Artist looking for printer

[talola0987]

Hello, I hope im alright to seek some expert advice here.

I looking to buy myself a new printer, i have experience with a basic home printer by canon and have been impressed with their products so far but sadly it died.

Im looking to sell prints and cards of my artwork and decided printing them myself would provide me with greater flexibility. At this stage im not sure how many i will sell or if i will get interest, but I will need a printer that is reliable to make prints of my artwork / cards, also print reference images and everyday documents.

I looking for a printer that can print 300gsm, perhaps have the capabilities of printing on pre-scored card (would be great to hear if any one has tried this and succeeded?) can take a variety of sizes of paper (A3 would be an added bonus but not essential) has a good quality finish and have efficient ink usage (if thats a thing!). I also use a scanner but i have read it may be best to get this separately.

I have read a lot of brilliant recommendation on canon pro 100s, which i would happily pay for but looking at replacing the inks at £100 seems incredibly expensive, how do others go about this, do the inks last well? Also I been recommended the canon pixma ip8750. But im very unsure which will meet my needs better or if there is a better option, any advice would be hugely grateful.

Many thanks in advance,

If you interested my art Instagram is @sallyjaston

 

[The Hat]

A printer you would normally not look at is the Maxify, its only A4 but can do most of the things you want, the added bonus is it’s tuff and reliable and can use aftermarket carts and can also be refilled, and your running cost can be cut considerably.

Take a look at the range of models and surprise yourself..

 

[stratman]

Welcome to the forum, talola0987.

canon pro 100s

Great printer but may or may not fit your customers' needs.

The Canon Pro 100s uses Dye-based inks. OEM Canon inks, while expensive, are archival, meaning the ink resists fading. There is no aftermarket dye-based ink that resists fading like OEM ink, the choice of paper also affecting fade resistance.

On the other hand, Pigment-based inks are also archival and resist fading even with some high quality aftermarket pigment inks known to this forum.

The bottom line is, nothing resists fading like OEM Canon or Epson inks when using either Dye-based or Pigment-based inks. If you are concerned about long lasting prints (more than a few months) then you either use OEM inks or get a pigment ink printer and feed it high quality aftermarket pigment inks.

FYI - using aftermarket inks and paper may require you to tweak color settings or get a custom ICC printer profile in order to have good color fidelity in your prints. This is a whole other topic. Printers are designed with software calibrated to expect proper OEM inks and OEM paper. Any alteration of ink, paper or printer and color fidelity may suffer more or less. It is up to you what is acceptable color matching of your prints using non-OEM ink and/or paper.

Generally speaking, the forum recommends using OEM inks if you are selling prints because of longevity. Also, paper manufacturers may have custom ICC printer profiles for their papers to use with a specific printer and its OEM inks.

Examples:

Red River papers - https://www.redrivercatalog.com/profiles/inkjet-printer-color-icc-profiles-red-river-paper.html

There are also custom printer profiles that some aftermarket ink sellers have made to be used with specific printers and papers. See Precision Colors, a refilling web site that sells quality aftermarket inks out of Canada.

BTW, the Canon Maxify line are pigment ink printers and they are refillable. They are designed for small office work and so image quality is good for office work but is less than a dedicated photo printer output. I love my Maxify but you should consider seeing the image output first before buying one, or at least purchase somewhere that has a generous return policy.

The Hat has a post concerning image quality of the Maxify:

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...-black-cartridge-for.13821/page-2#post-120056

Canon makes awesome printers but don't discount Epson that have some models that are refillable as well. Maybe @Ink stained Fingers, a trusted forum expert on Epson, can advise you further.