Chosing between the Canon Pro-100 and G-4200 for printing CD sleeves

[Flying Scotsman]

@The Hat thanks again
I have octoinkjet ink so am going to give it a good trial and see how good or bad it is for fading.
If that fails I will just have to win the lottery and buy OEM ink
Thanks again @The Hat

 

[lesvisible]

In further testing for the G series inkset which I am close to completing, it becomes apparent that the chosen OEM color density is sometimes half of what normal Canon OEM colors are typically. What does this mean? Well, the printer needs to put down much more liquid on the paper to obtain the same color as a normal model would have to..........its' ink usage is much higher in real use. So Canon in addition to not providing as durable an ink is also ensuring that either this ink is not to be used for refilling normal desktops or ensures that you use more of it whicle giving it to you for less cost.

Cute!

Wow! Thank you for telling me that! I'm surprised at Canon doing something shoddy like that. This pretty much guarantees that I will get the Pro 100

 

[lesvisible]

@lesvisible - thanks for your feedback, feel free to raise your questions, you can tap a wealth of information here from the members to help you to sort out the essential requirements to buy and run a printer effectively - there may be quite some differences for business or private use.

I can see there are some seriously informed people here. Some of them probably wish they were not informed about some things given what it cost them to learn some things. Now that I have heard that Canon is watering down their ink I won't be getting the G-4200. Given what a fine printer the Canon Pro 100 is, at least that is the indication at those places where long lines of people give their opinions like Amazon and I can make some large prints of images I like for the walls of this new living space. For some reason, whenever I have had an Epson printer I didn't like it. I'm pretty much exclusively drawn to Canon. I've always had such good experiences and the build has always felt solid. That does limit me in my selection when I just can't bring myself to buy another brand anymore. At least I have my printer choice made. Once I find the right paper at the right price and decide whether I am going to print on the CD or use a label. Hmmm... I just realized that I don't know if the Pro 100 prints on CD's. It's always something. I'm glad that flashed through my head just now. I'll go check on that. Your screen nick sounds like a cool name for a band (grin). Once again I want to say how grateful I am that there are so many helpful people here with good attitudes. Some places on the internet are like the wild west. Manners and courtesy are fading a deal faster than I like.

 

[stratman]

I don't know if the Pro 100 prints on CD's

Yes, it does, and, it is built like a tank.

 

[lesvisible]

Yes, it does, and, it is built like a tank.

Excellent! Thank you for clearing that up and giving me yet more reasons to select it. I like the built like a tank reference. That seems to imply durability. More and more I am liking this printer.

 

[The Hat]

@lesvisible, don’t rule out the Pro 10, you might regret it. ! ! !

 

[stratman]

@lesvisible - The Pro series are top of the chain "prosumer" photo printers. The printed image can be quite superb with little effort of the user other than supplying a great image and the proper paper. The printers are higher quality builds than other printers designed for in the home. You pay for all this goodness, so if you can get them when they are on sale i is an even better deal.

If there is an Achilles heel to these printers it is both the cost of OEM cartridges to feed the beast and that text may not be as sharp as a less expensive printer that has Pigment Black dedicated to text. However, the text from the Pro series may be perfectly fine for your needs. Other members can give you their opinions on the text output quality. If you refill the cartridges yourself then the cost is one tenth or better per refill compared to new OEM cartridges.

 

[mikling]

First off, the G series printers like the ecotank from Epson are dressed up, lower end models with the appeal of the large tanks that will extract a lot more money from consumers initially. Because they are priced high does not mean that their build quality or performance is top rate. Quite contrary. I have word from someone who uses Pro-100s in a printer farm and tried using some G series printers because they offered the benefit of less refilling because of the built in tanks and these were to be used in postcard situations.
The G series printer was not up to snuff. The G machine is now relegated to printing address labels...oh and this with OEM ink.

So a comparison between a G machine and a "Pro" series desktop is somewhat kind of laughable really. Somewhat like a dressed up econobox with all the doodads as compared to a real entry level luxury automobile. The dressed up econobox will quickly reveal its roots despite having the "luxury" add on features...i.e G series. Their relative costs might be close however.

Same goes for the Pro-10/Pro-100 versus the MG series and the bent sheet metal models. These rebated Pro printers are in real terms worth much more than their rebated price. Their rebated price might for a moment make consumers think that the models are close but they are not. So hat is correct in that the deals on the Pro models are there for strategic marketing purposes but do not represent fair value in which case in reality Canon is giving you a gift. really.

However, Can the Pro-10 print text. Yes it can. It comes with a CD tray as well.

I'll say it again. For anyone who is contemplating purchasing a Pro-100 and has some or any concern about fading at all. For the $100 price for a Pro-10 is its a no brainer. Purchase that over a Pro-100. Refill issues are gone, Refilling is child's play easier than refilling $39.99 walmart special printers.

Can it print text well. Yes, better than the Pro-100 because it will use Matte Black pigment ink to do so. The Pro-100 black ink is dye and it will exhibit more ink bleed on most papers than the Matte Black pigment ink. The Matte Black pigment ink is also more water resistant as well. But if all you want to do is print text and itsy bitsy stuff DO NOT PURCHASE the Pro-10 despite the bargain it is. Please reread. I'll also tell you the reason why these printers are also low priced because Canon knows that consumers have been turned off from printers and that they need people to retry printing again. They are seeding the market hopefull it will revive. In Europe, printers never flourished as they once did in the USA.

Now going back, it was always a hoot and a laughing party when I read "reviews" of printers from Mainstream Computer media. Why? the authors would compare Office Printers against Photo Printers. Photo printers use of black ink is typically much less than that of the other colors. Photo printers use colors as their bread and butter and are not meant to print text. Office oriented printers like the G series life is meant to be printing the alphabet most of the time. They have separate nozzles for this task AND these nozzles are not meant to print very fine droplets. They can can drop a big blob in one spot that a Photo nozzle would need two or three passes to cover. So speed on a Photo Printer is low. Something that these reviewers rated a printer on.

Know what you need the printer for and then the choice is clear.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Office oriented printers like the G series life is meant to be printing the alphabet most of the time.

and numbers as well - in some cases...

 

[berttheghost]

@lesvisible

@lesvisible, don’t rule out the Pro 10, you might regret it. ! ! !

YES! I'll be (more) emphatic. Don't get the Pro 100. Get the Pro 10. Your end users need the durability of good quality pigment inks. Not just fade resistance, but also coffee/beer/tear resistance, abrasion resistance, and smudge resistance.

The pro-10 carts are easier to fill than the pro-100 carts. The only trick to it is to remain focused on refilling while you're refilling. Don't clutter your workspace with multiple ink bottles and carts and check the cart label against that of the ink bottle twice (three times for printers with ink tubes and dampers). And take care to not contaminate your inks. It's really pretty simple. People just have to pay attention to what they're doing.

Aside from CDs, are you contemplating releasing songs on other media such as Micro-SD? I'm concerned that most media players (or many new laptops for that matter?) can't directly read a music CD, so the CD media might be somewhat of an anachronism (just like myself).