[glody]

im about to dive into purchasing an ink jet printer within the 200-500 dollar price range, does anyone know of or use great printers currently on or coming onto the market that are any good for the money?

i think someone here started a thread on printing which spurred this question...but i was wondering about specific printer models....

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[glody]

well i appreciate the help lol no harm done...hehe ...no really

[Gort]

I personally use an Epson Stylus Photo 860 at home and a Stylus Photo 740 here at workville. The quality of the output is top notch. A year or so ago I sent some design comps to a service bureau, and the sales rep there just could not believe the comps were ripped off a $200 inkjet printer; he initially thought we had a $5000 Tektronics laser printer; he actually got in his car and drove over to see for himself.

Now if you're an illustrator or painter (or photographer for that matter), you may want to look into the Stylus Photo 1280; this printer does print more surface area and accommodates a large 13" x 19" format. It's going to cap out your price range at about $500 if you buy from Epson direct, but Buy.com has it for $447.

The only problem I've ever had with Epson is that the printer sometimes acts funky on our large network at work; it would require reseting it (turn off...on...off...on). Comparatively I've never had any problems on my 2 machine, peer to peer network at home.

Hope that helps - my two cents!

-tc

[glody]

thank you very much for the reply, i was thinking about going down the epson way, but a good friend of mine told me that the heads on the printer arent replaceble unlike hewlett packards printers.....??

[Twacle]

I think your best bet would be an HP Printer. Before buying ask the dealer to show you some print samples. You should also ask them about prices for paper and cardriges(?), the ink for the printer.

Good luck.

If i had the money i would buy an HP that has "Cxi" in the name, those are the proffesional ones, and they aren't all that expensive, about 180$ the cheapest.

[glody]

Thank you very much for the input, tomorrow i will purchase the printer !! woohoo... lol thanks again!!

[eyewoo]

Epson all the way... Go to their site at http://www.epson.com and check out all the versatile types, from $49 (yeah $49) up to $10,000.

After that, go to http://www.mediastreet.com and make sure there is a continuous ink feeding system for the printer you choose. You install the continuous system on the printer you purchase.

Ink is the most expensive part of printing - not the paper, and a continuous ink feeding system can cut your ink costs by more than half -- no more carts to deal with. It's great!!! For sure!!!

[ February 09, 2002: Message edited by: fleabrain ]

[Zwaeback]

I've always loved epson since it was engrained in me in college. Recently i saw some hp prints, which I thought they were incredible. For finished proofs on glossy film i'm going to stick with epson.

phil