I teach art in a community college in Southern California and the Art Department has a computer lab with 15 Macs in it. I will be adding about 6 more new G4's soon. Currently, most work is done in Photoshop. We are using two Epson 900N printers that are networked to the Macs. I am looking for a decent color printer for the lab that can handle high output. The 900N printer has been problematic. Ethernet clogs up a lot and the Ethernet cards have to be reset frequently. So what I'm asking is information about a good printer or printers that might be networked (But that is not essential). I want good color output. The 900N printer is only a four color machine. Perhaps a 6 color machine would be better. I've thought about the large format Epson printers such as the 7500. I like the idea of getting a wide format printer. Any suggestions would be very helpful. What printer would you get if you could afford just about anything? The Epson 7500 would probably be at the top of the Art Department's budget. Thanks for your help!

[Paul S]

If I could afford just about anything, I'd get a color laser. Tektronix makes the best ones there are. The Phaser series has outstanding quality and all have networkable versions. Most inkjets don't have a lot of RAM so they are very chatty on a network because they have to communicate back to the computer, especially if they are processing a large graphic. Lasers have a lot of RAM (32MB or 64MB base on the Tektronix) so they don't clog up the network nearly as much. They do have a wide format printer that is very expensive, but the letter/legal size printers are very reasonable for color laser.

[Milio]

I'll second the color laser. Tektronix printers are now a part of Xerox. http://www.officeprinting.xerox.com/

The 790 is my favorite. They also push their solid-ink printers for educators, but I personally didn't care for them. Good quality inkjets do tend to produce the best photo-quality output, but as you've noticed they aren't suited in high-volume environments. If you run the numbers, they do tend to be more expensive in the long run.

The university departments I've known that have gotten wide format inkjets like the Epson 7500 love them at first, but the cost of ownership and maintenence is high. Since you are in an art department, you should really be looking and the version with the Feiry RIP which is twice the price of the one without. Look at pricing of local service-bureaus that offer output and see what their pricing is. This should give you an idea of how much you should charge students to print. And you should charge for it because every department I've known that hasn't has seen rampant abuse. The students start printing posters for local band shows and such.

If you do decide to go with a Tektronix/Xerox printer, I highly recommend the maintenence contract. They have provided excellent service for us. Also, use high quality paper. The cheap state contract papers for the photocopiers are hazardous to the life of high-end office laser printers.

Does anyone else have any further feedback concerning a printer for a school computer art lab? Thanks again for your help!

[Paul Huang]

32 or 64 MB of RAM is not a lot of memory for a PostScript color printer.

Tektronix does offer the best price/performance. The new 790 can deliver full-bleed tabloid format and the RIP speed is excellent. To prevent clogging, it has a built-in hard drive that can hold 99 jobs.

[Milio]

Richard, you never really mention what it is you want the printer for. What kind of stuff are you printing? Graphic design comps? Photography? Illustration?

For design the laser works great. For illustration, it depends somewhat on the style. For photography, I like a good inkjet printer better. The laser will never produce the full tonal range of any image and there will be some slight color shifts. It's not really a huge deal, but if you're a photographer you probably won't want to use the prints for display.

If I were setting up printers for an art lab, assuming a common emphasis distribution of 80% design students and 20% fine art, I would buy a workhorse black and white for text proofing and seps, a color laser for the majority of color work, and a networked inkjet for photography.

A while back I tried using 3M dyesub for art prints, but the dye was unstable and a year later the images were disintegrating. This is a consideration for inkjet and student portfolios too. Inkjet prints really need some form of lamination to ensure against damage.

That brings up an interesting idea for your large-format inkjet interest. I get all my large-format printing done at a local vendor who also handles surface treatment and mounting. You might look into a school-business partnership where the vendor offers a discount to your students. I know when I was a student, working with vendors for prints was a huge benefit because I had to learn to prepare the files correctly. And having that experience working with vendors really helped my resume.