I need an inkjet printer for large print runs on A4 paper. I don't do much photo printing so something with just black, cyan, magenta & yellow cartridges would be ideal: something I can refill with generic refill ink. Perhaps with a continuous-ink system, or with large ink tanks.
I have been using a Canon i560, which was okay, but it just bit the dust, an I need a replacement printer fast.
Any suggestions what would be a cheap but effective solution?
Thank you,
Jake D
What counts as large runs? Wouldn't the running cost of a colour laser be less than that of an inkjet? Morgan had/has some colour laser printers at very attractive prices.
Richard
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Jake D saying something like:
eg.
Can't believe this will end up cheaper than jobbing it out to an online print service
Dave, Thanks for that. I have seen those kits, but I don't like the look of having to use 6 different colours. I'd rather have just four: black, magenta, cyan and yellow. It's all I need for my type of work which is mostly text and just a few scanned images.
An Epson printer may be an option. I'd like one that's fairly cheap, with four transparent, large-sized ink tanks, with the black one bigger than the others if possible. Is there such a beast, I wonder...
Jake
Maybe not, but I like to have full control over what's being printed. For example, I often need to alter the text being printed, half-way through a print run.
Jake
4000+, about once every couple of months. Apart from that, my usage is about average for a home office / small business.
My experiences with lasers is that they are very expensive to run. Like someone else mentiones in an earlier thread, the drums need replacing regularly and that's invariably expensive. The toner is by no means cheap either. A well-chosen inkjet refilled with bulk-purchased ink is can be less expensive in the long run, IMO. But, of course, it probably depends on numerous factors.
Jake
.......although, I have not investigated the cost (and running costs) of recent colour lasers. Last time I looked was about 4 years ago. I will have to take a look at today's offerings.
Jake
They're really cheap to run in comparison to inkjets now. However, many do need unofficial mods to the cartridges as the manufacturers put spy chips in to force you to buy their overpriced ink.
The black ink isn't much different from mono-laser. The coloured ink is a fraction of ink jet ink price.
The output is much better than inkjet, especially for computer generated graphics, rather than photos.
Christian.
Don't know what you're printing, but would it be feasible to get the majority of the artwork printed offset, then over-print only variable (preferably black) text?
Owain
Hi Jake,
If another Canon would be good, this doc. will help find which of their current printers uses cheap cartridges:
Eg a Pixma IP4000 uses CMYK BCI-6 cartridges, which can be bought for peanuts.
For bulk inkjet printing, check out the first link here:
BTW I found this through the following site :)
Canon have an outlet on Ebay (canon_uk1) which can be a good source of a cheap Canon printer.
Whatever the printer I'd just get a clutch of cartriges and refill them in batches with some decent bulk ink.
cheers, Pete.
Owain, Thanks for the suggestion; however, I feel this would add to the costs in terms of time and money, rather than reduce them. (Two lots of printing to produce each sheet.)
Jake
Pete, Thanks for the input and URLs. I generally refill my cartridges using bulk-purchased generic ink. This worked faultessly with my Canon i560. I would have liked to find an IP3000 or IP4000 to replace the i560, but they are both discontinued now. The nearest thing that's easily available sems to be the IP4200 which unfortunately uses 5 ink tanks instead of the IP300's more convenient four.
Just before my i560 bit the dust, I bought a bulk quantity of generic refill ink... I'm just hoping it will work in the IP4200.
Has anyone had success refilling the Canon IP 4200 with generic refill ink?
Jake
My mistake, I didn't realise Canon had bought out new printers that use different cartridges.
I'd look around at Epson and HP, what you could do with is something with non-chipped carts that have cheap generic equivalents.
Theres a few printer forums out there, this one is quite good though biased toward photo printers:
cheers, Pete.
It's standard practice for a lot of things like show flyers, which are colour printed for the show and then overprinted in black with date/venue information.
It works because short run colour is quite expensive, but gets a lot cheaper in the tens of thousands, whereas short run black is quite cheap, even on a photocopier.
Kyocera always used to be good for low running cost lasers.
Owain
Owen and others.
Just give up.
He is so self motivated as to be inadvisable.
Dave
Yes, excellent info on that one, thank you! I found a long and informative thread discussing Canon's chipped carts, and using cintinuous flow systems with them, etc.
Jake
I can see what you meant now. Yes, that would save money with some kinds of work.
I'll check 'em out - thanks.
Jake
So they have. I wish they did one for the Canon ip4200. (I've just ordered one of those.) Perhaps someone else sells one.
Jake
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