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Color Lazer Printer Specs


tlehnhaeuser

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Can anyone help in my decision process.

 

We are looking to get a Color Lazer Printer to eliminate our offset printing costs. We want to generate brochures etc.. on an on-demand basis and not have to stock up on hundreds of out-dated literature.

 

We are trying to understand what features/specs would best suit this need with a relatively small budget. We want the literature to be high quality and not look sabby. The quailty of the printed literature should not be one that potential customers will look down upon.

 

Any feedback would be appreciated.

thanks

Tom

 

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We just invested in an OKI C5300 color Laser A4 format printer.

We are very happy.

-good speed.

-good quality on print.

-Auto detect paper quality.

We use it for A4 brochures and IronCAD manuals and actually for all our non A3 or bigger, print needs.

We payed like 1700$ this spring for it, with network and duplex.

 

 

 

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We are using a Canon ColorPASS-Z400e (Graphics 1120) that works reasonably well. We lease it, which is good, since we have to call for service about once or twice a month. The best results come with the most expensive paper - which, if you use it, will cut down drastically on the service calls.

 

The printing speed is excellent and the color is extremely good. Better paper definitely leads to better print quality, so whatever printer you get, be sure to feed it with good paper.

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  • 1 month later...
Guest EricFoy

Last year I bought a Tektronix/Xerox Phaser 8200.

 

Here are the positives:

 

This baby puts out the best quality images I've ever seen, even on *cheap* paper. It's not a laser printer. Rather, it is a "solid ink" printer. No ink or toner mess. You just drop in these blocks of crayon-type material, which it melts and selectively spits onto the sheet. The images are colorfast and have a beautiful waxy finish to them.

 

Here are the negatives:

 

Last time I bought ink refills they were dissapointingly expensive. Prices may well have come down since then (I hope so). In regards to cost per page, this printer runs on a "use it or lose it" basis. Don't turn it on unless you plan to print a job. Initial warm up takes a while (measured in minutes, not seconds). If its coming out of power-save mode, the first page takes a couple minutes. After that, you get your rated ppm. The problem is that even sitting idle, there is ink consumption, as it keeps the nozzles hot, so they drool. You never know the difference until you empty the waste tray after two or three days of light-duty use, AND THE WASTE TRAY IS FULL. So you quietly dump cash in the trash.

 

Colclusion:

 

If you have high-volume or occaisional-use work, this thing stands far above anything I've seen. Image quality and color suturation are the best. I mean, it looks like pages cut right out of a National Geographic. You really have to see it to believe it.

 

If you're looking for a printer to sit standby in the office for the occasional convenient printout, then cost of ink and first page wait time will drive you crazy.

Edited by EricFoy
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We just got a DELL 5100cn (single-pass with duplex and network) for around $2000 (in Switzerland) with 4 years next-day-on-site warranty.

As far as I can tell at this point, everything Rob told about the Oki holds true for the Dell, too. One nice thing about the Dell is the low price of the black toner, which means that the printing cost is quite low if you do mostly b&w and have only moderate amount of color output (like we do).

We found that it's not worth to start with a inexpensive printer and then upgrade it with additional features you need (e.g. duplex). Usually you get a higher-class printer which has these features as standard for a comparable or only slightly higher price and you get the advantage of a faster and heavier-duty printing engine.

 

Beat

 

 

PS: Two things to consider, since brochures is what you want to print: if you want photo quality, no color laser touches a good inkjet. And quite a few of the photo-quality inkjets can print borderless (no laser can AFAIK).

Edited by B. Ludin
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Are the OKI C5300 and the DELL 5100 borderless printers?

 

Oh, and a tip:

When you want posters being pressed quickly and cheep I just send them over the web to a photo developer that normally handles your digital snapshot pictures. They can go up to sizes A1 and the quality is fantastic.

Edited by Floris Stam
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Are the OKI C5300 and the DELL 5100 borderless printers?

 

No, both the DELL and the OKI are laser printers and, as I said, none of these can printer borderless (to the best of my knowledge). That's a point in favor of inkjets. Minimum margins on the Dell are 4.1mm on each side. I don't know about the Oki.

 

Beat

Edited by B. Ludin
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  • 5 weeks later...

Floris, funny you say we just got a Minolta MagiColor 2300W.

It prints great. at least better then I was used to.

 

Also Beat was right for high quality brochires a HP PhotoPrinter is PERFECT. No streaks, dots or anything perfect photo quailty only downside is the speed if you plane to print alot and also runs out of ink quick.

 

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