Beginner Printer & Paper recommendation
- Thread starter saul01
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- droj
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In the photographic printer arena the terms decent and budget are probably incompatible.
Sounds like you don't print much - yet you seem to want something that'll clutter your desk, possibly malfunction, and use expensive inks that'll fade faster than a lab print.
Upload your images to a lab - cheaper and better.
Sounds like you don't print much - yet you seem to want something that'll clutter your desk, possibly malfunction, and use expensive inks that'll fade faster than a lab print.
Upload your images to a lab - cheaper and better.
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- John 'Jack'
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Any printers will do just fine. Just go to shops like Curry's, PC World, Staples, etc., and look at the printers on display. Toy around with them, see how you like the position of the controls, how you load the paper, etc., So many examples being such as, do you like paper loading tray at the bottom of the printer? Do you like feeding paper at the back?
Person A would tell you Printer A is great, but Person B do work differently from Person A, so Person B would tell you Printer B is great. What if you happens to work differently from Person A and B, therefore Printers A and B are no good for you? Makes sense you should go to a shop and look at those printers. Or go to your friends and look at their printers.
As for paper, again, it all depends on what you do with the paper, there are different kind of paper suited to different kind of work.
Do you want to print only photos? Do you need to print letters? You have to take into allowance what you plan to print out.
By the way, you do not have to stick with one brand of paper, you can always start with one paper, then over time, when you run low and need more supply of paper, just switch to a different paper.
I would suggest HP printers, Epson printers, Canon printers, Brother printers, well, as far as I know, those are the big top name companies that are making printers (yes within your budge of £100, just find whatever models is under £100). I believe Samsung is getting into the game, anyone knows if Kodak is still making printers of have they stopped?
Oh the other hand, Droj is correct in suggesting sending your pics to an online printer, if you hardly print much. You could just save files to a USB memory stick and go to say Staples where they can print for you.
Person A would tell you Printer A is great, but Person B do work differently from Person A, so Person B would tell you Printer B is great. What if you happens to work differently from Person A and B, therefore Printers A and B are no good for you? Makes sense you should go to a shop and look at those printers. Or go to your friends and look at their printers.
As for paper, again, it all depends on what you do with the paper, there are different kind of paper suited to different kind of work.
Do you want to print only photos? Do you need to print letters? You have to take into allowance what you plan to print out.
By the way, you do not have to stick with one brand of paper, you can always start with one paper, then over time, when you run low and need more supply of paper, just switch to a different paper.
I would suggest HP printers, Epson printers, Canon printers, Brother printers, well, as far as I know, those are the big top name companies that are making printers (yes within your budge of £100, just find whatever models is under £100). I believe Samsung is getting into the game, anyone knows if Kodak is still making printers of have they stopped?
Oh the other hand, Droj is correct in suggesting sending your pics to an online printer, if you hardly print much. You could just save files to a USB memory stick and go to say Staples where they can print for you.
OP
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- Sohail
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I was looking into the Canon IP model's as they seem to be getting the best recommendations. Printer is mainly black & white prints for the odd letter and stuff the children need to print off. I was hoping to pair it up with being a half/decent photo printer as well. At the moment am not printing much tbh, but would like to change that as time goes on and my photography improves.
Can anyone recommend paper suitable for portraits? I prefer matt over shiny for this.
Can anyone recommend paper suitable for portraits? I prefer matt over shiny for this.
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- John 'Jack'
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Of course, you could just go for a Canon printer if you want to, and better just future-proof yourself by buying a proper inkjet printer, like you said, at the moment you're not printing much, but would like it to change as time goes on.
Beside, nowadays, inkjet printers can handle a wide range of work. Printers do not have to be designed to be specific machine for specific work, there's no need for a printer for photographs, printer for paper, and so on. Most printers can handle different papers, therefore could print B&W letter, colour charts, matt or gloss photographs, even with some paper, you could print your own T-shirt and fridge magnets, regardless of what printer you aim for.
