Canon printer for greeting card and calendar start-up company

[Roberto Smith]

Hi all,

Myself and my other half have decided to try and turn our hobbies into a small business. I am into photography and she is into arts & crafts and is good at making greeting cards, calendars etc. We want to take high-quality and bespoke pictures and turn them into calendars for desks (small ones), walls (A4 size) and also do some A3 size (or thereabouts) printouts for walls (small posters basically).

The pictures will be unique / quirky and we are going for the kind of products you might see on Etsy (one-off type stuff that is a bit different to the mass-produced commercial products).

We are going to be printing our own pictures out so obviously will need a printer. I have done some reading around on the Internet and the Canon Pixma Pro series comes up time and again at being great at producing great glossy images full of colour and detail. The reviews make it sound exactly like the sort of thing we want, and the printer seems a bit more costly than others but not horrendously so (it's about £350 inc. VAT and delivery). Canon ink is pricey but it seems there are third party refill kits that reduce the price down to something sensible.

However, there are plenty of other Canon printers as well, that appear to meet our criteria and also cost less. E.g. the Pixma iP8750 also prints A3 size and appears to get good reviews but is a bit cheaper at £200.

So I am not sure what to get that meets our criteria...be able to print up to A3, professional quality colour as well as black & white photos, duplex printing (ideally, as needed for calendars), £200-300 range (could go a bit higher) and affordable inks, or the ability to use good quality third-party inks or refills, which the Canon range seems to be able to do.

I'm not sure if anyone can recommend something with the above? The Canon Pixma Pro 100 is towards the top end of my budget but the reviews rave about it so it looks like it would be a good choice.

Any advice welcome!

Thanks
Rob

 

[The Hat]

Hi @Roberto Smith and welcome, you have quite a shopping list there but the two printers you have chosen may not quite fit in to the type of work your planning.

Picture, greeting cards and calendars can be printed on the two printer you have chosen, but the iP8750 would be limited to very light card stock, because of its size and build, the card won’t go around tight curves in that very small model.

The Pro 100 may not suite either, because you want to switch to 3rd party inks to reduce your costs, but the trade-off is a longevity issue when using dye inks, which wouldn’t be a problem if you use pigment inks.

The Pro 100 is a real all-time great printer but if you plan on selling your work you need to stay using OEM ink, if that idea is to costly then you may need to get the Pro 10 pigment printer instead to keep your customers happy.

The Pro 10 would be a more suitable for the type of work you are planning, and it’s the easiest printer by a county mile to refill with 3rd party inks, links below for printer prices and compatible inks..


https://www.parkcameras.com/p/11601...=AWIN&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=80731

https://www.johnlewis.com/canon-pixma-pro-100s-wireless-a3-printer/p1933130

http://www.octoink.co.uk/categories/*-Canon-Printer-Products/Pro-Series/Pixma-Pro10/

http://www.octoink.co.uk/categories/*-Canon-Printer-Products/Pro-Series/Pixma-Pro100/

 

[stratman]

Canon Pro-10s: https://www.parkcameras.com/p/1160141K/a3-printers/canon/pixma-pro-10s-a3-photo-printer

 

[The Hat]

Cheaper again..
https://www.printerbase.co.uk/canon...MI2ayOx46-1gIVTbXtCh3f2AJBEAAYASAAEgJJv_D_BwE

 

[Roberto Smith]

Thanks for the replies all. Some really useful info there and lots to think about.

 

[Roberto Smith]

Reply to The Hat: you mention one issue with third party inks is the longevity, but I am not sure this would really be a problem, unless they deteriorate really fast? I am mostly wanting this business to sell things like greetings cards, calendars etc, so they "life-time" of the products wouldn't really be all that long (the calendars probably the longest at a year or so). Would the third-party inks last this long or would they not even make it through a year???

 

[The Hat]

@Roberto Smith, How long is a piece of string, it will depend on where your products are to be displayed, but the Calendar should be ok because it only has to stay good for each month...

I print the nifty Calendar each year onto heavy copy paper and it still looks as good at the end of the year as it did in January...

I know you’re not in the US, but this thread may still enlighten you...
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/pro-10-for-99-99.11955/