cheap printer for color management training

SP
Posted By
Sune_Petersen
Jun 29, 2004
Views
342
Replies
9
Status
Closed
Hello

I have discovered that I do not know enough about color management when it comes to printing. Therefore I am looking for a cheap printer that will allow me to gain knowledge on color management without breaking the bank.

My first choice would be the R800, but it is just out of my financial reach. So does anyone on this list any experience with other printers priced lower than the R800? It seems like a jungle.

regards

Sune
Related Tags
color manage print training

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J
Jim
Jun 29, 2004
wrote in message
Hello

I have discovered that I do not know enough about color management when it
comes to printing. Therefore I am looking for a cheap printer that will allow me to gain knowledge on color management without breaking the bank.
My first choice would be the R800, but it is just out of my financial
reach. So does anyone on this list any experience with other printers priced lower than the R800? It seems like a jungle.
No, but there certainly are plenty of printers that cost less than an R800. You must realize though that ink and paper costs far exceed printer costs. Jim
BB
brent_bertram
Jun 30, 2004
Sune,
Any of the Epson Photo printers have excellent color management support in the driver. The 800 series, like the 820, or a 785 which may still be available shouldn’t cost you more than $100 . They’re past models but have high capabilities.

🙂

Brent
GH
Gary_Hummell
Jun 30, 2004
The inexpensive Canon and Epson printers that use 6 inks will equal the output of the more expensive printers, they will be a bit slower and the ink costs can be higher. If you are going to do a lot of color printing, the real cost is ink and paper. To that end, many of us use printers that are easily refilled with aftermarket inks. There are many generic papers that are good at prices that are substantially lower than official Epson and Canon papers.
Two sources that I have found to be reliable are:
<http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/main2.html> and
<http://www.redrivercatalog.com/>

Gary
ND
Nick_Decker
Jun 30, 2004
Sune, I have personal experience with the Epson 820 and it’s not good. I’ve used nothing but Epsons for photo printing for years, and swear by them. A while back, I bought an 820 just to use as an office printer. The price was right (about $100), but it’s just not up to snuff, compared to the more expensive Epsons. Constant head clogging, and very noisy. I no longer use it. In fact, if you want to pay for the shipping, it’s yours for free.

Nick
NM
Nick_Manley
Jun 30, 2004
Another Nick with Epson 820 experience. I believe that Epson built this printer to boost ink cartridge sales. The heads were constantly clogging and I wasted a lot of ink getting them unclogged. The price was right, for sure ($50 after $100 rebate), but what it cost me in ink cartridges and inconvenience has easily outweighed the savings.
SP
Sune_Petersen
Jul 2, 2004
Thanks for the very good replies.

to Nick D. Thanks but since I live in Denmark, Europe I think the cost of postage will outweigh the cost of purchasing a brand new one(And I will not have the problem of getting a new power adaptor for 240V).

But your answers has helped me this far: The older models are good when it comes to printing, but are prone to clogging. The new models have solved this problem.

So right now I am considering purchasing a R200 or R300, but I can not find info anywhere if the clogging problem is solved on these models as it appears to be on the older models. And what is the difference between the models? the price difference is small enough that I can buy the more expensive one, but large enough that if there is no significant difference I’d rather not.

Once again thanks for the good advice,I’ll keep you posted on my experiences whatever I end up purchasing

Sune
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Jul 2, 2004
I don’t know if you have any digital minilabs in Denmark, but a very quick and cheap way to test out the accuracy of RGB images viewed on your monitor is to output them using the free profiles of these printers downloaded from DryCreek Photo.com. They have thousands of profiled minilabs (mainly Noritsu and Fuji Frontier) from around the world.

It costs me 29¢ for each 4X6 glossy print to test out my edited images on a Fuji Frontier 340 at my local Walgreens pharmacy to make sure my monitor calibration hasn’t drifted too far.

Since they don’t read profiles you’ll need to run a test print asking the operator to not edit or optimize the image at output. Assign several profiles to find which one makes the image match the test print. Cancel out to retain the original profile and convert to the chosen minilab profile for output. When you print, ask the operator to not edit or optimize on output.

You can now use that print to check your monitor calibration for soft proofing and you probably won’t need to buy a printer. Of course this only works for RGB images and prints mostly as large as 8X10, some labs going to 12X15. Some accept only jpegs where prolabs will take tiff and jpeg.

It works for me and now I hardly use my Epson 1270.
M
marionbabich
Jul 3, 2004
Sune,
You might check out the new Epson R200.
Marion
M
marionbabich
Jul 3, 2004
Sune,
You might check out the new Epson R200. I have the R800 and it is working out very well for me. Marion

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