Starter printer for invitation business?

[twin8885]

I am looking for help trying to find a good starter printer for an at home invitation business. My invitations are very illustrative heavy and feature large blocks of color. My main concern is quality - I don't want the invitations to look home done.

My question is if I can achieve a good quality print with a 800-1000 dollar laser printer? The rep at Xerox not surprisingly says the Colorcube 8570 will work perfectly for my needs, but reviews seem to criticize the quality.

If anyone had a good starting point on where to look, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[easiprint]

The colorcube quality is not as good as a toner based machine. It basically sprays wax onto the page which can look a bit like the old inkjet prints. Also, from what I have seen from samples, the wax can scratch off relatively easily, especially on thicker cards. They are fine for an office using low coverage on copier paper - very good cheap to run machines, but I think you would struggle trying to run invitations on them. I know it is old technology, but at the price range you are looking at, you could do a lot worse than getting a good second hand Xerox DC12. They are not the fastest machines, but quality wise they are very good. We still have one as a backup to our other Xerox machines, and I am always impressed by the quality it turns out when we use it.

 

[Odyssey]

Be careful with this - I occasionally have to do this type of job and people like very heavy weight cards - 400gsm up to 600 or even 700gsm. Fiding a laser that has the thermal output to fuse the toner onto the card may be a problem, and physically feeding the stock can be difficult. Most of these machines will do up to business card weight 350gsm OK, but for heavier you need an old letterpress machine, and multi colour plates for those would be totally uneconomic for the short runs you're likely to want (even if you could find someone to make them)

I've modified my epson R1800 to feed 600gm board and as long as the stock is 'closed' enough not to allow spread, the results are acceptable to most customers in that market.

Get various suppliers to run samples of your work for you , if they have confidence in their products they will agree.

Good luck . . .

A

 

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

Sorry to say but inkjet is going to be way expensive per piece with full coverage and a $1000 color laser printer is going to look very DIY or "krafty", my advise would be to team up with someone with an Indigo, great prints on heavy weight and textured stocks. (this is the printer that all the big invite companies use, like tinyprints.com) This way you can focus on designs and sales.

 

[twin8885]

Thanks guys.

After talking with some people who are doing digital artist series posters, I am thinking the Epson R2000 is going to be my best bet.

I know the cost per page is a little more, but hopefully we can grow into something more economical.