Large Format Printer

[dougfrolich]

I want to buy a printer for my home office. I would like it to be roll fed and handle 24" width min. and handle ANSI D Size sheets as well. What is the best buy. I am thinking HP110Plus.

Thanks for any advice.

Doug

[Man Overboard]

Doug,

What are you using the printer for? Are you printing boat plans, renderings? Is it just general purpose? Do you plan on printing high quality photos? Do you know if you need a die based, or a pigment based printer?

[dougfrolich]

Plans from AutoCad,no high quality photos.
Thanks,
Doug

[Man Overboard]

Doug

I noticed that the printer has a DPI rating of 1200 x 600. When looking at printer DPI ratings, It is most accurate to consider the smallest number in the DPI rating, as it is a more accurate representation of the print quality. I’m not sure 600dpi will give you nice sharp lines, and if you are going to print out renderings, then they will certainly look crisper with a dpi of more like 1200. If you have a smaller inkjet that you are using now, you could go into your print driver and set the DPI to 600 and see if that print resolution is satisfactory. HP makes great machines. I myself use a 44” wide Epson, primo, expensive. If you are going to do so much printing that you need a roll fed printer, pay real close attention to the cost of the ink cartridges. (Cost of ink per ml). You can pay as much for ink as you do for the printer in a real short period of time. You might want to make certain you can print with black ink only. Some printers use all colors to print black, even though they have a black cartridge. Usually the black ink is less expensive. Die based ink is less expensive, but it will begin to fade in as little as 3 months. It looks as though the printer you are considering prints with dye for colors, and pigment for the black. It is a little confusing. Epson uses a proprietary ink droplet system, that may yield better results than the average 600 x 1200 printer, but I would see if they can send you a sample of a cad drawing to see if it is what you expect. I notice they are advertising it as a CAD capable printer, but you know marketing departments. I hope this helps.

[dougfrolich]

Tom,

Thank you for your response, great info!! I am glad I havent moved on the HP yet.

Thank again

Doug

[Thin water]

If it is a true 600 DPI printer it will make very good fine line and letter detail. Some printers are only 300 DPI and overlap the 300 DPI "dots" 50% to get the 600 DPI claim. Any ink spatter will greately reduce the clarity of the final image. True 600 DPI and finer has such small droplets they don't spatter on impact with the paper. I have had high end Epsom and HP printers. The Epsoms looked the best for pictures but I gave my last one away because I could not afford the ink it drank. The HP's seem to run forever using the black only mode for line drawings and text. I used to own an offset printing/typesetting/letterpress/etc.... business.

JIM

[raider]

I have a 10 year old HP DesignJet 330 which is a D size monochrome inkjet plotter...

It works very well at only 300dpi for typical drawings and plans.

I have had it for 6 years (bought it used) and will continue to use it as long as it lasts.

I bought it from a certified HP service center in Houston for a fraction of the cost of a new one.

pdv

[MikeJohns]

I have a 600 DPI Epson and a Canon. The canon cartridge costs $50 and can be re-charged for about $10. The HP designjets can often be picked up cheaply on ebay, the older ones are cheap to re-fill the cartridges.

I rarely plot anything over A2 but these days.

The continuous rolls are expensive and specialised, it works out cheaper to buy the pre-cut from a discount office supplies here.

hope this helps

[Jeff]

I still have my old Designjet 750C+ from 10 years ago; it's only 600 dpi black / 300 dpi color, but I have no complaint about the line quality from 600 dpi black. (photos/renderings printed on it look terrible by today's standards and the color (CMY) dye inks fade or color shift in months if exposed to sun rather than decades as with pigment ink, but lines and curves printed at 600 dpi in black look fine to my eye and I will not upgrade any time soon for printing line drawings.)

[dougfrolich]

I just orderd the HP110 Plus I should get it in a couple of days I'll let you know how it works.

[bntii]

Still using an old E size Hp pen plotter.

Works like a charm for the drafting work I do in Autocad.