Printers for Card Stock / Greeting Cards / Postcards ?

[drames]

Hi guys,

I was wondering what the best printers would be to make something to the effect of a postcard machine - .

But first, whoever gets through this agonizingly long analysis just to help me, I thank you in advance. I really appreciate your time and knowledge.

I currently have the artisan 800 which I love, but it's paper feed system uses rollers to pull in paper from the bottom tray and then print with the printhead on the other side. This becomes too much of a load for the 800 if you are using heavy duty card stock, like 110lb or 65lb card stock.

It makes sense to use a printer where the feeding tray is at the back, and the paper falls in through gravity. I don't know if that logic is valid or not - if someone can help me out I'd really appreciate it.

If you guys have any suggestions for printers, please let me know. I'd like to print high quality 4x6 or 5x7 postcards-type flyers for a non-profit organization. Our current costs are like 0.40 cents per card printed --> we printed 500 for just one event --> $200!!!



So far what I'm looking at:

1) Epson Artisan 50

- $100 ($50 refurbished )
- CISSable --> saves time from refilling carts
- claria ink (If i'm right uses the same ink as Artisan 800, so I don't need to buy different ink)
- fast --> 35ppm colour
- colour resolution is 5760 x 1440 dpi

2) Epson Stylus 1400

- $200
- CISSable --> saves time from refilling carts
- claria ink (already have ink --> same as Artisan 800)
- slow --> 15ppm colour
- resolution 5760 x 1440 dpi

3) Canon Pixma ip4700

- $60
- NOT CISSable (not advised)
- non-Claria ink (have to buy canon ink)
- black ink requires pigment and dye --> some postcard papers are designed exclusively for dye-based vs pigment ink , makes things complicated
- Refilling original cartridges takes long, have to wait for absorption --> no quick refill and print
- fast --> 9 ipm colour (I love canon's honest speed rating system with the ipm - bonus points for canon!)
- resolution 9600 x 2400 dpi


There might be other printers of which I am unaware of, but with the above 3 it comes down to this:

1) efficiency --> If I am mass printing postcards, then refilling between prints, an epson refillable cart/CISS is easier than a canon cart that needs to absorb (Am I wrong about that?) In other words, is the hassle of refilling a Canon cart and waiting for the cart to absorb the ink really that bad?

2) quality --> canon has a much higher resolution than the epsons --> does that really mean much in terms of quality? Also, the canon has only Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black and Pigment Black, where the Epson has Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta, Yellow, and black. Which one is the better quality?!!

3) pigment/dye confusion --> can a postcard really not have both pigment and dye ink on it or are the postcard manufacturers just idiots ?

Whoever got through this agonizingly long analysis just to help me, I thank you in advance. I really appreciate your time and knowledge.

 

[pharmacist]

Note that the Canon IP4700 uses only dye ink when you set your paper type to photo, so you will not use the pigment text black which is ultimately only meant for normal paper. However I would suggest you to use pigment ink with a postcard paper that accepts pigment ink, because the prints are waterproof and fade and smudge resistant. Dye ink will run off the paper when wet.

I am now using an Epson 1400 converted to pigment ink and the results are really astonishing good and rivals the Epson Pro 3800 (still a step better, especially in the shadows and in B/W printing). The print speed is very acceptable. One could print several postcards on a sheet of A3+ paper and cut it in smaller entities accordingly.

 

[ghwellsjr]

1) efficiency --> If I am mass printing postcards, then refilling between prints, an epson refillable cart/CISS is easier than a canon cart that needs to absorb (Am I wrong about that?) In other words, is the hassle of refilling a Canon cart and waiting for the cart to absorb the ink really that bad?

2) quality --> canon has a much higher resolution than the epsons --> does that really mean much in terms of quality? Also, the canon has only Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black and Pigment Black, where the Epson has Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta, Yellow, and black. Which one is the better quality?!!

3) pigment/dye confusion --> can a postcard really not have both pigment and dye ink on it or are the postcard manufacturers just idiots ?

1) If you are refilling with the German method, you don't have to wait long for the sponge to absorb ink from the reservoir, maybe a minute. If you are really concerned about minimizing down time, why not have two sets of cartridges and swap a full one for an empty one and then refill the empty one while you continue to print?

2) The reason for high resolution is to achieve more control over shades of colors. Although a printer that uses the lighter colors can produce more colors, it is a relatively expensive way to use ink because the light colors have about one-sixth of the intensity of the normal colors. You will find that these printers go through the light colored cartridges two or three times more often than the normal colors.

3) If you want to print on glossy paper with pigment ink, you need a specially designed paper. If you put pigment ink on a normal glossy paper, it will wipe right off because it just sits on the surface instead of being absorbed into the glossy material. Printing with dye ink on glossy paper is permanent because the ink is absorbed into the glossy material. On the other side of the paper that is not glossy, pigment ink will not smear but dye will if it gets wet. So if you plan to put a color image on the glossy side and pigment black on the plain paper side, then you can use either type of printer with no problem.