More on Making Copies ............

[Framerguy]

There have been some recent threads on printing and making copies of customer's work, RE: the thread of Rebecca's on preserving the original and displaying the copy.

I know that the large format printers like the Epson 9600 and others are the cat's whiskers for quality reproductions of photos and other printed media but, for the rest of us who can't or don't care to invest in a piece of equipment that expensive, what are the alternatives in the under $500 printers? (not large format). I am talking about a printer that will supply a good quality printout of a scanned image, or a digital photo, or any color rendering that could be printed on gloss or matte digital photo paper.

I have heard that some of the Epsons and the Lexmarks and one of the HP's will give suitable printouts for day to day use.

What is the feedback from you fellow Grumblers on color printouts?

Which printer works best for you? Price range? Cost of ink refills? Overall quality? Flexibility? (Can you use it for text printouts or is it a dedicated printer for print output only?)

Thanks.

Framerguy

[katman]

several years ago epson made the 1160. Slow, but took sheets up to 13x19 and produced a wonderful print on gloss or matte. I believe the next printer with the same drop size and output size was the 1280. I have heard good reports about the epson 2000, but haven't worked with it or seen the output.

[RozR]

Good Topic!! I was looking into some of this a while ago, and will be reactivating my search soon.

Would be interested in info about scanners also. Most scan beds are fairly small... (like my HP at home) any info on larger (yet not too $$) scanners?

A color printer that can print up to 12 x 18 (11 x17) would be great but my concerns are also regarding the cartridges, supplies, etc that go along with one.

Thanks Roz

[B. Newman]

There was an article a few years ago in Decor on restoring antique photos by scanning and then (I guess) using something like photoshop to fix them. And then of course, printing them out. (I've been trying to find the article, but alas, the Decor website seems to have pared the archives down to the last 18 months. Hmmm, something to do with John's reign? But I digress...)

Anyway, the article was so good that I was sure everybody would be restoring photos by the next month! I really thought that if one had the time and computer know-how that this would make a great add on, for not that much investment.

I guess I'll have to do a manual search of my stash, I mean archives. Let me know Tom if you'd like the info in that article.

Betty

[Lance E]

Check out the new Canon (http://www.usa.canon.com/html/conCprCatProdIndex.jsp?section=10199) printers.

Great value and very, very quick.

[McPhoto]

The problem w/ a lot of these inkjet printers is the archival capability - Even the new Epson Ultrachrome printers (7600/9600) will not give you archival prints if you don't use the correct media (ie: paper matched to the inks). If you don't need anything larger than 8x12 - I would recommend looking at the Kodak Thermal/Dye-Sub printers - very similar to traditional photo papers and similar life-span. Newer model & some refurbished units are under $1,500 - Just my 2 pennies worth.

[katman]

Roz--haven't gone scanner shopping in a while, but prices on the larger scanners haven't dropped as dramatically as the smaller, lette sized units. We have two "tabloid" units. I think the bed is 12x17. One is a Microtek and the other a umax. I think they ran about $1,200 and $1,500. They are okay for most of our restoration work involving old photographs that require cleaning, crack repairs. There are much better scanners and scanning software, but the price jump is considerable.

I'm developing my framing business, using my photo lab, restoration work and large format printing as the base for my overhead. If you have a successful framing business, I'd advise you to look at how you can invest your dollars to advance framing rather than looking at restoration as a potential profit center. It takes a while to get good, and restoration is time-intensive work.

About 18 months ago I made the choice to buy a CMC instead of a new, fairly high end scanner. I don't regret it for a minute. Didn't take long to learn how to work the CMC and it is generating more revenue than I would see from a new scanner.

[AnneL]

We have 2 Epson 1280's and have been happy with them. They were around $450.00 each. My husband has been working on printing B&W art prints on them. He uses an archival rag paper and a carbon based ink set from Cone tecnologies that come in bulk and feeds into a special retrofitted printer head. He has a similar color system but the color isn't always as good as we'd like. The B&W looks like a platinum print, very nice. You could also burn the copy work to a cd and take it to a photo lab to be printed on RC paper.

[metalphor]

I noted a technical reference re RC paper on the other evolving thread (Rebecca's "Making Display Copies")...

More pertinent to this thread is the feasability/balance of framers spending time/resources along the digital scanning/printing learning curve...for some, it's a natural mix..for others, a behemoth!...So here's the inquiry:
--to what extent, do you think, it's feasible/practical for framers (who don't moonlight as digital artists) TO PARTNER UP with local digital artists/photographers?

(Katman, sounds like you've approached it from a digital imaging/photographic foundation and have taken on the framing as a natural extension of your services?...)

All of this is a hot personal topic for me right now with a photographer friend who wants to generate more restoration print work. One suggestion I had was to survey area framers who could use this sort of service and offer his services TO THEM. And voila--here you are talking about that need right now! this is the beauty of the internet!

I can see an advantage to keeping the framing job under "one roof" in terms of ensuring greater safety of customer's materials...

??? Thoughts on this?

* useful to partner vs. take on added (computer) concerns?

* if you had such a program in place,is it more likely that you would use the "copy for display" option/ strategy to better identify and address archival issues with a customer's work?

* About sending out work: safety concerns? or refer customer to make contact with digital artist? (this seems problematic in asking the customer to do something more complex; also the possibility of the job walking out of your shop and not returning!)

[Framerguy]

OK, as sometimes occurs, we are getting strung out on technical aspects of professional use of an inkjet printer. That is OK, but far from my original questions.

I want to be able to print photo quality repros for advertising, maybe a color brochure in small quantities, or just color photos of my last camping trip. I don't want to sell these to any of my customers and I don't want any top of the line digital quality can't-tell-it-from-a-real-print print, just a good representation of what I scanned into the computer and adjusted with PhotoShop. That's really all I was asking about.

Does anybody have a favorite printer along those lines? Just one that you can print out good quality photos on matte or glossy print paper that you buy in packages at Staples or Office Max or maybe Viking Office Supplies.

I am using 2 different HP printers now in my gallery and neither one of them does even a mediocre job with photos. The deskjet is terrible and the officejet isn't much better.

Thanks.

Framerguy

[Barb Pelton]

I'm going to second Anne's recommendation--Epson 1280. I am certainly no guru, but out of our 3 printers, this is the best. Hubby prints some fine looking prints from our digital camera as well as from his 35mm scans. Cartridges are fairly reasonable ($20-$28 range for b/w and color).

[B. Newman]

Oh wow, Tom, if that's what you want, try the HP G55. I love it for all my advertising, some of my booklets (filled with photos) and I've even printed some photos on photo paper with great results. (The only reason I don't use it for my bigger booklets is simply the time involved with overseeing the correct page placement - my problem, not the printers.)

I'll send you some of my stuff and you can see how it looks. They make 2 versions of this printer. One is an "all in one" with fax machine, but the one I have is without fax since I already had one when I bought this printer. I bought it specifically for printing my booklets, and I love it. I paid about $350.00 for it I think.

Betty

[Framerguy]

Betty,

Did you do the brochures that you sent to me with this HP printer? They are done well. I am assuming that it is a color printer, eh? I don't need a FAX, copier, scanner, etc. as this Officejet does all that. (Not well but it does it.)

I will look into the availability of both the HP and the Epson 1280 as I think that either one would fit the needs of my gallery.

Thanks, Anne and Betty.

Framerguy