The best inkjet under $1500 for sharp text printing?

[CliffSpielman]

Hello to all and thanks in advance. I'm looking for an inkjet printer with the following characteristics:

1-The sharpest printing possible of black text, at all font sizes but of particular interest are font sizes under 7pt or so.
2-The ability to print 17 x 22 inch paper would be a good thing. I'm not worried about roll capability. But the larger the sheet size capability, the better.

 

[Shawnd]

For under $1500?!?

 

[CliffSpielman]

In a couple of years, I'll add a zero, but yeah. I'm looking at printers such as the Epson SureColor P900 but I know there are a couple of similar options.

 

[jwheeler]

The T-Series from the HP DesignJet series can print that size and do a great job with small print when you use the high quality mode. The "T" is for their technical line of printers, so they are meant to print fine details in blueprints/drafting documents. The T-200 and T-600 at this link are in your budget. The T-630 has a sheet feeder if you're trying to go that direction instead of roll media.

 

[CliffSpielman]

Very interesting. I hadn't thought of a plotter as an option. Do you know how they compare to a standard inkjet in terms of color and graphics? Though sharp text is my first priority, the posters I'm doing do have some background graphics.

Thx

 

[jwheeler]

These aren't really plotters in the traditional sense that use pens...they're just oversized inkjet printers with a typical inkjet head. Therefore, it does a great job with colors and graphics. Epson has the same kind of lineup with their T2170 and T3170 series printers that also print roll or sheets and fall in your price range.

The main difference between the T (technical) printers and the higher quality Z-series from HP and P-series from Epson is the amount of ink colors. The T-series have just CMYK, while the Z and P series have 6, 8 or even 10 ink colors to print a wider color gamut. Additionally, the T series will have dye based inks while the Z and P series will have a pigment based inks. Print shops usually go for the Z & P series when they want to print high quality photographs or ads/posters that pop. The pigment inks will also last longer when exposed to sunlight...though not as long as eco-solvent, latex, and uv printers.

 

[CliffSpielman]

These aren't really plotters in the traditional sense that use pens...they're just oversized inkjet printers with a typical inkjet head. Therefore, it does a great job with colors and graphics. Epson has the same kind of lineup with their T2170 and T3170 series printers that also print roll or sheets and fall in your price range.

The main difference between the T (technical) printers and the higher quality Z-series from HP and P-series from Epson is the amount of ink colors. The T-series have just CMYK, while the Z and P series have 6, 8 or even 10 ink colors to print a wider color gamut. Additionally, the T series will have dye based inks while the Z and P series will have a pigment based inks. Print shops usually go for the Z & P series when they want to print high quality photographs or ads/posters that pop. The pigment inks will also last longer when exposed to sunlight...though not as long as eco-solvent, latex, and uv printers.

I'm note quite done with my digging but it looks like, though the DesignJets are solid, their auto sheet feeder doesn't work with larger than 11 x 17 or 13 x 19 (can't recall which). Pretty sure it's 11 x 17. I'd like an auto sheet feeder that works with up to 17 x 22 paper. So I looked at the Epson T series which seems to be the competitor to the DesignJets, and it's the same story. I believe with both, if it takes 24 inch rolls, I can likely feed a single sheet up to 24 inches wide, but ehhh, even my Canon Pixma i6820x let's me stack a few 13 x 19 sheets in an auto feeder.

Aside from my fixation on being able to auto feed 17 x 22 sheets, I don't understand why both the DesignJets and Epson T series both have a much lower stated resolution than let's say the Epson SureColor P series printers, or again, even my $175 Pixma, but yet the DesignJets and T series are known for their printing of fine detail. But I also don't know much about inkjets and what features really make the difference in terms of quality.

At the moment, I'm thinking in terms of the Epson SureColor P900 or newer model, since I can do 17 x 22 sheets, and I imagine that the pigment ink will add a little punch to my blacks. Also the larger sheet size let's me scale up my designs and increase my font sizes if needed for crispness. I'd love a 24 inch roll capacity but the single sheets is more important to me at the moment. Frankly, I'd consider picking up an additional used DesignJet and have it just do a 24 inch roll for prototyping and design of 24 x 36 inch posters that a 3rd party POD provider would print for me.

Quoting from Ben Kingsley in the movie "Contact," why buy 1 when you can buy 2 at twice the price.

 

[Magnus59]

Aside from my fixation on being able to auto feed 17 x 22 sheets, I don't understand why both the DesignJets and Epson T series both have a much lower stated resolution than let's say the Epson SureColor P series printers, or again, even my $175 Pixma, but yet the DesignJets and T series are known for their printing of fine detail. But I also don't know much about inkjets and what features really make the difference in terms of quality.

The way that resolution is defined on inkjet printers is somewhat inconsistent. Take for example the old Scitex Iris, with a stated resolution of 300/600 dpi it produced a print much sharper than anything else available at the time, including the HP5000 with a specified resolution of 1440dpi.
The difference is that some manufacturers, including Scitex, defined resolution as the spots produced for each colour, whereas HP would define resolution as the combined spots for all colours, so their 1440dpi plotter was actually 360dpi per colour. You then had Epson, with their 6, 8 and now 12 colour inkjet heads claiming ridiculously high resolutions by multiplying the dpi by the number of colours. What you need to look at is the native resolution of each colour, or simply compare the output from the various models.
Note that with inkjet, the substrate makes a huge difference to the quality of the final output.

 

[jwheeler]

or simply compare the output from the various models..

This is a good point. HP makes it very easy to order free sample prints at this link.

 

[TJPrinter]

A bit over your budget but you could have a look at the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2100. Up to 24” wide and has an auto cutter so you can use 17” wide rolls and auto cut at 22”. I believe that they just came out with some new printer models so you may find some better prices on the PRO-2100 and maybe a rebate. If you take into consideration the amount of ink it comes with, it may actually be slightly less expensive than the smaller printers.

I’ve had two of the 44" imagePROGRAF PRO printers and they are very nice printers that would have no problem with small text on the right coated paper.