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olePigeon · Aug 20, 2009, 09:43 PM

So I got a really good deal on a Xerox 7300. I thought it was 2400 dpi. Turns out that that was just marketing speak for what was 1200x600 dpi. I was really disappointed. At $300 per color for ink + drum, it was too expensive to keep so I sold it. Not money lost except time.

Anyway, can anyone suggest a color laser printer that is at least 1200x1200 dpi?

OreoCookie · Aug 21, 2009, 04:49 AM

Why is 1200x1200 dpi^2 so important? If you want nice-looking photos or so, you shouldn't get a color laser. They're great for colored text, diagrams, but any cheap inkjet will have a better print quality when it comes to photos and such.

What do you want to do with it? Are you switching because of the price of consumables or because of print quality?

olePigeon · 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

Why is 1200x1200 dpi^2 so important? If you want nice-looking photos or so, you shouldn't get a color laser... What do you want to do with it?

I'm not doing photos, I'm printing letterhead, business cards, and certificates.

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

Are you switching because of the price of consumables or because of print quality?

Both. I don't make enough money from both my jobs that I can justify the cost of the consumables in the Xerox that I had. If I bargain hunt and get lucky, it's at least $130 for each imaging unit, then it's another $80 for each color. It really was intended for a larger business. I'm sure it's more economical to replace the drum and toner as you use them, but I don't have that much of a disposable income.

The Xerox uses 2400 FinePoint where the image is scanned at 2400x2400 dpi, but then it prints only 600 dpi. I found that 600 dpi isn't good enough when I try to print certificates or anything with gradients, which I get occasionally. I went to the local store with a USB drive and printed off a Lexmark that had 1200 dpi, and the certificate came out exactly how I expected, and the gradients came out nice.

The prints also have to be water resistant.

I'd get the Lexmark, except that I can't stand Lexmark. I've had nothing but trouble with that company. Everything we've ever bought from Lexmark at my other job was complete sh*t. Probably why they're so cheap in price. If I get a Lexmark color laser it'll probably break 3 days after the warranty is up.

I was very happy with the build quality of the Xerox, though.

OreoCookie · Aug 21, 2009, 12:26 PM

What about a Ricoh gel printer: fairly cheap, they look rather sturdy and the gel cartridges last long. They have 1200 dpi. According to reviews, the gel shouldn't smear when it comes into contact with water.

olePigeon · Aug 21, 2009, 12:50 PM

That was tempting until I saw the 5 pages per minute.

OreoCookie · Aug 21, 2009, 01:32 PM

So how about we start another way: what's your budget? How many pages do you print per month?

olePigeon · Aug 21, 2009, 01:46 PM

Budget is under $1000. My printing is sporadic. I may go a few months without printing a single page, then print 500 pages all at once if I do a programme for a show.

turtle777 · Aug 21, 2009, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Budget is under $1000. My printing is sporadic. I may go a few months without printing a single page, then print 500 pages all at once if I do a programme for a show.

Why is the 5 page / min (Oreo's suggestion) insufficient ? That's 300 pages / hour.

Do you sometimes get a 500 page order due within 20 min ?

-t

olePigeon · Aug 21, 2009, 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Do you sometimes get a 500 page order due within 20 min ?

-t

Yes, actually. Especially for show programmes.

Also, I'm impatient.

olePigeon · Aug 21, 2009, 05:01 PM

Anyone use the solid ink printers? I'm aware of the ink pools being dumped when the printer is turned off, but other than that, has anyone used one? How's the quality?

olePigeon · Aug 21, 2009, 05:26 PM

Nevermind, Xerox's entire lineup appears to be 600 dpi.

olePigeon · Aug 21, 2009, 05:50 PM

Canon just announced about a week ago a new series of desktop imageRUNNER color laser printers. All but the lowest end are 1200 dpi. I think I'll check those out. Hopefully one of the big stores has them in on demo.

OreoCookie · Aug 22, 2009, 11:53 AM

I just checked, most color laser printers have a resolution of 600x600 dpi^2 or 1200x600 dpi^2. HP's new printers, e. g. the Color LaserJet CP2025, would fall into this category and reviewers claim the print quality to be high.

Regarding the gel printers, you should keep in mind that complex color documents also take time to process and you will almost never get the specified ppms -- also with color lasers: HP's CP2025 reaches 4.2 ppm when you print graphics -- down from 21 ppm. Something to keep in mind.

olePigeon · Aug 22, 2009, 02:34 PM

Looks like you're right. I think it may come down to each company's perspective color and dot interpolation. Looks like I'll just take a USB thumb drive to the store with a few graphics and print on various models until I'm satisfied.

olePigeon · Aug 23, 2009, 03:15 PM

Are there any brands I should avoid besides Lexmark?

AKcrab · Aug 23, 2009, 03:39 PM

We have two Konika Minolta laser printers that I don't like much.

OreoCookie · Aug 23, 2009, 03:47 PM

I don't like HP. I like Oki, but they're probably optimized for text and stuff.

krove · Aug 30, 2009, 11:04 PM

Have you found one yet?

I'm in a similar boat. I've had several HP Color LaserJets and found the quality less than desirable, and the consumable tax is horrendous and only getting worse. I occasionally need to print on card stock and finding a printer that doesn't leave skid marks is _really_ difficult. That said, speed is nice, but not a killer given a similar price range and monthly usage.

Ideal printer characteristics (in order of importance):
Under $1000
Nice quality
Reasonably-priced consumables
Does card stock fine (usually means the printer has an optional straight paper path)
Speedy

krove · Sep 5, 2009, 03:19 PM

Has anyone looked at the HP Color LaserJet CP3525dn?

It does 1200x600 dpi, has a speedy new processor and plenty of RAM (384 MB). Seems up to the challenge.

CharlesS · Sep 5, 2009, 04:03 PM

Does anyone know of any printers out there that don't do that thing that HP, Canon, Brother, etc. printers like to do where they measure the life of your toner cartridge with a page counter and then don't let you print at all once it thinks a cartridge is empty, even to the point where it won't let you print black text if one of the color carts that you're not even using is empty?

Warhaven · Sep 22, 2009, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Does anyone know of any printers out there that don't do that thing that HP, Canon, Brother, etc. printers like to do where they measure the life of your toner cartridge with a page counter and then don't let you print at all once it thinks a cartridge is empty, even to the point where it won't let you print black text if one of the color carts that you're not even using is empty?

We have HP Color LaserJet 3600dn here that you can config to default to B&W when a color tonor is empty, and to continue printing despite page count.

alex_kac · Sep 23, 2009, 08:56 PM

I'm a huge fan of the quality/speed of the Okis. They are sweet. I really dislike ink-jets and the Oki's Color laser's are excellent.

olePigeon · Sep 24, 2009, 11:11 AM

I haven't found one yet, but Canon is offering to let me demo one of the new imageRUNNERs for 30 days for free. I'll try it out, see how it goes.

I couldn't find a single review of the new imageRUNNER anywhere. All I could find are copies of the press release. Maybe I'll do a review and post it in this thread. The cheapest one retails for $1300, but when I told the saleswoman that my budget is under $1000, she said she could meet my mark. I guess that's pretty good. Maybe they're taking off the price of the toner that's included with the printer.