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Colour Laser Printer for Photos

D

Deadhead

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 27, 2004
25
0
Bedford, UK
I got a new camera over the summer - Olympus E1, great camera if anyone's interested.

Anyway, when I tried to print using my Canon inkjet it was clogged up. And then when I bought new printheads the paper wouldn't feed ... I guess you need to use an inkjet printer regularly. And I just use mine a lot now and then.

So when my new iMac G5 arrives I want to buy a colour laser printer to go with it since they're relatively inexpensive now. When I posted this question on my favourite photo forum [DPReview] I got treated [politely] like a slightly mad person who needed to be humoured.

So... has anyone here had any experience of printing photos on colour lasers. And, if so which printer would they recommend?
 
C

callmesideburns

macrumors newbie
Sep 28, 2004
14
0
I wouldn't reccommend a laser printer for photos. While they are super fast they lack the density, range and richness that an inkjet can lay down. For top notch large format prints up to 13 inches wide and use of archival 7 ink system you can't beat the Epson 2200. For a 8.5 inch wide printer I reccommend the either Epson's new R800 or Canon's i900 line or i9000 (which is the large format)

Edit: laser printers are great for vector based outputs (ie line artwork, type, solid color fields) but you won't get the great eye-popping results for photography that even a 100 dollar inkjet can provide.
 
S

St Soichiro

macrumors regular
Jun 30, 2004
152
0
Tulsa, OK
callmesideburns said:
I wouldn't reccommend a laser printer for photos...
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. I end up using a B&W laser printer for general documents, a color laser for office reports and papers, and a color inkjet exclusively for photographs.

Slightly OT:
If you have the kind of money to buy a color laserjet (~$500+) then look into the Epson 2200. I have had fantastic results and could not be happier. Archival value of the standard inkjet is not supposed to be good - make sure that you research the dyes vs. pigments issue if you do decide to go down this line.

Cheers,
St Soichiro
 
bousozoku

bousozoku

Moderator emeritus
Jun 25, 2002
15,719
1,894
Lard
I would also not suggest a laser for photo printing, though it can be good for print design.

I have been using my E-1 with an Epson CX6400 all-in-one and a Canon i9900 for up to 13x19 inch prints. Either one of them can clog when not used regularly but they both provide me with excellent prints.
 
C

callmesideburns

macrumors newbie
Sep 28, 2004
14
0
The clogging of the printheads can be prevented by just running a weekly maintance that is included with most printer drivers/software. I have it automatically set for every sunday morning or once my machine is on after the scheduled time and I haven't seen a single streak/band/uneven distribution since I purchased it.
 
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