Buyer's Guide: Color Printers

BUYER'S GUIDE: Color Printers

BY MICHAEL ANTONIAK

Palette of choices

You may never need to send out a print job again. The cost, variety, and quality of today’s color printers allow them to meet all your color printing needs - from photos to poster-sized signs—in your home or small office.

In recent years, there’s been a sharp decline in the cost of desktop color laser printers, which now start under $400. Prices on workgroup printers have also fallen, with entry-level networkable versions available in the $500 to $600 range.

Meanwhile, color inkjets for single users sell for as little as $50. With prices so low, many practitioners may be better served with a multifunction model, many of which start at $100. Today’s MFMs perform as well as the latest dedicated printers, with the added benefit of copier, scanner, and fax functions.

What’s the difference between inkjet and laser printers? You’ll get consistent quality from a laser printer - good enough for 90 percent of applications - though perhaps not with the same level of detail as can be gleaned from an inkjet. That quality output, however, means inkjets tend to be slower.

A few years ago, a discussion of color printers might have ended here. But now even specialty color printers are available and cost-effective for personal use. Those who produce a lot of signs or banners and who’ve been outsourcing these jobs can now investigate large-format printers as an affordable alternative. They start around $700. And mobile printers—many under $500—make sense if you like to print contracts and e-mail messages on the fly (see “Service to go,” July 2005, page 46).

As you shop, concentrate on features that provide the most efficiency. For example, if you produce color brochures, duplex capability, or two-sided printing, is a key convenience. If you require photo prints, focus on models with a memory card slot or with support for PictBridge, which allows you to print from a camera without a PC.

In product descriptions, vendors cite printers’ top resolution and fastest speed. But, particularly with inkjet printers, the best quality is achieved only at the slowest speed. You won’t know if that’s fast enough, or if the quality is acceptable, until you ask to see printed samples at the store.

The real price of color printing
Consumables, not hardware, are printer vendors’ profit center. Over the useful life of the hardware, you’ll spend much more than the cost of the printer for ink; specialty media, such as photo stock; and maintenance. Tally these costs when calculating which printer represents your best buy.
Inks and toner. You’ll save money on ink and toner cartridges if you can swap out the tanks individually. Inkjet printers and cartridges may seem a better buy than laser, but you’ll get more printed pages from laser toner cartridges.

Take vendor estimates of page life per cartridge with a pound of salt: Vendors typically use 5 percent page coverage as the basis for these estimates; rarely will a printout require solittle color. Off-brand consumables can reduce costs, but their performance can be spotty. Don’t assume you’ll save money until you test third-party inks on your printer.
Media. Don’t overlook the price of paper, card stock, or specialty media. Photo paper can cost as much as $1 per page. For large formats, you may be forced to purchase more materials, such as adhesive vinyl, than you’ll use in a year. Is it worth it?

Maintenance and repair. With inexpensive inkjets, a one-year warranty offers a reasonable return on investment, less so for laser printers, which start around $400. With lasers, look at the product’s rated monthly work cycle. Laser printer fuser assemblies, where the image is heated to the page, and print drums, which turn pages over the fuser assembly, must be replaced periodically. Ask the vendor how often that’s required and what the cost is.

COLOR LASER PRINTERS
Samsung CLP-510 $399 Samsung Electronics America, www.samsungusa.com,800/726-7864. Entry-level desktop color laser printer. Maximum print speed 25 ppm black, 6 ppm color; maximum resolution 1,200 x 1,200 dpi. 266MHz processor, 64MB RAM. Automatic duplex (two-sided) printing built in. 250-sheet input tray. Prints on paper sizes from 3 x 5 inches to 8.5 x 14 inches. Ethernet and wireless networking options. Monthly duty cycle: 35,000 pages.

Konica Minolta magicolor 2340DL $499 Konica Minolta Printing Solutions U.S.A. Inc., www.printer.konicaminolta.com/usa,800/523-2696. Networkable desktop printer. Maximum print speed 20 ppm black, 5 ppm color; maximum resolution 2,400 x 600 dpi. 200MHz processor, 32MB RAM. 200-sheet input tray. Print size up to 8.5 x 14 inches on range of media. Connect via USB 2.0 or Ethernet. PictBridge compatible for direct printing from digital camera. Monthly duty cycle: 35,000 pages.

VIP Partner Dell 3100cn $549 Dell Computer,
http://dell.com/smb/nar,877/648-3355. Network-ready desktop printer. Maximum print speed 25 ppm black, 5 ppm color; maximum resolution 1,200 x 1,200 dpi. 300MHz processor, 64MB RAM. Connect via USB, parallel port, or Ethernet. Toner-management system to monitor need for consumables. Monthly duty cycle: 45,000 pages.

VIP Partner Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 2840 $999 Hewlett-Packard Co.,
www.hp.com/go/nar,800/888-8177. Personal multifunction (printer/copier/scanner/fax) machine. Maximum print speed 20 ppm black, 4 ppm color; maximum resolution 600 x 600 dpi. Paper sizes from 5.8 x 8.3 inches to 8.5 x 14 inches. 250-sheet input tray. Connects via USB or Ethernet. Monthly duty cycle: 30,000 pages.

Lanier LP126cn $1,999 Lanier Worldwide Inc.,
www.lanier.com,800/551-3087. Networkable printer for small workgroups. Maximum print speed 26 ppm black, color; maximum resolution 1,200 x 1,200 dpi. 128MB RAM. 550-sheet input tray, up to 1,750-page input tray capacity. Duplex printing. Connects via USB or Ethernet. Monthly production capacity: 20,000 pages. Optional Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and FireWire interfaces; scanner attachment.

