printers

[Simon]

OK so having got some nice shots and with the prospect of getting many more I am thinking making postcards of some of them, I would like to start by printing them myself so as to minimise investment and not run the risk of my pictures being stolen, I do work for a printer and see a lot of picture theft go on and as I will leave the country soon know just what will become of my images. Hence I would like to print them myself at home.

what is the best type of printer ? laser or inkjet ?

I want it to be economical to run but also don't want to be stuck with photographic paper that is costly and not appropriate for postcards can an injet print on standard matt paper ? I am thinking one of those that has an external ink tank kit any ideas anyone ?

[stormyva]

An inkjet printer is probably the best all around printer.  It will give you the widest variety of paper sizes and paper types and good print quality.  You can use matte, glossy, and there are even some types the closely resemble canvas.  B & H and Adorama have a pretty good selection of papers for the ink jets.  The downside to inkjet is that the prints do not stand up to frequent handling the way lab prints do. 
Another option for good quality prints is a dye sublimination printer.  I have a HiTi Imaging one that does 4x6 and it prints out some excellent pictures with a glossy or matte coating.  The best part is the prints are water resistant due to the top coating.  The downside is you have to have a special ribbon and special paper.

[Simon]

by matt paper I mean the paper used on offset printers not the natural kind like the paer we write on but the well i suppose coated paper although it may appear glossy by comparason to writing paper it is not and there is a gloss paper but I doubt an inkjet would handle it as the nk would not get absorbed and run. I think I will go inkjet anyway

[Uroplatus]

by matt paper I mean the paper used on offset printers not the natural kind like the paer we write on but the well i suppose coated paper although it may appear glossy by comparason to writing paper it is not and there is a gloss paper but I doubt an inkjet would handle it as the nk would not get absorbed and run. I think I will go inkjet anyway

you can get both Matte and Gloss finishes in inkjet photo printers, even though the paper is glossy, it still absorbs the ink.  Laser isn't Ideal for photo...

I like Dye Sublimation printers. It is a ribbon printer that uses heat. Where inkjets, the paper dictates the gloss and matte finish, in dye sub its the ribbon. It lays a UV coat on top of the photo.  You also can bypass the finish and apply spray matte or spray gloss if you don't like the quality of the printer's coating.

What about using an online company that will do your postcards for you... not sure what you have availible for you where you are, but there has to be a company bound by trade laws to not steal your images...  and its much cheaper than printing one offs for folks.

[habakuk]

I'm not sure how clever it is to print postcards with a inkjet, unless you plan to spray a protective lacquer on top of the print.

cheers
®

[Simon]

well how much is subdie ? yes online companies is not a bad idea I just want to advoid my own boss because I know he will steal the images and I am not about to travel 2000 miles back here just to sue him and loose because he can say they are the ones i had him print an online company would be fine I was hoping to start in small quantities though and here in italy I don't know who does it

[Uroplatus]

well how much is subdie ? yes online companies is not a bad idea I just want to advoid my own boss because I know he will steal the images and I am not about to travel 2000 miles back here just to sue him and loose because he can say they are the ones i had him print an online company would be fine I was hoping to start in small quantities though and here in italy I don't know who does it

I got a Dye Sub for 400 USD...  there are some cheaper and some a bit more expensive... google them...

[Simon]

what about the running cost ? how much does it work out per print

[eob]

If you want to calculate the long-term costs, don't forget to take into account such costs as wasted time and material (and your sanity, too).

It is widely known, that to get good results and to minimize waste, you need to calibrate and profile your equipment. Your monitor, your printer and the paper/ink combination of choice are most important elements of the chain. The scanner or the digital camera also should be profiled, but that is somwhat less important. There's freely available profiles bundled with some inkjet printers, but usually they are not so great.

Generally, there's much less problems with dyesub printers than with inkjets - for two reasons. One, because dyesub printers work in RGB color space (same as monitors), as opposed to inkjets that use CMYK color space. So, for dyesub printers you don't have to convert your images from RGB to CMYK, because you process your images on the computer in the same color space. That saves some rounding up and bias of the converting algorithms. The second reason for less fuss is the fact that there's only a couple of choices as far as paper/ribbon combinations for a dyesub as opposed to dozens of paper/ink combination choices for an inkjet. The less variety - the less randomness and more predictability of results. And for printing postcards you really just need one combination, so less choice is no issue.

