Inkjet vs Laser

[dust]

hi folks,

I'm in the market now for a color printer that can accomodate 11.75" x 16.5" paper. Can anyone recommend me a good one? Also which are better value for money Inkjet or Laser?

[brianlim]

just sounding off based on my experience...

If you are into graphic design and plan/using colorsync, then a color laser would be a good option since it churns pages faster and cheaper (per page). Although initial capital outlay is way more expensive than that of inkjet printers, the cost-benefit is still better. In place of expensive inkjet cartridges, you'd have toners (cmyk), imaging units, fuser, fuser rolls, etc.. these are not cheap but they last longer. Oh one other thing, color laser prints on plain paper...

Color consistency is much better on Color lasers with some models boasting "Pantone calibrated" features. However, don't expect photographic output from laser to be as good as those 6 or 8 inks photo printers. But since you mentioned that you want to print on paper size such as Tabloid, A3 or even P18, then you're looking at spending more than 300k for Tabloid-size color lasers.

Personally, I own a Tektronix Phaser 740 (A4) and a HP Deskjet 1220c (13x19) and I use both on separate applications. Although I am selling the Tek740 (because I don't use it that often) I still rely on it to print initial proofs and colored documents.

[Henjie]

Originally posted by dust
I'm in the market now for a color printer that can accomodate 11.75" x 16.5" paper. Can anyone recommend me a good one? Also which are better value for money Inkjet or Laser?

IMHO, inkjets are definitely a better value. Photo quality better than most color laser printers at a much lower price. A3 color laser printers will run into the thousands of dollars! Unless you absolutely need the advantages of a color laser printer, just buy a good A3 inkjet printer.

Personally, I'd go for Canon i9100. 6-color printing, 13"x19" borderless prints, etc. etc. Steve's Digicams' got a pretty good review of the i9100 here.

But if you can wait till next month, the upcoming Canon i9900 should more than do the trick. 8-color printing, twice as many nozzles as the i9100, and Firewire! Dream (printing) machine. :-) UPDATE: seems like the i9900's available now. Amazon's got it for $459. UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: ooops, pre-order lang pala.


~Henjie

[Edited on 4-29-2004 by Henjie]

[Edited on 4-29-2004 by Henjie]

[maryannemoll]

i'm not much into high res color printing myself. but when i need to print in high res and in color for a project, i have it printed on a laser printer. rather expensive, but the client pays for it.

but we have this inkjet printer at one of the offices of one of my clients, and it prints good high res color photographs naman, on photo paper. kaso lang when you print on paper, the difference in quality is noticeable, pero very slight.

i think your decision will depend on the kind of paper you will use. if on photo paper, ok na ang inkjet.

but i'm no expert. :2cents:

[dust]

thanks for the suggestions fellows but would anyone know of a place where I can outsource A3 printing within the Muntinlupa/Paranaque/Makati area? Seeming the jobs wouldnt be that often I think it would be more economical to just have our projects printed using a third party's equipment.

[Jumbo]

Hi,

The office is looking for a good printer. Currently we are using inkjet for printing forms and letters. May I know what type of laser printer would be able to do this function?
Are laser printers cheaper than inkjet?

How can I compute for the cost? i.e. cost per page, maintenance cost, etc. Thanks

[waffycasem]

Well, laser printers are usually more expensive than inkjet printers but the cost per page is far less than inkjet printers. You might want to look at this this, the guys really helped me out in choosing my printer.

[Maccess]

thanks for the suggestions fellows but would anyone know of a place where I can outsource A3 printing within the Muntinlupa/Paranaque/Makati area? Seeming the jobs wouldnt be that often I think it would be more economical to just have our projects printed using a third party's equipment.

There should be several Internet Cafes in that area with an A3 inkjet printer. They're quite common. You'll need to save your document in a format that is common to a PC though: MS Office formats, OpenDocument Formats, acrobat .pdf formats, etc.

[kieron]

I'm using a Epson R1800, works fine with me.