A3 printer for Leopard

[lizard51]

Hiya,

Does anyone have or know of a good A3 or oversized A3 printer that will work with Leopard? I need it for proofing jobs when I work at home. Wireless would be great too. Im in the UK.

Features that would be even better would be:
Double sided printing, Separate CMYK cartridges, ability to print photos.

Or an oversized A4 would be good.

Im saving for the new setup of new iMac, new Wacom tablet (any good deals on the A5 Intuos) and new printer as the poor old G4 is starting to feel the strain of 7 years hard graft!

I might even treat myself to a CS3 upgrade one day!

Many many many thanks in advance.

Liz

 

[Blue Velvet]

When you say proofing, what kind of proofing? Are you looking for something postscript compatible? What's your budget?

If I was buying a pro/semi-pro printer today, I'd start looking at Epson first before HP. We've been using an A3+ HP postscript printer at work for the past few years, and I haven't been that impressed. Of course, that's just my personal experience.

 

[tersono]

Hmm - I wonder if you're using the same printer we've just bought (at work - not there now, so can't remember the model number), but it's an A3+ model from HP. 6 ink. Quality is excellent providing we use the right paper - albeit we spent some time and effort getting it calibrated.

We use it for general proofing purposes - including our house magazine. No complaints at all, and it works perfectly with Leopard.

 

[lizard51]

Thanks, it will just be for hard copy proofs, imposed myself and will not be using a RIP or be networked. It will just be a simple local setup.

I use the Xerox 5252 with full RIP and imposition software that we print our large run digital jobs on for proofs at work so I dont really have much knowledge of desktop printers sorry.

I have about £200 to spend, a little more if need be. Ive been searching but needed a push in the right direction. Thanks for advice.

 

[Blue Velvet]

Thanks, it will just be for hard copy proofs, imposed myself and will not be using a RIP or be networked. It will just be a simple local setup.

Imposed from InDesign (or QuarkXpress) using a plug-in or manually? Just asking out of interest.

I'm not fully conversant with non-postscript printers with layout apps, and what kind of results you can expect from them, without creating a PDF first. We tend to use an A3 mono laser for page proofs and the HP DesignJet with a software RIP for colour spreads.

 

[lizard51]

Imposed from InDesign (or QuarkXpress) using a plug-in or manually? Just asking out of interest.

From InDesign, manually at first, using PDFs into pre-made impositions I make in InDesign. Until I get a better solution. Until then its just graft and knowledge!

Im so spoilt at work with all my Preps and Agfa impo software! I can use the same pre-press impo methods but without the software and only working for A3 printing instead of SRA2 or B2 (once you have setup your basic templates your fine).

Im not planning on doing anything more than 12 or 16pg A4 at home so its all good. I also have no finishing department at home so anymore pages makes your scalpel hand ache!

You have to use the basics when money is tight!