OT - Best colour inkjet printer

[YrbkMgr]

Stephen,

I know a lot of people who use HP, I don't. I'm an Epson guy for a lot of reasons. A lot of what you should get depends on your needs. My Epson Stylus 600 died in April, I bought the 1280. I love it.

Although the following isn't 100% true, the market focus for HP is generally business, and that of Epson is graphics pros. I know a lot of graphics pro's who use HP, so it's not a rule or anything, just a general statement. I had a chance to be at a vendor show with both, HP and Epson reps, and we were all talking, and it was the HP guy who said it.

That notwithstanding, I like Epson's driver software better than HP's. You have more control. Some folks who come over to Epson from HP go "what do I do with all those sliders?" indicating that they aren't necessarily used to the fine tuning in the driver.

Also, if you have any non-standard paper handling needs, I feel epson accommodates this better than HP.

Finally, for screen to print matching, more work has been done (IMO) on getting color right with Epsons.

That's my two nickels.

Peace,
Tony

[r_harvey]

Canon's ink is cheaper than Epson's. Unlike Epson, there is no DRM chip in the ink tank, so you will get the full amount of ink from every tank--not just a fixed number of pages.

[YrbkMgr]

Forgot to mention that based on Lawrences recommendation, I almost bought the i9100. I got scared and stayed with what I knew<grin>.

[Lawrence Hudetz]

Totally understandable Tony......this time!! ;-)

[Bill Lamp]

While it is NOT advertised as a photo printer (and I don't know the paper path width of the printers you mentioned, if cost is a major limitation, see if you can find a sample picture from an Epson C-62. For a current model at under $70 US, it does a remarkable job.

I bought one to use for letters and for the children to use for school projects. (And save the 2200 for JUST photograph work) Seeing the first school project had me feeding photo paper through it on a test. VERY impressive FAR better than I had expected.

Bill

[Michael B. Field]

fry's (outpost.com) and many other places are selling the epson stylus c82 for that price after rebates. Fry's has it for $79.00 after a manuf rebate but you get a $40.00 instant gift rebate with the printer. Final cost, $39.00. Photo quality inkjet that uses seperate cyan, magenta, yelly, black cartridges (archival ink).

[Christine Krof Shock]

MMMMMMM...Epson 2200....MMMMMMM...Epson2200... Just got mine and blew $100 bucks running everything in the last year off of it...it is just freaking amazing!!!!!

[Cheesefood]

I need to buy a new printer eventually too.

Bottom line: Don't buy a Lexmark. At $100 for a set of ink cartridges, I'm better off throwing it away and buying a new printer the next time my inks run out.

I might just buy a new photo printer and save the Lex for regular color printing, like maps and webpages.

[Bill Lamp]

Christine,

I know the feeling. It seems almost as big a jump from the 1270 as the 1270 was from the 600. Not quite but you'll get the idea. <grin>

The biggest problem I've had with it was having to MATCH a print from the 1270. It took three hours (not counting print "cure/develop" time) and many sheets of 8.5 x 11 inch photo paper with little blocks of picture pieces on them.

Bill