Buying a new wide format Printer need advice!

[Morganza]

I've been looking to buy one for a year but never had the money until now. I have my eye on an HP 7000 for 130.00 on ebay, mainly because the ink refills are really cheap, but I would be willing to spend more for quality and longevity.

I will be using this printer to print 11x17 color art, and pencils to inks over.

Thanks.

[dfbovey]

I've had a Canon S9000 for a long time that I've used for the same purpose and have been very happy with it. Not sure that Canon makes it anymore though.

[Morganza]

Thanks Dave, they dont make that model anymore, couldn't find a similar version. I ended up going with the epson workforce 1100.

[henesy]

what is a good brand and model for this one? the latest and newest of course.. does not matter if it has an expensive ink or whatever.. InkJetSuperStore.com ink printer

[BPS Morganza]

what is a good brand and model for this one? the latest and newest of course.. does not matter if it has an expensive ink or whatever..

Yeah it's been great for me, been using it over a year and no problems, it prints sharp lines too which I like. I think I paid 120.00 for it at the time.

[Caimano]

I'm using HP 7100 and I choose this one because you can insert the board you have to print on from its back side. It means the board has not to be fold to be printed over. He accepts board until 280 gr if i remember correctly.

[Smitty]

Stick to major brands. HP is generally considered better for text and Epson better for graphics. FWIW, the last time I was in a pro grade camera store, they carried all cartridges Epson and Canon, no HP to be found anywhere. HP should be sufficient for blue line as they get inked over. For art prints I'd want a test drive.

My Epson 1280 holds paper at about 45º to the print angle. I certainly wouldn't want a more severe angle when dealing with multi ply bristol. Speaking of paper thickness, make sure the printer has an "envelope" setting. This allows paper 4 times thicker than "normal"

One problem with Epson's is multicolor cartridges are considered empty of ALL color when a single color goes dry. Mine is a six color printer using two cartridges, one for black, one for everything else. Use up the light blue and the printer will claim you're out of dark blue, light magenta, dark magenta and yellow too, even though those wells are full to the brim. Towards that end, any printouts for personal use that would "normally" be printed in black I print in red (50% M-50º Y) Makes the black cartridge last longer and allows max use of the color cartridge.

[Fallenangel]

Added this thread to the Tips & Tech 2.0.

[50%grey]

There's a fix in the settings/service menu for that Smitty.

I can't remember exactly what it is, but there's a way to tell the epson not to behave like that when one cartridge is out.

Wish I could be more help tho haha, but I just researched it through google when I had an Epson that was acting like that.

[Smitty]

Epson's use color inks in their grayscale prints (which is why they say you can't print grayscale without colors) and I know there's a workaround for use of black ink. Short of a "resetter*" I don't know of a color workaround.

* Another Epson quirk: removal of the cartridge "marks" it as empty no matter how much ink is contained therein. These cartridges must be "reset" with an external "key" before the printer will see them as full.