Great decal paper

What type of printer did you use? Laser? Ink jet?

Thanks,

Martin

I have a laser B&W and a color inkjet. I bought a package of both their inkjet and their laser/copier paper. Since the carbon fiber was a grey pattern, I used the laser printer. I have not tried the inkjet paper with the inkjet printer yet. I'll report to the group when I do.

Going a bit OT, the reason I bought the laser was ink costs on the inkjet printer. I print a lot of text, and was frequently buying black cartridges. The laser printer cost per page is a small fraction of the ink cost per page. I paid 200 bucks for the Brothers laser- figured I paid for it in a couple of years, plus it would make black decals for me before inkjet paper came out. I see laser printers now for 99.95, so they are an even better deal now. With lots of USB ports on newer computers, no problem having them on computer at same time.

Don Stauffer wrote in news:fqQ1f.1$gK3.601 @news.uswest.net:

I saw a color laser at Walmart about a month ago for less than $300. I'm waiting to move back to the mainland and I think I'll get one. I'm amazed how the price has come down on those.

TF

I saw one on sale the other day for eighty bucks! It was regularly a hundred, but there was a twenty buck rebate! A hundred bucks is getting to be a regular price for the low end lasers.

Even the color lasers are coming down. I saw low end color lasers for $300. On the other hand, if the inkjet paper I also bought from Micro Mark works, I won't need a color laser. I will let folks know soon.

Do factor in the cost of colour laser toner. here in the UK individual colours can cost up to the equivalent of $180 and there are three - the black is normally a bit cheaper. Also, i would expect the relative costs to be less in the US but you should check the price of toner as it is significant in the running costs

David

That's good advice on any printer/copier purchase. That and availability. A former employer would always opt for the best upfront deal on office equipment - which 9 times out of 10 meant that it was obsolete or nearly so and obtaining replacement parts and refills was going to be costly and time consuming.

WmB

this is why as a graphic designer, I only buy Canon inkjet printers and keep them clean as a whistle. I have a 5 year old BJC 8200 and a year old i965 - the wonderful thing about them is they both use the same BCI-6 cartridges which from Canon are $28Aussie - I buy repro's for $6, or $3.70 each if I buy bulk. The superb quality of the printing is something my clients always comment on........now, if I could only work out a way to make it print white!

love my Canons

:)

Steve

Since I don't have a color laser, I cannot speak for color toner, but the black toner certainly is cheaper than ink- this was the reason I bought the laser- I figured it would pay for itself before long. Of course, I had a Lexmark printer at the time. I then saw tests in mags indicating Lexmark had the highest price for consumables of any major brand.

My experience does bear out the magazine articles. A toner cartridge for my Brothers laser printer only costs about two and a half times what the black inkjet cartridge did, and it lasts FAR longer than two and a half times what the inkjet cartridge did. The articles said a full page of text would cost me about 5c on the laser printer, about 50c on inkjet.

However, the added fringe benefit with the laser was that I could make black decals before the inkjet paper became available.

I hate mine. It went belly up less than a month after the warranty ran out. :-) Hope it will be not too expensive to fix- haven't got up the nerve to take it to shop yet.

Hi Don

What are the symptoms and what model is it? If the print head has died, then you're up for a new one, but surely they will have come down in price by now, seeing as the price of the printers has plummeted.

Also, I would be contacting Canon to let them know how ordinary you think it is, having a product that dies a month after the warranty runs out. They're a big firm -they came to the party for me when mine died and the replacement (a refurb'd unit but who cares) is still going like a train - which is apt really.

:)

Mind you, I am not using it to make 500 pirate DVD covers each week, like on of my mates - but then his has never skipped a beat at all, lucky mug.

Steve

Lesson in electronic economics: basic trend on all new technology seems to be that as they get more popular, the cost comes down, look at TV's and CD players. The first CD player I saw was a Jim Disney's Stansbury Stereo shop down in Dundalk back in the 1970's. He had a little room in the back set up to demonstrate this wonderful new technology. Had the CD player hooked to a high end amplifier and a couple of real good speakers. Sound was gorgeous (CDs allow much better dynamic range) but the cost was somewhere around $7000 bucks for the CD player. I told him the thing would never catch on. Yeah! The local drug store has a player for under $100. I live in hopes that the Laser printers will come down still more, as the ALPS technology is going to be a dead item when it is no longer financially profitable to make the tape cartridges.

Bill Shuey

now you can get a 52 x cdrw for $25. dvd's for $35.....the mind boggles. so let's see, i have edison cylinders, acetate 78's, reel to reel, 8 track, regular phono, mini-sette,mini-disc, cd-cdrw, dvd-dvdrw and absolutely no clue as to where or what format my copy of the first cab volt is. let's not talk visual media......

technology is

I don't care if they come down to under $100 unless they can print white...

Just a little note about ink usage....

The HP Officejets use less ink than Color Lasers.

Is the Officejet a laser or inkjet. When I was talking about ink, I meant the COST of ink, not the volume. In various mags that ran tests on ink/toner costs, the cost per page was far less on lasers in general than inkjets, though inkjets certainly varied quite a bit between brands (it turns out what I had was the most expensive inkjet [lexmark] in terms of printing cost.

The point I was making about colour lasers is that there are 4 toners inside so any cost b=gets multiplied up by 4 for any colour page you print. B&W still uses the single toner though

David

Don

The Lexmark is truly expensive to operate. The enticement of a low pricetag led my wife to purchase a Lexmark Z25 for $29.00 after discounts. I thought this was great until she had to buy her first replacement cartridges- $49 for a colour, $29 for black.

At my office, I inherited a Lexmark multifunction printer/scanner and fax which did not "synch" up properly with my laptop. The cost of the repair was outrageous so the serve technician mentioned that I could probably pick up a new machine for a great deal less. My mistake was in picking a Lexmark printer which came to only $49 but our first replacement cartridges were nearly $90.

The machines aren't so bad, decent colour and speed but they are expensive in the long run.

one word-refills. or if you're a putz, refurbs.