B&W printer

[Noah B]

Hello all, I'm currently in the market for a new printer. All of my work is in black and white and am looking for a printer that will print black and white in a neutral tone. Any suggestions on what to get and look for?

[Peter De Smidt]

Hi,

What size prints would you like to make? Do you want to be able to print on roll paper? Do you prefer matte, glossy, or both kinds of prints? Will you stick with OEM inks, or are you interested in using a 3rd party bw inkset, such as one from John Cone (www.inkjetmall.com) or one of Paul Roark's inksets? (Paul's inksets are DIY. He doesn't sell ink.) How often do you print?

[Gem Singer]

If 17" wide is the maximum size print you want to make, you'd have a hard time topping the Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer for price, quality, and economical operation.

I make 16"x20" prints on mine, mostly B&W. My 3080 worked beautifully right out of the box, and continues to do an amazing job with B&W prints.

The 3880 is capable of producing Neutral, cool, or warm tone(as well as sepia) prints that rival those made with an enlarger.

[Noah B]

I'm not looking to make any big enlargements, just work prints up to 11 inches wide or 14. Not worried about inks, I'll get whatever works best.

[Peter De Smidt]

Noah, what about glossy versus matte?

Basically, there the following-sized printers, all in inches:
8.5x11,
13x19,
17x22,
24
.
.
.

[Lenny Eiger]

I'm not looking to make any big enlargements, just work prints up to 11 inches wide or 14. Not worried about inks, I'll get whatever works best.

Cone inks are the best. inkjetmall.com

Lenny

[Gem Singer]

Since you don't need a !7" printer, take a look at the 13" Epson 2880.

I have never printed on a 2880, but if it performs anything like the 3880, it should be an excellent printer for your needs.

BTW, the Epson K-3 inks are outstanding.

[Noah B]

I'll probably use fiber paper for my prints, or a luster based paper. As far as width goes, nothing too large. It looks like the 2880 would be my best bet, although I would like to use a smaller format machine.

[Gem Singer]

Noah,

For photo quality prints, in both color and B&W, Epson K-3 ink and Epson Exhibition Fiber paper is an excellent combination.

I have not seen an Epson printer smaller than 13" that takes the K-3 ink carts.

[venchka]

Eugene has hit the nail on the head: Like it or not, use it or not, if you want most of the bells & whistles, you have to go at least to a 13" printer. Those are the facts of life in inkjet printers.
However, Epson isn't the only brand. Canon makes very good printers and very good inks. Lots of people sell very good paper.
Be advised: There can be ink loss when switching between matte and slick (glossy, semi-gloss, luster) papers & the associated ink.
Epson has a new line of printers out, R2000 & R3000. I have no experience with them except to notice that the ink cartridges are larger than usual for consumer printers. Therefore, ink cost may be reduced.
YMMV.
Good luck.

[Neal Chaves]

If you can be happy with B&W prints up to 8.5X11, consider laser. I have been making 1200 dpi laser prints that are very good quality. I can use watercolor papers or rag stationary paper. A laser printer does not spool, and so requires printer RAM equal to the biggest file you intend to print. For an 8X100 at 1200 dpi, this will be 100 MB.

I have an HP Laserjet 4000, which can be bought used and refurbished for about $200. Add another $50 for a 100 MB RAM stick. A new cartridge, which will last a long, long time is about $100.

[Jim Michael]

If you're looking for a smaller format machine you might want to read up on the Workforce 1100 with the Eboni inks on Paul Roark's B&W printing page (http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/). Pretty interesting.