To sum it up, I would say that the initial cost of buying a dyesub printer and specialized consumables may be slightly higher, but in the long run, inkjets are substantially more expensive.

P.S. I should add, that inkjets get regularly clogged with dried ink. This never happens on the dyesub printer, because it does not use any ink.

[Simon]

hm yes you bring up some interesting points, I can't afford dye sub right now and here in Italy it is likely to be even dearer due to less people using them, I am not sure though as to the finish I have a couple of pics I had printed on a dye sub at the camera shop and they are very glossy not what I want really for postcards and pictures for general viewing, (that includes my portfolio to show the college). I'll have to look more into dye sub for the future.

I have ordered a photographic inkjet printer for 67 Euro and also an external tank kit for 45 Euro making it 112 euro, it will have to do for now, I have been told that using the external tank system (dummy cartridges fed by bigger external tanks via tubes) makes it a lot cheaper and i am looking to alternative forms of paper, for example at work we have a natural paper ( like the stuff you write on) but apart from being 300 g/m2 it is very smooth like patty paper and so my make a nice alternative, I could then spray this.

[eob]

Dyesubs for a postcard size are about the same price as photo-quality inkjets. Consumables are just slightly more expensive. Dyesub prints can be either glossy or matte. It only depends on the kind of ribbon you get, because all papers are same.

Well, since you've already ordered your inkjet printer, this discussion is pointless. Anyway, I wish you good results and full satisfaction with whatever printer you get.

[Simon]

thanks as at the moment inkjet is all I can afford it will have to do I'll look into dye subs when I have more budget I was told by a friend at work that runs his own business and has a dye sub that it costs 60 euro cents per 10X15 cm print I don't know how much inkjet will work out at as I hope to use cheaper paper and get ink in as bulk as possible, the external tanks do look like they take 3-4 times what a cartridge does hold and as you just refill the tank not buy a custom made plastic cartridge with a sponge in it etc it hopefully should work out cheaper.

[eob]

Yeah, using the external tank system is much cheaper in the long run, especially, if you print a lot of photo images... I would be very cautious about using plain papers instead of specialized ones though, since their interaction with inks is not the one the printer expects. I suppose, with a good dose of experimentation, you can still get acceptable results with those papers.

One tip that I can give you to save money and time, if you're going to use your inkjet printer only occasionally - rather than printing one or two photos every few days, wait until you have a substantial quantity to print and then print them all at once. That way you will save a lot of ink that would otherwise go to waste during cleaning inkjet heads every once in a while.

[Simon]

Oh right Rob thanks for that, yea I hope to do a certain amount at a time. The thing is the photo paper is like 80 euro cents per A4 sheet, that is a bit much. a co-worker of mine said he printed a good picture on natural paper (heavy writing paper ie not patty don't know the correct name), I want to try a very good quality one that is smooth like patty paper but will absorb easier and look quite nice I can spray it also according to the computer man he can get me the spry as well. I hope it is more versatile with a 5700 dpi resolution as the droplets of ink should be yet finer and easier to absorb, I tried patty paper on my old canon S400 with a  photo head but it all ran but that was only 1440 dpi so perhaps better luck

[Uroplatus]

Oh right Rob thanks for that, yea I hope to do a certain amount at a time. The thing is the photo paper is like 80 euro cents per A4 sheet, that is a bit much. a co-worker of mine said he printed a good picture on natural paper (heavy writing paper ie not patty don't know the correct name), I want to try a very good quality one that is smooth like patty paper but will absorb easier and look quite nice I can spray it also according to the computer man he can get me the spry as well. I hope it is more versatile with a 5700 dpi resolution as the droplets of ink should be yet finer and easier to absorb, I tried patty paper on my old canon S400 with a  photo head but it all ran but that was only 1440 dpi so perhaps better luck

I think the main problem won't be absorbing... but over absorbing... resulting in bad bleeding...

My fathers photo printer, when using copier paper, bleeds bad, and rinkles the paper.  Black and white printing (non photo) is ok with it but, over saturated paper will wrinkle bad... thats why its wise to stick with photo paper. 

Also to if you decide to spray, you may want to look into the long term effects of plain paper and uv coatings... some will yellow, or not adhere correctly. Also could cause some issues with the ink that you just sprayed on the paper...

But you can always trial and error it!!!  good luck