Inkjet vs toner for stickers?

[gazfocus]

A couple of years ago I posted that I was looking to get into sticker/label printing. I had bought an Oki to print some specific labels which was a disaster and I gave up.

Anyway, two years on and I still have the itch to venture down this road. We have since upgraded our digital press from our old Xerox C560 to a Konica C3070 which is so much more accurate with its print positions so up to now we have got by just printing on pre-cut labels.

I want to take things further and I have started doing some print and cut labels using our Graphtec CELite 50 cutter but it’s a slow process and as such I’m looking to spend some money on new equipment.

A couple of things that have caught my eye are:
1) An Epson C6500AE Desktop Label Printer
2) Intec LC600 Sheet Fed Label Cutter

The Epson is an inkjet whereas the Intec would be used alongside our Konica digital press but I can’t decide between the two. The Intec would allow us to cut custom shapes quickly and also laminate the labels before cutting, but I like the idea of roll to roll labels on the Epson.

Any thoughts?

 

[pippip]

Have you watched these guys on youtube.

Alvalu Designs

Welcome to Alvalu Designs! We are a family owned business in California that creates custom stickers, labels & decals. We started this business with a Cameo ...

www.youtube.com

 

[truehue]

I bought the Epson C6500A (in part because of the glowing review from that Youtube page above). After setting it up last night, I spent about 2 hours trying to load a roll of paper into the machine with zero success. When you slide the front of the roll in, the machine is supposed to detect it and pull it in. That's not happening on my machine. I'm going to try again this afternoon and place a call to Epson's tech support and see how that goes.

 

[gazfocus]

Have you watched these guys on youtube.

Alvalu Designs

Welcome to Alvalu Designs! We are a family owned business in California that creates custom stickers, labels & decals. We started this business with a Cameo ...

www.youtube.com

I have, yes. They're an awesome couple and doing brilliantly. They are the reason I'm looking at the Epson C6500 actually but I don't have the budget to go down the latex route hence thinking of using the digital press we already have.

 

[gazfocus]

I bought the Epson C6500A (in part because of the glowing review from that Youtube page above). After setting it up last night, I spent about 2 hours trying to load a roll of paper into the machine with zero success. When you slide the front of the roll in, the machine is supposed to detect it and pull it in. That's not happening on my machine. I'm going to try again this afternoon and place a call to Epson's tech support and see how that goes.

Have you seen their latest couple of videos? They explained that you have to hold the label media there for a few seconds while the printer detects it.

 

[truehue]

Have you seen their latest couple of videos? They explained that you have to hold the label media there for a few seconds while the printer detects it.

I think I've seen it, but it was a few weeks ago before I even bought the machine. I'll look again, thanks!

 

[gazfocus]

So do we think roll to roll is becoming more popular than sheet labels?

Have been offered what I think is a good deal on the Epson C6500AE with Rewinder and 2 lots of 20,000 labels but still not 100% sure whether to go down that route over the print and cut option.

 

[gazfocus]

Been doing some more research into label printing specifically, and going by the quotes we’ve had, I feel like it would be cheaper to print labels using sheets of labels on our konica press over using a roll to roll printer. Has anyone else done any calculations?

Even just buying the blank labels, the cheapest I’ve found for 35mm circles is £0.0049 per label if buying 100,000 of them whereas on sheets we can get 100,000 labels for £0.0040 per label. It might not seem a huge difference it it’s an extra £90 per order.

It then costs us £0.03 in click charge for a sheet of 30 labels where as the ink to print 30 labels on a sheet is likely to cost around £0.40+

So, I’m left wondering, is the quality that much better on a machine like the C6500 compared to laser technology to warrant the higher print costs?

 

[pippip]

Id imagine the registration on the epson is much more accurate than digital press. From watching their videos above am i right in thinking it literally scans each label for reg and user can make adjustments also.
I print a fair amount of labels on our xerox v80 and while good i would generally avoid borders as your trying to line up multiple labels across the sheet and youll always get slight movement.

I do find some customers prefer rolls rather than sheets, especially with high volume.

 

[gazfocus]

Id imagine the registration on the epson is much more accurate than digital press. From watching their videos above am i right in thinking it literally scans each label for reg and user can make adjustments also.
I print a fair amount of labels on our xerox v80 and while good i would generally avoid borders as your trying to line up multiple labels across the sheet and youll always get slight movement.