VIP Partner IBM InfoPrint Color 1567 $3,786 IBM Corp.,
www.ibm.com/businesscenter/nar, 800/426-7235, ext. 3887. High-speed network-ready workgroup printer. Maximum print speed 36 ppm black, 32 ppm color; maximum resolution 2,400 x 2,400 dpi. 1 GHz processor; 256MB RAM. Print pages up to 11 x 17 inches, banners up to 48 inches long. 550-sheet input tray. Connect via USB or Ethernet. Maximum monthly duty cycle: 200,000 pages. Options include wireless interface, banner media tray, and finisher for booklet production.

INKJET PRINTERS
Epson Stylus C86 $99.99 Epson America Inc.,
www.epson.com,800/463-7766. Basic printer with photo printing capability. Maximum print speed 22 pages per minute black, 12 ppm color; maximum resolution 5,760 x 1,440 dpi. 120-sheet input tray. Separate ink cartridges for each color. Borderless 4 x 6- and 8 x 10-inch photo prints. Connects via USB or parallel port.

VIP Partner Lexmark X7170 $149 Lexmark International,
www.lexmark.com/nar,800/453-9835 Code: NAR. Multifunction color inkjet printer/scanner/copier/fax. Maximum print speed 22 ppm black, 15 ppm color; maximum resolution 4,800 x 1,200 dpi. Built-in tray for 4 x 6-inch photo prints. PictBridge compatible. Stand-alone copier and fax.

Canon i9900 $499.99 Canon U.S.A.,
www.usa.canon.com,800/652-2666. Document and photo desktop printer. Maximum print speed 16 ppm black, 12 ppm color; maximum resolution 4,800 x 1,200 dpi. Eight-color printing system, optimized for printing photos. Separate ink tank for each color. Borderless prints in sizes ranging from 4 x 6 inches to 13 x 19 inches. PictBridge compatible.

LARGE-FORMAT PRINTERS
VIP Partner Hewlett Packard DesignJet 70 $795 Hewlett-Packard Co.,
www.hp.com/go/nar,800/888-8177. Entry-level inkjet. Prints color signs and posters on sheet-fed media up to 18 x 24 inches or rolled media up to 18 inches wide with a maximum print length of 50 feet. Maximum resolution 1,200 x 600 dpi. 64MB RAM. Connects via USB or parallel port.

Canon imagePROGRAF W6400 $3,495 Canon U.S.A.,
www.usa.canon.com,800/652-2666. Prints signs, business graphics on rolled media up to 24 inches wide. Seven-color inkjet system for printing on plain and photo paper, film, and specialty papers up to 0.8 mm thick. Maximum print speed 188 square feet per hour in draft mode. 1,200 x 1,200 dpi; maximum resolution 2,400 x 1,200 dpi. Connect via USB 2.0 or Ethernet.

Lexmark C912 reseller program $675-per-month contract for 36 months
Freeprinters.com,877/437-3377. Program offers printer and consumables packages for several vendors. Lexmark package provides free large-format laser printer with commitment to three-year program for consumables, equipment maintenance, and support. Maximum speed 28 ppm black, color; maximum resolution 2,400 x 2,400 dpi. Standard print size up to 11 x 17 inches. Banners up to 11 x 36 inches. Connect via USB or parallel connection.

SPECIAL COLOR TECHNOLOGIES
Xerox Phaser 8500 $899 Xerox,
www.xids.com/nasg/assocmrkt/nar.html ,800/275-9376, ext. NAR, Code: 0706978. Proprietary solid-ink color workgroup system (neither laser nor inkjet) provides broader range of colors than basic printer. Maximum print speed 24 ppm black, color; maximum resolution 1,200 x 1,200 dpi. 600MHz processor, 128MB RAM. 625-sheet tray total. Paper sizes from 3.5 x 5 inches to 8.5 x 14 inches. Connects via USB or Ethernet. Monthly duty cycle: 85,000 pages. Circle RS #062Voices of experience

Luella Gerbenskysalesperson, RE/MAX of Hayward, Wis. Gerbensky employs inexpensive printers to meet her basic needs for color. She keeps a Hewlett-Packard multifunction printer, purchased last year for $100, on her office desk and another older HP in her home office. “MFMs save space, and I like the crisp color I get for the brochures I do,” she says.
Bill McMannis, e-PRO salesperson, Greenridge Realty Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich.It takes four inkjet printers to produce the marketing materials McMannis and his wife Debbie use to promote their listings. “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution,” he says. The couple uses Epson Stylus Photo R200, R300, and 2200 printers to produce glossy flyers and booklets. For postcards, they print images on glossy card stock with a Canon i9900 then run the text on the other side through the Epson 2200. “The printed materials we show sellers have resulted in quite a few listings,” he says.∙
Don Lehmann, GRIbroker-associate, The Lehmann Organization, RE/MAX Real Estate Services, Anaheim Hills, Calif.Over time, Lehmann has acquired six printers, all offering different capabilities. But he’ll soon pare his arsenal down to three units: a GCC tabloid laser printer, a Xerox color laser printer, and an Epson inkjet. “I try to create most marketing materials and listing presentations with a laser printer,” he says. Advantages to laser, he says, include print speed, reliability, and a lower cost per print compared with the inkjet. He turns to the inkjet for more specialized projects, such as printing on thicker card stock or glossy paper.

Prices are the manufacturers’ suggested retail prices and are subject to change. This list isn’t comprehensive; NAR doesn’t evaluate or endorse these products and isn’t responsible for changes in company info.

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