Printers is one shady topic.

Need some advice.

I want to print high quality photographs at various sizes for extended family. The close family will be using it like a business printer, making their collages and printing way to much a day...

So I am looking for something that can handle a workload, knocking out high quality prints at good sizes. I am making an assumption that I might be falling into the semi-professional category.

I am in hopes that someone might have some experience to lend. Maybe there printer is still working, good ink prices, ink accessibility. Printing home framed pictures and has the wife, children using it daily.

I can invest upwards to £$1000 but you better believe the higher the price goes I really don't want it breaking on me early which has been my experience with these inkjet cash and grabs.

Thank you kindly for reading this and suggesting any help!!

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ACMEPrinting t1_iwgprgg wrote on November 15, 2022 at 2:52 PM

Like u/stowgood alluded to, a dye-sub printer is absolutely the way to go here and in range budget wise...

Pros:

Longer Warranties(some 5 years)
Support
Simple(hardware/software)
Robust
Repairable
Faster
Better Quality(color)
Form Factor
Tried and true(commercial/residential)
Travel well
Workhorses
Withstand environmental changes
Set it and forget it
Low maintenance
Straightforward(easy to compare models)

Cons:

Limited features
Limited page sizes(kind of)
Limited media(kind of)
One trick pony
Upfront cost

You'll find them in labs, photo booths, kiosks, retail establishments etc. and made to take a beating. In a residential setting, should last a long time.

Just get one, it's your only option before making a very large investment or getting them printed by a 3rd party. They're basic and featureless which is what you want in a BIFL scenario(less crap to go wrong). No consumer grade inkjet or laser printer can touch them within your budget.

Great machines.

Ignore the Brother's, Selphys and Printoss's in this list(sort high to low and work down):

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Dye-Sub-Thermal-Printers/ci/1108

stowgood t1_iwg3zgc wrote on November 15, 2022 at 11:30 AM

Froknowsphoto is always banging on about some Canon printer that looks good you can look at YouTube. I've got a dye sub photobooth printer but it only goes up to 8x6 but it's fast and I quite like it.

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edcculus t1_iwgtltd wrote on November 15, 2022 at 3:19 PM

Honestly for high quality photos, I’d just take the file up to those kiosks in drug stores or Walmart.

Enough-Moose-5816 t1_iwhiqua wrote on November 15, 2022 at 6:05 PM

Yeah use the kiosk at UPS/FexEx, Walmart, or your local pharmacy. You need to print a lot of pictures in order to make a photo only home printer worthwhile.

daddylonglegsbne t1_iwhs0ax wrote on November 15, 2022 at 7:04 PM

I use dnp printers. They take.a beating and somehow survive. I have 4

WrenchMagnate t1_iwi37fx wrote on November 15, 2022 at 8:15 PM

From someone (me) in the printer business representing 6 brands: HP Pagewide. Great all-around solution.

Photo-Dude t1_iwk4uua wrote on November 16, 2022 at 5:38 AM

I can't give a good recommendation, but I can share my experience with a BIFL photo printer. It may help you find a solution that works for you or reevaluate having a home photo printer.

I've gotten around a decade and counting out of my circa-2010 Canon Pixma Pro 100 with light to moderate use. Canon used to give them away better-than-free after rebate with the purchase of professional and pro-sumer DLSR cameras. I have one on my work table and an extra one sitting in my closet that I've never needed to open.

They support wide(ish) format printing up to 13"x19" and offer good quality, borderless printing from an inkjet. They also have a flat feeding mechanism for printing on rigid surfaces. HOWEVER....

The ink has always crazy expensive, even by inkjet standards. It comes in tiny individual cartridges by color, but in addition to the standard CMYK it has photo cyan, photo magenta, red, and green. Even if you don't use them, they seem to dry up fairly quickly. Individually, they are ~$15 per cartridge, or slightly more than $100 if you buy a set. You can buy aftermarket ink, but the color isn't going to be accurate or long lasting.

These are going to be the big drawbacks to a home inkjet photo printer: color accuracy and ink costs.

In your case, you say that it is going to get high volume use for things other than fine art printing, but you're still going to be paying for photo quality ink. This is likely going to push your costs high enough that it might be more economical to buy a low cost-per-page laser or inkjet, and keep the photo printer only for fine art photos. Alternatively, you can get a ton of lab-printed medium and large format prints for the cost of a $1000 photo printer plus ink and paper.

At this point, I shoot commercially so my work gets published by my clients, but I never make my own prints. Even with the printer at home, on the rare occasions I need a print for personal work I send it to a good lab. Maybe things have changed since I was printing more frequently, but this has been my experience. Good luck!