What is the best business card printer?
Business card printer
Which printer for greetings card business?
print design - What type of printer do you recommend for printing greeting cards? - Graphic Design Stack Exchange
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I want to start a business card printing business, but I don't know what would be the best machine (quality X cost X benefit) to start the business at home. I accept suggestions and references.
I'm a huge fan of the Epson printers but the printer you have chosen would seem ideal for photos. You would get better prints since it is 6 colors (CMYK LC LM) though if that is the route you want. As a recommendation there are a couple of options:
Epson Artisan 1430 Inkjet Printer
I've used an Epson WorkForce 1100 Inkjet Printer that is converted over to platemaker and have had fantastic results with my plates. Before I converted it fully to a plate maker I would run small business cards but that was at an 80lb. card stock and some suggest no less than 100lb. for invitations. Since the 1100 is disconnected they do suggest the Artisan 1430 now.
Canon PIXMA PRO-100
The next printer I've heard good reviews about on a few forums but I've never used one so I will search for the articles on the Canon PIXMA PRO. This was the article: "Question: What is the best printer to print invitations?". After a search I added for the current model but you might find the reviews helpful: "Best Printer For Invitations and Cards of 2014"
Beyond
If those two dont help and you want to go full throttle you could always browse machineseeker for used machines.
A couple of notes:
I debated getting into printing at home but after looking at the overheard for machines I did not see a cost effective route so I would suggest before you make the jump get some price quotes because you can find it will cost you more than just simply sub-contracting out the work.
If you decide you are getting a printer I would HIGHLY recommend you calibrate you printer, monitor and computer with something like the i1Display Pro. X-rite is the manufacture and they do make cheaper alternatives but for what you are doing I would not suggest getting anything other than the i1Display Pro.
Like most printing you will need a cutter... dont scrimp and get a cheap manual that does roughly 15 sheets because you will find around the last 5 are off. Get a good mid level one such as the Spartan 150 SA.
If neither the printers work for you, make sure you get a rear feed printer since it is better on the card stock.
Keep in mind the humidity and the temperature you are printing in. Paper tends to absorb moisture so if you feed paper through a laser printer it causes a curl on the ends when completed.
Please note unless you plan on spending top dollar or have a large amount of time on your hands it will not be cost effective to get into printing yourself. The market is very saturated and very competitive and the margins for profit are slim to none. I would suggest for you to find a good quality printer if you are talking about a couple of small runs a month. Every printer should provide samples so critique them with a fine tooth comb. DO NOT get the prints mailed to your client, get them mailed to you for review and look at every order.
The problem with the inkjet is the cost of the ink and paper. They're also usually very slow, need time to dry and hardly do any duplex (2-sides printing automatically.)
If you need to do a lot of printing, with very bright sharp colors, on pretty much any type of stock up to 100lbs, coated or uncoated or silk or textured, you could have a look at the Xerox Phaser. The stock you can use with these printers is not specific to them unlike most inkjet; you can go at a print shop or order paper from Unisource and it will work most of the time! So that's another huge saving. What I like with them is that you can really try different papers and create tons of original results.
They use a dry ink technology that cooks the ink so the finish is always a bit shinny, is dry as it comes out of the printer, some can do duplex, they're very fast, and depending on the model you choose, the cost per/sheet is worth the investment. They also do full bleed and if you mean 11x17 or 12x18 as large formats, some offer this yes. The paper curls less than with a laser printer. And if the paper curls a lot anyway, that's usually because it's too thin! It's not really an issue I've seen on Phaser or any Xerox.
They are really a better option than any inkjet or laser printer you'll find on the market. They also have a pretty good postscript driver and lot of features to easily calibrate it or create different profiles. I've worked with Xerox for years and if they're well maintained, they awesome machines. If you want something environmentally friendly, it's also a good choice.
The colors won't fade, the print surface is very resistant and if you use the high quality setting it will even look a bit like having a glossy varnish.
By the way, the technology of the Phaser is almost the same as the commercial Xerox DocuColor that is commonly used by print shops. If you like that result, that's what you'll get with the Phaser too or any Xerox dry ink printer.
Yes the price is a bit more expensive than average color printers or inkjet, but the trap with inkjet is that you'll spend a lot of money buying inks and the specific papers anyway. When you start investing above $600-800 with the Xerox, you're starting to have something very good for productivity.
You can have a look at the Xerox, and see what could be a good fit for you:
http://www.office.xerox.com/digital-printing-equipment/printers/enus.html
As for Epson Stylus, they're very good as well but inkjet for production isn't recommended. These printers are better for proofing or for a photography studio, for example.
I cannot speak to your specific requirement, but can tell you that I have a Canon Large Format photo printer that I have used at home to print on heavy stock material, and it works great.
I would probably go the ink-jet route, as a laser really needs to melt the toner into the paper, and cardstock is just too thick to do that easily.
It may be worth talking with your card stock supplier to see if they have any specific recommendations of printer models.
I would probably see if I could get a hold of someone from Canon personally, but am sure that other vendors likely support this ecosystem as well. I’ve just been impressed with their plotters, and their large format printers; but you have a much different need.
Anyway, just offing my 2 cents.
I’m looking for a desktop printer (or MFP, I don’t care) that will be ABSOLUTELY ROCK SOLID printing on custom sized cards (6.25 x 9 inches) on roughly 80 # card, printing to it from MS Word on Windows 11. It is imperative that the print quality is high, and no “ghosting”.
EDIT: We would prefer it be color, but it will primarily be printing text in black and white.
Because the paper is a custom size, it probably needs a manual feed tray.
My pain point is laser printers and/or copiers constantly ghosting because they, despite being told we are printing on HEAVY / CARDSTOCK paper, are apparently not heating sufficiently to completely fuse the toner to the paper.
I have on hand multiple printers that USED TO work perfectly for this task, but only from old versions of Windows that had printer specific drivers instead of universal printer drivers. Universal print drivers seem to ignore paper type settings, and I think that’s a LOT of our problem.
I’m wondering if a laser printer is the best option, or if a nicer inkjet might be a better option. Quantities are low, so I’m not to concerned with consumable cost. We just need it to WORK.
I do know how to use Google, so I don’t need anyone to Google this for me…I would like to specifically hear from people who support printers used regularly for cardstock. I’m back on a problem I had five years ago that was solved when our copy company helped us do this from a Canon copier that we leased. Unfortunately, that lease ended, and the new copier (Ricoh) can’t seem to print cardstock without ghosting. We are pushing them to resolve that, but meanwhile, I’m looking for a printer for the users office so she doesn’t have to wait on the copier company (I’m being directed to do this by the boss, so here we are).
Any advise from those who’ve been there, done that? Preferably recently, as it seems many machines that used to work fine no longer have current drivers that work for this.