mike1210

Bit of a predicament here

I have someone who wants a printer for printing notes/documents and photos, they want ace quality on A4. I'll put my hands up here and say whilist I've set up several printers, I've never printed off photos on a colour laser. Photos may be the priority here but they will also be printing a lot of notes.

My understanding here is that a colour laser won't be able to match the likes of a HP photosmart printer for printing photos on HP's own glossy paper, but may be better and cheaper in for long run for prining vast amounts of documents/notes. Or am I talking rubbish

Am I right here in saying for these 2 things either one would be a compromise,

* laser is quicker and better for notes but worse for photos
* inkjet would be be great for photos but slower and more costly for notes

also anyone care to fire off some recommendations

so far i have:

for photos:

HP Photosmart D7360 for photos

Colour Lasers

Dell 3010cn - colour laser
Lexmark C534dn (dont think this supports glossy paper)

Cost not a major issue but less than £500 may be a guideline

AllanB

Thats pretty much right. DO bear in mind though that Lexmark and HP whilst OK do not make the best colour lasers for image quality. I think you need to look at Xerox for that who swalled up the highly regarded Tektronix a few years ago. Konica Minolta are alos up there two.

If you do want inmage quality, speed and a lower cost per page that inkjet then yu should look the Xerox 8500 range. I think you sghould be able to request a print sample via the Xerox website.

Xerox Phaser 8500N from MacWarehouse


AllanB

mart360

Ive got three Phasers from work when i left...

one went for spares, the other is a spares/ test... and the third is ok,

if you go down the Phaser route, get the duplex option...

double sided colour prints are very good

i ran the printer in standard mode... prints were grainy and akin to a inkjet on the wrong resoloution.....

when i swiched to the hi res photo setting the results were superb...

not cheap to run, but good A4 prints every time... and it can run the pantone set, and you can tweak the prints so that what you see on your screen is the same as on your print...


if i recall i got the 8500 models

a search of fleabay can pick then up v cheap!!!!

mind you they are very very very heavy!!!!!!



Mart

spectrum48k

Also avoid the cheaper HP colour laser jets like the 2600N series

We've had one and it was rubbish - especially its pdf printing support. We replaced it with a Lexmark, and its been spot-on. Used for printing company letterheads and such, Pin sharp compared to our inkjet printer, although as you state, the inkjet prints onto glossy media for photos, etc...