I need a home use printer, W7 compatible, preferably $150-$200 range max, than can print at 11 x 17 on cardstock sheets instead of regular paper. Does a printer that meets my needs actually exist? I've seen more than a few on Amazon that can print that size but they never mention paper types that it can print on.
There are ink and laser printers that will print on 11X17. Not sure if you will be able to find one for $150-200 range though. I googled "printers that will print on card stock" and "inexpensive printers that print on 11X17 paper" and found some that will. When shopping keep this in mind. The small inexpensive ink printers are not designed for massive printing. The are for home and home office that prints every once in a while. Not to mention if you do the math (cost divided by yield = cost per page) you will see what it costs you. I worked in the copier and printer field for 32 years. I would take a laser printer over an ink printer any day. As you google for the printers, you should be able to look at there specs in most cases. Sometimes they just have to weight of the bond paper ( paper primarily used by most) specs for the printer. Attached is a chart you can use to decipher what weight bond paper is to card-stock. Card stock is also called Cover. Example: if a printer can print on paper up to 40 lb. bond, its equivalent in card-stock/cover is 56lb. Hope this helps
I recently purchased a Canon Pixma MG2520 for basic home printing since it was super cheap and had a scanner built in. Obviously this is a basic 8.5 x 11 printer so it doesn't suit my exact needs, but I at least have a home printer for basic use.
Testing this one, it can run 110lb cardstock with no problem. Actual print quality is not as good as I'd get from a professional shop, but it's not terrible. Quality on cardstock is a bit better than on paper, though photographs come out poor- I may need actual photo paper for those.
If I can find an 11 x 17 or larger capable printer that outputs the same quality as this, if not maybe a bit better, then it'll be adequate. I won't be doing large scale printing, just 1-2 copies per. This is unless I find a print shop to handle what I want- while half of what I need can be done locally for $1 per print, certain other prints I want can't be done here. I was previously outsourcing but that shop is no longer available and I've not found an alternate source, at least not one that's cheap(I am not paying $15 per print from some places I've found).
Admitted this one looks promising- it can handle cardstock through the rear feed and it has good reviews at the lower end of my price range. But I need to look into the ink cartridges to see if they can be refilled or if they have a chip forcing you to buy new cartridges.
Amazon.com: Epson WorkForce WF-7610 Wireless Color All-in-One Inkjet Printer with Scanner and Copier: Electronics
Last edited by Diosoth; 14 Nov 2015 at 11:26.
Glad to hear you found something that will work for you. I personally prefer toner based printers versus ink. They are cheaper to operate as well as repairable. Ink machines are what we call disposable printers. Its cheaper to buy another one than repair it.
A warning about ink consumption. Which? magazine (UK) did a test of inkjet printers about 12 to 13 months ago. It found that the Canon MG series can drink ink like no tomorrow compared to others. (I discovered that before the issue came out, an MG6650.) If you print a batch of docs in one batch (which means with less than 55 sec. between the end of one sheet and the beginning of the next) the ink consumption is not so bad. But for a single page, with perhaps only half covered in text the consumption rises to (if I remember) 14 times the batch consumption (per page). This is because the MG range insists on cleaning its jets very thoroughly 55 sec. after a page leaves the printer. Its no use switching the printer off quickly after a small job: the printer cleans itself before going off line. My old Canon left it to the user when to clean, and I did so every 10 days or so. It never complained.
I collect print jobs ready for printing in one batch, whenever possible. Compatible cartridges work well and are much cheaper.
I'm not as happy with this Canon as I'd hoped- printing artwork out didn't drain ink as bad as I expected, probably because they lack backgrounds, but colors came out darker than print shop quality and there is a larger border than preferable because of a hard-coded .66" bottom border in the drivers that nothing can override(sides are .25", top .11"). I also had to waste a few prints getting adjusted to how this handles image printing.
That said I'm now less likely to drop $150 + $50 in a refillable ink cartridge system on a larger format printer. I don't know for certain what the quality will be like, how many files it can print before draining the cartridge, what type of border it enforces on the pages, etc. I think I'd be better off sticking with trying to find a professional shop that will do what I need. Should one do what I need for even $3 per 11x17 print, it would be far cheaper.
Keep in mind when you look at yields on a cartridge, it is based on each print having a 5-7 percent coverage which is basically a small business letter. This applies to ink as well as toner.
Looks like you are looking for better quality than the cheaper machines can give. There are machines out there that will do what you want but they cost a lot more and you would need to have a volume that would justify the expense.
Most print shops have the equipment to print what you are looking for. I used to service their equipment.
In my case it's not about their equipment, it's about what they will and will not print. As it is, only about half of what I need archived in hard copy can be done locally. It's not something I care to get into beyond just saying that content beyond a certain level is no-go with most commercial shops. G-rated art is fine, but even suggestive bikini stuff might be pushing it.
I'm trying to find a shop nationwide that I can do this through but none so far. I found some UK-based but postage alone would be prohibitive. My prior outsourced shop, as mentioned above, changed their mind early this year. There are probably eBay sellers in China that would do it but there's a massive concern over them selling prints of the art against my wishes(so much stuff on eBay- stickers, posters, whatever- is stolen art). And even with most online shops, they'd charge a fair bit. Anything over $3-$4 per print would be too expensive, and I have to have a larger batch done to justify postage costs and even then a larger box costs about $10 to mail(my last batch of 40 or so cost around that). A stack of cardstock can get very heavy- just say that an 11x17 binder with 48 cardstock prints in it can feel like lifting a sack of hammers.
But you can see why I'm hesitant to spend that much on a larger format home printer. The quality might be excessively low for the money. If I'm going to get below par quality I can stick to 8.5x11 and keep it cheap.
I did talk with the artist that does most of this work for me, as much as they'd love to get their own home printer, the stickers, bookmarks and such they outsource run cheap while such a printer to suit their needs would cost $5K or more and they'd not break even on it.
Quote