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Steve SpotOn · Sep 11, 2003, 06:21 AM

I'm looking for a A3+ ink jet printer for our small graphics studio. We run standard design software (Photoshop, Quark etc) on OS 9.
Someone has recommeded the Epson Stylus Photo 2100 - is this over the top for printing samples of brochures?
Is it worth buying the Epson RIP software?

Also we'd like to access the printer off our network and most (all?) of these ink jets are only USB connections - can it be set up on a single Mac and then accessed from the network?

Thanks in anticipation of your thoughts and help.

art_director · Sep 11, 2003, 08:38 AM

Steve:

I just faced the same question for my business. After some lengthy research I narrowed it down to the HP and Xerox laser printers. In the end I bought the Xerox Tektronix 7700DN. It's an amazing machine. It comes with a 5GB hard drive so multiple jobs can be spooled and it has the capacity to get 512MB RAM (I believe) to process jobs much faster. It prints continuous tone like a Fiery but at a fraction of the price. It can be networked. It can handle four different paper trays.

For what it's worth I bought it from:

http://www.lasergrafix.com/index.htm

They were a pleasure to work with and had the best price I could find on the web. Since you're in the UK they may / may not be an option for you.

FYI -- I originally bought the 7300DN but didn't care for the dot pattern in the prints -- I want and need continuous tone prints for my clients.

Best of luck.

DeathMan · Sep 12, 2003, 12:44 PM

Originally posted by art_director:
Steve:

\CHOP

Best of luck.

So hows the color? Pretty accurate for doing a soft proof? How close is it to actual 4 color process colors? I'm interested in getting a nice color managable printer somewhere down the line, but that might be overkill for me. Eh, we'll see.

art_director · Sep 12, 2003, 02:32 PM

Originally posted by DeathMan:
So hows the color? Pretty accurate for doing a soft proof? How close is it to actual 4 color process colors? I'm interested in getting a nice color managable printer somewhere down the line, but that might be overkill for me. Eh, we'll see.

you'll never get accurate color matching for that price. the 7700 does a reasonable job for approximation, though.

spiznet · Sep 12, 2003, 04:22 PM

quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by DeathMan:
So hows the color? Pretty accurate for doing a soft proof? How close is it to actual 4 color process colors? I'm interested in getting a nice color managable printer somewhere down the line, but that might be overkill for me. Eh, we'll see.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

you'll never get accurate color matching for that price. the 7700 does a reasonable job for approximation, though.
_________________
Shock Daddy D gonna get ya

Well, it is around $7-8K, and it can be calibrated to extremely close to press. Just make sure to use Commercial Press option and the new Printer Driver which allow you to darken/lighten Highlights, Midtones and Shadows individually. Works great in OSX, too. (I'll repeat: 22 color ppm)

The improved driver is downloadable from Xerox:
Phaser 7700 Light 2.PPD

art_director · Sep 13, 2003, 11:30 AM

the quality is great, don't get me wrong. that said, it's not a printer used for color matching. i've used this machine and its predecessors for years at ad agencies and design shops. with fulltime tech support even their machines are not that close. as i said, it's great for approximation.

spiznet · Sep 17, 2003, 03:31 PM

art_director-

We print proofs for the authors of their college textbook illustrations, we save copies and compare them to the final printed pages- its as close as it needs to be.

Suprisingly accurate. Apparently HP is "office color."

-Mark Scott

art_director · Sep 17, 2003, 07:52 PM

in advertising agencies that would never fly.

Steve SpotOn · Sep 19, 2003, 03:29 AM

The Xerox and other laser printers, look way too expensive for our budget (less than $1,000).

Any suggestions for my meagre budget?

art_director · Sep 19, 2003, 09:20 AM

Originally posted by Steve SpotOn:
The Xerox and other laser printers, look way too expensive for our budget (less than $1,000).

Any suggestions for my meagre budget?

buy used.

as2 · Sep 25, 2003, 08:35 AM

For about a grand I would reccommend...

Epson Stylus Photo 2100

and

ProofMaster Adesso

I've just purchased both, and am very very happy with the results.

Proofmaster is running on an OS X machine, with the 2100 attached.
I am then printing from several networked os 9 machines with Quark etc. using the 2100 as a colour proofer.

The printer quality is great, and it's not as slow as I'd expected.
Also, the colour replication is near perfect.

Adam