Which printer should I buy for comic printing?

[Calvin82]

Hi there.

I'm looking for an economical printer for producing high quality comic books to sell.

I've been wading through websites for 3 days and am going in circles, so I thought I'd ask the pros for help and wisdom.

My budget for this printer is about £400 / $600 - ish.

Here are my requirements.

1. I'll be printing A3 pages.
2. I'll be producing about 70 pages a day.
3. There needs to be a lot of consistent block colour - so no banding.
4. I'll be using uncoated paper at about 80-90gsm (like heavy duty newsprint paper).
5. The images will be graphical, heavy ink.. so don't need any photo reproduction - just good graphics.
6. I'd like to get as close to an offset-printed look as I can.

If you imagine 1960's paper 7" record sleeves with the cool designs on.. I'm looking for that kind of aesthetic.

Your ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[AP90]

Well, not to sound like a jerk or anything, but for your price range I don't think there is something that exist for what you are asking. Im not even sure you could get a nice enough desktop inkjet for that price to produce "high quality" graphics. Just guessing, your best bet would probably be to look around for a used wide format epson, HP, or something along those lines to produce a high quality image. But I still couldn't see you getting one that is ready to print for under say $3000.00. Could be wrong on that though. But also, they are fairly slow and with what your wanting will use a lot of ink so would also be costly to run. Maybe another member here has a better solution for ya.

 

[Calvin82]

Thanks for your input.

I've been reading here and there that (as you said) an Epson Artisan 1430 with a CISS is a close bet. They come in at around £200 with the CISS being about £50.

The CISS takes the cost down significantly by all accounts. That said, I've no idea what the CPP would be at a coverage of about 60% per page.

 

[pauly92]

The dot pattern you want, you can create with photoshop already in your images. Or using a RIP to operate your printer to tell it to use a specific dot pattern like a halftone pattern.

 

[easiprint]

You say you will be printing comic books, so does this mean you will be wanting to print double sided? If so, something else to consider with an inkjet printer would be, if you are using high ink coverage on 80gsm newsprint, will the paper be able to withstand that amount of ink on both sides?

 

[Calvin82]

It wouldn't be double sided.

What would be the best printer for a consistent block of colour and sharp edges?

 

[pauly92]

I dont know what to say really.
Get one of these or similar
http://www.epson.com.au/products/inkjet/artisan1430_Specs.asp?groupid=2
If you need more speed, buy a 2nd one.
If you use the OEM profliles you'll get consistent colour between the 2. or make your own.

make sure you use their oem papers too unless you want to make a profile for the paper you plan on using.

 

[Mark]

You'd probably be better off having a printer with an inexpensive digital press produce your books and save yourself the headaches of production.
If you don't have bleed you can have finished saddle stitched books coming off the press.