd drawings we just felt this was not a neccesity. The printer has worked flawlessly. 5 to 10 times faster than the Epson 3000 using gimp print. The Epson used to be just about as fast when we didn't need to use gimp print, but since updating to OS 10.4.6, gimp printing was our only solution. If you are using Microsoft OS, Or if you are still using Mac OS 10.3 this printer will work very nicely for you. Keep in mind that the paper needs constant attention to feed properly. We would love to sell the Epson Stylus Color 3000, and will let it go cheap. We have $200.00 of Ink refills, and the printer has almost full ink cartridges. It has an ethernet card, parallel printer port and the old Mac serial port. If anyone is interested let me know and this printer could be yours for an attractive price. Printer will do C-size paper - 17x22.