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Archive 2015 · Best printer for small business?

  
 
Hockey_Nut
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Best printer for small business?


Hey Everyone,

I operate a sports photography business and I'm looking to shave some expenses ... spent $8k last year on prints and I'm wondering if there's a solid printer that will allow me to reduce my printing costs. I need to be able to print from 4x6 to 11x14. I've looked briefly at some Epson printers that are about $1200 and the ink is $600 ... just not sure how many prints I will get before the cartridges need replacing.

If anyone can recommend a printer or an opinion as to whether it's cost effective to even bother doing my own printing I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks,

Brent



Apr 10, 2015 at 11:31 PM
howardm4
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Best printer for small business?


It'd be helpful to know what Epson's you have already looked at. And what your monthly volume is and if speed is important or longevity or what.

Most of the smaller printers wont hold up to prosumer/pro volume output.

If you want to go all the way, perhaps something like Epson SureColor D3000 but obviously a serious economic analysis would be needed.

The generally accepted ink usage by most inkjet printers is 1mL (overall) per sq. ft or so. The printers w/ small/tiny carts will seriously negatively affect your profit margin as the overall ink cost is quite high. You really want to get a printer w/ larger carts. redriverpaper.com has some analysis of printing costs on a per printer basis.



Apr 11, 2015 at 08:13 AM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Best printer for small business?


If you are printing dozens rather than hundreds, the R3000 does very nicely.


Apr 11, 2015 at 08:49 AM
D_Sh
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Best printer for small business?


If you print a lot, Epson stylus pro 3880 is a much better option. It is actually not that much more expensive than P600 (R3000 has been discontinued) when you count the amount of inks you get with it. Epson 3880 comes with 80 ml ink tanks, rather than 25.9 ml for P600 and 25ml for R3000. Needles to say, due to large ink tanks 3880 will cost you less per print and you can print 17 x 22. If you don't print a lot, then P600 is a good option.


Apr 11, 2015 at 09:13 AM
FLSTCSAM
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Best printer for small business?


I do not believe any "home" printer will be able to save you any money when printing small sizes.

I don't think you can even get close. So if it's cost you are looking at stay with the commercial printers.

Sam



Apr 11, 2015 at 11:59 AM
hugowolf
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Best printer for small business?


If you are looking for small format prints and a relatively large volume, then I would look at the Epson L-series. They have bulk ink tanks instead of cartridges. They use dye based inks, and will probably not have the longevity of pigment inks, but should be fine.

The L800 (up to 11" x 14") can be found on Amazon for US$285.

Brian A.



Apr 11, 2015 at 12:26 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Best printer for small business?


D_Sh wrote:
P600.. R3000 has been discontinued...


Thanks for catching me on that. One of our printers in the R3000, and I haven't kept up with the smaller printers since we got it.

The R3000 (and I presume the P600) produces image quality that is equivalent to that of the bigger x900 (7900, 9900, 11900) series printers, but in a much smaller package. The ink cartridges are not nearly as large as those on the bigger printers, but they are significantly larger than the older 13" printers.

Whether the larger 17" carriage printers are worthwhile for our OP is an interesting question. The largest prints he mentioned were 11" x 14", so the P600 will handle that size quite well. As to the question of whether the larger and more expensive printers would be worth it, the answer is "it depends" — is he making a lot of prints or a few, what are the cost trade-offs in his circumstances between printer cost and ink cost, does the size of the printer matter, and more.

Fortunately, there are fine printers at a range of price points and sizes these days.

Dan



Apr 11, 2015 at 05:40 PM
Hockey_Nut
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Best printer for small business?


Thank you everyone for taking the time to chime in.

I honestly don't even remember the Epson model I was looking at as it was a couple of months ago but it certainly was over $1k. I will take a look at the printers that have been mentioned. I've never needed to print over 11x14 as I send my 24x36 posters out to a lab but I do print a decent amount so I'd need something that is efficient and reliable - don't want to be buying ink cartridges every week. I pay .30 for 5x7s, $2.25 (taxes included) for 8x10s and $3.50 for 11x14s. If my costs drop (also taking into consideration my gas & time driving to the lab) as a result of having a printer, I may go this route.

Thanks again, I'll check out the items everyone has mentioned.

Brent



Apr 11, 2015 at 09:51 PM
D_Sh
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Best printer for small business?


P600 and R3000 are great printers, but for print volume like mentioned ($8k per year), Epson 3880 is a better buy. It costs $900 (after $250 mail in rebate), while P600 costs $699. To match the amount of ink sold with 3880 you need to buy 2 additional sets of inks for P600/R3000 ($250 per Ink Cartridge Set), which makes it more expensive than 3880.
Also the running cost for 3880 is less, the inks cartridge price is only twice as much as for P600/R3000, while it holds 3 times more of inks (80ml vs 25ml).

Cost per print you can check on redriver:
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cost-of-inkjet-printing-epson-3800-3880.html
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/epson-stylus-r3000-cost-per-print.html

Dima








Apr 12, 2015 at 01:01 AM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Best printer for small business?


D_Sh wrote:
P600 and R3000 are great printers, but for print volume like mentioned ($8k per year), Epson 3880 is a better buy.


I missed the print volume numbers when I wrote my earlier reply — and I tend to agree with you now that I see that there will be a substantial amount of printing.

The 13" Canon printers make good prints — the current ones are indistinguishable from prints coming from the high end printers — but they have tended to be built to a less solid standard. The older ones (back in the 2200 era) were really built like consumer printers — not terribly solid and with some features that seemed specifically designed for low levels of use. (See the older printers' methods for dealing with "waste tanks" for example.) I think the situation has improved with the more recent iterations of the 13" models, but they still seem designed for lower levels of use, in my view.

Dan



Apr 12, 2015 at 09:16 AM
in2house
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Best printer for small business?


Unfortunately, I can't recommend a printer but have you considered getting a higher end unit and then offset the added expense by printing other people's stuff. Just a thought...


Apr 12, 2015 at 09:27 PM





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