I do find some customers prefer rolls rather than sheets, especially with high volume.

Yeh I see what you mean with the labels with borders. We do tend not to do those on precut labels. We do them on A4 sheets which we then contour cut which we find far more accurate.

From what I understand about the Epson, it scans either the gap between the labels or a black mark on the reverse which then tells the printer where the start of the label is. You can then adjust the printer with very fine measurements to get the position 100% accurate.

I think that part of my hesitation is that I’d really like some way of contour cutting larger volume or labels such as the Graphtec F-Mark but I need to see whether something like the graphtec would also cut roll to roll labels

 

[truehue]

Have you seen their latest couple of videos? They explained that you have to hold the label media there for a few seconds while the printer detects it.

Success! Once you push the label through into the machine, it goes a little then eventually hits a barrier. You have to continue applying pressure towards that barrier for it to pickup the label. At least, that's how I got it to work anyway.

 

[Ynot_UK]

on sheets we can get 100,000 labels for £0.0040 per label. It might not seem a huge difference it it’s an extra £90 per order.

It then costs us £0.03 in click charge for a sheet of 30 labels where as the ink to print 30 labels on a sheet is likely to cost around £0.40+

I'm assuming these are bog standard laser labels with permanent adhesive, not food grade or anything special.
In which case, you should be able to get that price down a bit further.
At PurelyPaper, the advertised web price is £36.49/7,000 on A4 (200 sheets, 35-up) = 0.3955/label
There is the option to have them 70-up on SRA3, however this works out £8.80 more expensive per 200 sheets, so even running your C3070 at A4, costing £6.00 extra per 200 sheets (assuming a click is a click irrespective of size, you're still better off with the smaller size)
I imagine if you wanted 15 cases, Simon at Purely would probably do you a deal.
The Premier list price is much higher at £54.80, although your rep. would most likely list a better price for you.

As an aside, the LC-600 you've linked to looks an interesting piece of kit. We're currently in the market for a digital die cutter and are toying between a Graphtec F-Mark and a Vivid Veloblade, although nice as it is, we don't really have space for the latter. When I get some time, I need to go and see both& test with our substrates.

 

[gazfocus]

I'm assuming these are bog standard laser labels with permanent adhesive, not food grade or anything special.
In which case, you should be able to get that price down a bit further.
At PurelyPaper, the advertised web price is £36.49/7,000 on A4 (200 sheets, 35-up) = 0.3955/label
There is the option to have them 70-up on SRA3, however this works out £8.80 more expensive per 200 sheets, so even running your C3070 at A4, costing £6.00 extra per 200 sheets (assuming a click is a click irrespective of size, you're still better off with the smaller size)
I imagine if you wanted 15 cases, Simon at Purely would probably do you a deal.
The Premier list price is much higher at £54.80, although your rep. would most likely list a better price for you.

As an aside, the LC-600 you've linked to looks an interesting piece of kit. We're currently in the market for a digital die cutter and are toying between a Graphtec F-Mark and a Vivid Veloblade, although nice as it is, we don't really have space for the latter. When I get some time, I need to go and see both& test with our substrates.

Thanks for the recommendation of PurelyPaper, I'd not heard of them before so will take a look. The prices I quoted above were based on gloss coated labels but obviously having to order 100k labels to get that price isn't great

I'm in talks with Intec at the moment to see what price we can get the LC-600 down to as their list price is £3,499+vat. They say it's got a lot of the features the F-Mark missed off and actually looking at the older Intec models, the older models were actually built on the F-Mark system. The LC-600 can read qr codes to pull up the correct cutting file, etc, so you can load 200 sheets of mixed jobs. Sounds really good actually.

 

[gazfocus]

Have had lots of printed samples from various suppliers now for machines ranging from the Epson C6500 to the a Primera CX86 toner based printer, and lots in between.

I have to say that I was really disappointed by the samples from the Epson C6500. I got samples from three different suppliers and each time the Epson C6500 looked washed out.

Out of the printers I’ve had samples from so far, the Afinia L502 seems the best (with the dye ink configuration) which I have no doubt is in large part due to the differences between pigment and dye ink. However, the L502 is more than double the running costs of the Epson.

