Mixed photo and general printing

[davidedric]

Sorry - another printer thread.

I do photo printing, but also lots of general document printing, currently on a consumer-level Pixma iP4600

If I were to upgrade my printer to an A3 Epson, say, can that still be used for general printing, or would I need to keep/replace my existing printer?

If there is another thread that helps, please point me to it - I just couldn't find one.

Thanks,

Dave

[Shadowman]

The specifications should provide data on grayscale, text quality and speeds.

[rpcrowe]

I use two printers:

Canon Pixma 9000 Mk-II which I use for all my color images and also will use for the very occasional times in which I need a color print that is not image related...

Brother HL2270DW B&W Laser Printer which I use for the vast majority of my non-image related printing.

The advantages of the Brother HL2270DW is that it is quantum less expensive to operate and is far faster in printing than is any inkjet printer. In fact, a B&W text page costs me between $.01 and $.02 U.S.D. to print. The variance in the price depends on whether I am using OEM toner or a generic toner which appears to work equally well and the price of the paper on which I am printing. Of course, the amount of text would influence the final cost of my printing because of the amount of toner used.

The downsides to my two printer setup is that I can only print in B&W if I want to use the Brother and the footprint of the two printers is larger than a single printer.

However, B&W is sufficient for a majority of my printing needs, the Brother produces commendable quality text and I can afford the space for a pair of printers.

I could also calculate in the cost of purchasing my two printers. I got the Canon on sale at a remarkably good price right as Canon was introducing their new printer line and the Brother was on sale at Fry's Electronics at a very low price also.

The two printer setup suits my needs quite well and suits my wallet even better...

[Geoff F]

No problem, Dave. I have the A3 Epson R1900 which prints text (from my Serif software and Open Office) with no problems as well as photos.

Also handy sometimes for A3 text work. Or a mixture of text and photos like leaflets or publications with photos plus descriptions. There are a number of projects like that which I now produce.

The downside is that if you use original maker ink (Epson) for the best photo quality it works out more expensive for basic office type text work; as Richard mentioned.

You can use the better quality third party ink for photos without too much problems in most cases. But for high quality work on best quality paper I did notice a slight problem particularly with incorrect colours.

Or indeed, use two printers. Just make sure you know which is which on your computer before starting any print job.

[James G]

Like Richard I currently use two printers, a small A4 Epson all in one, printer/ scanner/ copier , and an Epson A3 (R3000) that I use for imaging.
Its a matter of history really, since before be both retired, my wife was a teacher and printed significant amounts of text.

If you have a general requirement for text printing, arguably having a cheap (£50-£70) A4 wireless printer with generic inks rather than vendor supplied, is probably more cost effective.

Now, we/I can get by with just the A3 printer. I suspect that when the A4 gives up the ghost, I will not quickly replace it.

James

[Donald]

I'm another that has just joined the 2-printer club.The Epson R3000 is exclusively for photographs and a, now, old HP5652 is for the reports, letters etc that I churn out.

I response to all the questions I was asking in preparing to purchase the Epson, I did read somewhere (probably on here) that using it for general document text work would be ridiculously expensive.