Which printer for greetings cards?

[SimonMatthews]

I am looking to find a printer that can achieve borderless printing on 300 to 350gsm pre-folded or pre-scored card, for cards up to A3 in size when folded, so that's A2 I guess? Something good enough for commercial purposes. I don't want a consumer printer.

My budget is around £5,000 or under. Will consider buying used if the deal is right.

Requirements summary:

Borderless printing. I don't want to have to cut the cards.

300 to 350gsm. Or whatever is best thickness for greetings cards.

Can handle pre-folded or pre-scored card (borderless).

Ability to print on both sides of card at once would be cool too.

High yield printing.

Which printer would be best for this purpose?

TIA

 

[The Hat]

Which printer would be best for this purpose?

What you’re looking for in a printer, and your specific requirements don’t exist, its pie in the sky if you think for a moment that the printer manufactures cater for the needs to specific customers.

Beside greeting cards are never made A3 size, it would cost a fortune to have a courier deliver it undamaged.. Just stick to normal postal sizes and then you may find a suitable printer, for just some of your wishes..

 

[SimonMatthews]

What you’re looking for in a printer, and your specific requirements don’t exist, its pie in the sky if you think for a moment that the printer manufactures cater for the needs to specific customers.

Beside greeting cards are never made A3 size, it would cost a fortune to have a courier deliver it undamaged.. Just stick to normal postal sizes and then you may find a suitable printer, for just some of your wishes..

I'm looking for a printer that can print borderless A3 on card and possibly on both sides at once. That seems like a fairly basic requirement to me. Pre-scored card won't make much of a difference I wouldn't have thought.

funkypigeon and moonpig both sell A3 greetings cards.

The Canon Pro 300 can print borderless on A3 card and the Pro 1000 can print borderless on A2. So there is a printer that can do what I wanted. The duplex printing was an added bonus but not essential, as I stated.

I'm thinking a better way to go would be to forget the borderless printing anyway, as it might end up being more of a headache. I'll probably look into a paper trimming machine instead.

Thanks anyway.

 

[The Hat]

I'm looking for a printer that can print borderless A3 on card and possibly on both sides at once. That seems like a fairly basic requirement to me

Printing a A3 sheet with full coverage would take over 20 minutes, so you’d have to stand there and wait, before you can print the other side and the ink usage can be huge, and no Pro printer can do Duplex, that’s reserved for office printers..

funkypigeon and moonpig both sell A3 greetings cards.

Yes they probably do.. But they are specialists, and how many of their sales are of that larger size, plus they can arrange safe delivery.

I'm thinking a better way to go would be to forget the borderless printing anyway, as it might end up being more of a headache. I'll probably look into a paper trimming machine instead.

That would be a much better option altogether, because borderless printing may become very messy after only a few short prints..

 

[Artur5]

@SimonMatthews... if by 'ability to print on both sides of card at once' you mean that the printer prints both sides simultaneously, forget about it. Automatic duplex printing means printing first one side, taking back the sheet into the machine; reverse it and print the other side. As @The Hat said, Canon Pro printers can't do that. Office printers do, but 99% of the models are A4 size.
I agree about borderless printing, Avoid it unless it is strictly necessary for some reason. Trimming the paper afterwards makes much more sense
Be aware that the weight of the paper doesn't tells us nothing about thickness and rigidity. A Canon Pro1000 can handle well 350gr fine art or photo paper but might have trouble feeding properly a very stiff 350gr cardboard. A preliminary test would be necessary.

 

[SimonMatthews]

Thanks guys, I'm glad I asked the question because now I know that the duplex printing is out of the question and also that borderless printing will be more of a headache than trimming the card. I have also gone off the idea of offering A3 sized cards. I wasn't into the idea much anyway as I guessed it would be problematic but now I know for sure. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, it's very helpful.

 

[DickyA29]

I can print 2-fold cards on 8.5 x ll in. sheets and single-fold on 5.5 x 8.5 in. cardstock, borderless, yielding 5.5 x 4.25 in. folded cards using Open Office and my elderly Canon ip2702 printer. It is pretty much uphill against the tide with the printer, which was not meant to do such things. I am aware that we are not quite speaking the same language, but if you would like to go on with this, just let me know.