I’m not considering saving up a bit more to get the Afinia L701 or the Epson C7500G as above everything else, they are so much faster. The Epson 7500G looks awesome but I’m concerned about it being pigment ink again but also the limit to 4” label widths.

Think I need to get some more samples haha.

 

[truehue]

Have had lots of printed samples from various suppliers now for machines ranging from the Epson C6500 to the a Primera CX86 toner based printer, and lots in between.

I have to say that I was really disappointed by the samples from the Epson C6500. I got samples from three different suppliers and each time the Epson C6500 looked washed out.

Out of the printers I’ve had samples from so far, the Afinia L502 seems the best (with the dye ink configuration) which I have no doubt is in large part due to the differences between pigment and dye ink. However, the L502 is more than double the running costs of the Epson.

I’m not considering saving up a bit more to get the Afinia L701 or the Epson C7500G as above everything else, they are so much faster. The Epson 7500G looks awesome but I’m concerned about it being pigment ink again but also the limit to 4” label widths.

Think I need to get some more samples haha.

I have the Epson C6500. I first tried printing with a Mac, and the colors were ridiculous - completely washed out. Connecting to a PC w/ their print driver was much better - still didn't blow me away though. The color difference between screen and printout was pretty significant. In the print settings when I choose ICM under Color Correction, it seems to jump much closer to what I see on the screen.

Color Correction Method
• Vivid colors (Initial setting)
• ICM
• No composite

 

[gazfocus]

I have the Epson C6500. I first tried printing with a Mac, and the colors were ridiculous - completely washed out. Connecting to a PC w/ their print driver was much better - still didn't blow me away though. The color difference between screen and printout was pretty significant. In the print settings when I choose ICM under Color Correction, it seems to jump much closer to what I see on the screen.

Color Correction Method
• Vivid colors (Initial setting)
• ICM
• No composite

Thanks. From all the samples I’ve had, I think if we do go down the inkjet route we will be going for either the Afinia L701 or the VIPColor VP600e. Just trying to find out why the two samples we had were so different when they both seemingly use the same engine and print head.

 

[vcprint]

Buying a printer can prove to be a tough task especially when you have too many options available in the market. Printers are being heavily used in all places of study or work. But buyers are often confused between Inkjet printers and Laser printers. Let’s try to clear that confusion.

• You will read a lot of answers mentioning how inkjet printers are better at photography printing, while laser printers are best for text/graphics printing. Both the printers have their own special use, not that they are not good for the other type of printing.
• Due to the differences between the way both the printers function, you will notice a difference in the stickers produced by both the printers. Laser printers are said to be more resistant to XXXXXXX
• You will find an inkjet printer at a lower cost compared to a laser printer.
• It is said that laser printers cartridges last much longer than inkjet printers.

So to conclude, I would like to say that both types of printers are equally good, depending on what function you use it for. If you want a printer just for the sole purpose of printing stickers, maybe go for a laser printer. It all depends on which option is more convenient for you and gives you good value for money.

 

[gazfocus]

Buying a printer can prove to be a tough task especially when you have too many options available in the market. Printers are being heavily used in all places of study or work. But buyers are often confused between Inkjet printers and Laser printers. Let’s try to clear that confusion.

• You will read a lot of answers mentioning how inkjet printers are better at photography printing, while laser printers are best for text/graphics printing. Both the printers have their own special use, not that they are not good for the other type of printing.
• Due to the differences between the way both the printers function, you will notice a difference in the stickers produced by both the printers. Laser printers are said to be more resistant to [INSERT SPAMMY LINK HERE]
• You will find an inkjet printer at a lower cost compared to a laser printer.
• It is said that laser printers cartridges last much longer than inkjet printers.

So to conclude, I would like to say that both types of printers are equally good, depending on what function you use it for. If you want a printer just for the sole purpose of printing stickers, maybe go for a laser printer. It all depends on which option is more convenient for you and gives you good value for money.

Please don’t comment on my posts in the future if you’re just looking for an excuse to spam your website links.

 

[jose1972]

We are planning to buy a label cutter, maybe the LC600. Did you get a better price?

 

[gazfocus]

We are planning to buy a label cutter, maybe the LC600. Did you get a better price?

We did get a bit of a discount simply by asking. We took delivery of the machine a few weeks ago but it's still sitting in its crate as I want to set it up on video haha....must get round to it soon.