Help choosing suitable in-house printer for local design projects

[GraphicDesignerJosh]

This is my first post on the forum guys, I hope i have chosen the correct area to post it.

I have been put in charge of choosing a new printer for our in house design projects. This mainly encompasses client presentations, point of sale, booklets, brochures, marketing and branding materials. I hope that the print planet community would help point me in the right direction! To this end I have written a spec of requirements for what we need.

- Price ideally no more than £700 (options of varying price welcome)
- Print high quality and high resolution images and graphics in full colour
- Be compatible with current PDF files/standards
- Must print upto A3 formats
- Print on variety of substrates: up 260gsm card, textured finishes etc. (bypass tray)
- Be relatively efficient regarding consumables
- No scanner needed
- Must be networkable
- Reliable but pages per minute not an issue as this will be our quality printer (not for standard documents).

Please let me know what you would suggest.

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[pauly92]

I've got an Epson SC P600. Should be in your price range.

It prints on A3+ (so just larger than A3)
Has a roll feed option that's 330mm wide on a 2" core.
Has wifi or USB input. basically can act like a normal printer or can be used on a RIP software. Mines hooked to onyx.
It has a card feed at the front for individual sheets upto 1.3mm thick. I haven't used that yet.

Pretty sure it can do what you'd like it to do.

Works great as a conventual printer too for documents. put it on the quickest mode and zips right through them.

 

[GraphicDesignerJosh]

Thanks for your reply Pauly. I've looked it up - certainly looks suitable. I assume it has a standard feed tray with guides so you can print normally as well? How long have you had it? Any reliability issues?

Thanks mate!

 

[pauly92]

It has a feed tray at the rear/top. Put about 100 sheets on it. Obviously need to remove the sheets when not using it.
the roll is at the rear under the tray. Has these extensions for it.

I've had it for a month or so. Epson printers are generally reliable. They say to do a print at least once a week to keep running. I wouldn't be worried about it.

Also with epson, if you us their papers, they supply profiles for it which are quite good. better than what the average person can make.

 

[Shawnd]

Have you looked at OKI's 900 series? I wouldn't bother with the 911 (high $$ consumables) but the others are highly rated, I have the 931e and it does a great job for us so far, it will be a bit past your budget but I think you will find it worth it as it will allow you to do thicker materials.

https://www.betterbuys.com/office-equipment/reviews/oki-c900-family-review/
http://www.okidata.com/printers/color/c900

 

[GraphicDesignerJosh]

Hey guys, thought I would follow up and let you know what happened. I presented the case at our meeting with regional manager and we ended up settling for the A2 version of the SC-P600. The HPSC-P800. The only other question would be what print software to use for it...

 

[pauly92]

if you're using the standard profiles and epson paper. Then photoshop ect will be fine. I know this printer is supported by Onyx but there's no need to get RIP software to run a desktop printer unless it's used for hard proofing for presses ect.