[NBLUG/talk] color printer recommendation needed

Bob Blick bobblick at covad.net
Mon Feb 9 09:21:02 PST 2004


Jim Bianchi said:
> 	Speed isn't all that much of a factor (within reason). I'd like to
> be able to print images to at least 8x10 but 11x16 would be much better.
> Ideas? Cost? What drivers are needed and from where can they be had?

If you are serious about printing, or even if you're not, and you want an
inkjet printer, Epson is the only brand to get.

If you do a lot of prints you'll want to get a "continuous inking system"
to reduce your unit cost. The ink resides in bottles outside the printer
with small hoses to the printhead. Quite often on eBay you can pick up a
printer already set up that way, if not, the kits are cheap enough and
easy to install. Your choice of inks is great with these systems - you
have a choice of archival inks as well.

Even if you're not serious about printing, Epson and Canon are the only
printers with reasonable ink cost, due to the availability of third-party
inks, something you will not find with HP or Lexmark.

I have an Epson Stylus 860 and a Stylus Photo EX - both immediately
recognized by SuSE and print beautifully. Neither of those printers can be
used with continuous inking, however. I believe the Epson Stylus 1520 is
the earliest printer that can be used that way. It is a wide carriage
printer (paper to 16 x 24, printable area 13.5 x 22) and even without
continuous inking it's cheap to feed - third party cartridges are under
$4, and it prints better than my Photo EX. You can probably pick one up on
eBay or craigslist for under $100.

All new printers use "chipped" cartridges, in an attempt to lock you into
the manufacturer's cartridges (and also to force an "expiration date" on
the cartridge). This has been successful except on Epson and Canon -
although there are third-party cartridges for these, they are a couple of
bucks more, still a good deal at $6 each. The continuous inking systems
use an "always full" chip.

Cheerful regards,

Bob






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