A Canon IP series printer, sure, why not. If you want it, go for it. Canon do have some printers that are under £100, they even got an All-in-One WiFi printer for about half of the budget you aimed for, in Argos.
As for paper: You could just pick one, print some prints, see how you feel, if you don't like it, when you run out of paper, you can always chose to pick a different brand. The printers can handle change of paper brand. Even if Brand-X printer's manual advise you to buy Brand-X, it's just a marketing thing, there's nothing to stop you choosing to buy different brand.
Kodak papers or Ilford papers could be great, bear in mind those companies have been making photographic papers for years long before printing papers, so they got better experience. You could buy a lower number of sheets (say a pack of 20 sheets rather than a box of 100 sheets), and try them out, like I said, when you run out of paper, feel free to stick with the same paper if you like it, or try another paper.
HP and Epson do sell their own photo papers, but bear in mind, they're companies that specialist in making printers and electric goods (in HP's case, they make computers too), so how come they make paper too? Chances are they don't, chances are they buy paper from other company, and rebadge the paper as their own.
You could try for example Staples, they got plenty of their own paper as well as selling well known (ie Kodak) paper.
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At one stage I was thinking of getting a printer for occasional photo prints but in the end have opted for a laser printer for normal stuff and sending the pics to a lab. For printing at home you also need the screen and printer calibrate to print correctly.
I have gone with droj's suggestion of sending to a print lab.
OP
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Any recommendations? Or my local boots etc?
OP
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Any one given printer that you would recommend up to £100?
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- John 'Jack'
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What's wrong with Google or Amazon?
Online (lab) printing...
For sending your images off to be printed from a lab, no idea what to recommend, but try Google. In Google, try Online printing UK and see what they offer.
According to Google: www.print24.com/uk/ seems to have picked up a rating of 4.5 out of 5, from 458 reviews. or you could try www.digitalprinting.co.uk which seems to have picked up a rating of 4.8 out of 5. Oh there's www.snapfish.co.uk, I've heard of the name being mentioned somewhere around the Internet.
I've only used a service like that only once some years ago. I copied the image file to a USB memory stick, went to the nearest Staples superstore, and had them printed the image file in a very large poster size, something like I think A2 or A1 size, and as far as I can tell, looks fine to me. But actually it was a birthday present for a friend of mine, a joke movie poster of him being a film star in a WWII theme movie, and he like it.
Boots do have some self-service machines where you can do your own printing from a USB memory stick, memory card, or even a CD-R, but they're just about okay for snapshots and family album. I wouldn't use them for serious graphic design work.
Recommendations for a printer...
You could try Amazon.co.uk
According to Amazon, there are some Canon printers that can be found under £100:
PIXMA MG3550 Black All-in-One (Print, Scan, Copy, WiFi, AirPrint) for £39.99 (original price £69.99)
PIXMA MG6650 Black All-in-One WiFi printer, £74.99
PIXMA MG2450 White All-in-One £27
PIXMA iP2850 White, £33.65
The problem is that, there are so many, and most of them are just about similar to each other, hardly worth recommending one printer over other. What if some would recommend "one given printer" which you later find is not suitable for you?
Would be a lot more easier and safer if you were to look at those printers yourself, consider your options like do you want them black or white, do you want printer only or All-in-One, do you want paper loaded at front or at back.
Make a shortlist, a list of say 3 or 4 or whatever, printers you are interested in, list them here.
A lot easier if any of us would give you heads up warning, like "Hey, this printer there on your list, don't buy it, it's rubbish. The others on your list are good printers, they'll do fine."
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Hi
My work colleague send them off for me when he sends his ones, I will get the website for you when back was work.
Thanks
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- David
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I use DSCL and they give excellent service. Search google and their web site can be found
ChrisR
I'm a well known grump...
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Saul, I started a thread about printing black and white on a consumer (Canon) printer. Mine does excellent colour A4 prints, but for black and white there are colour casts, which vary from a reasonable slight magenta to a fairly horrid yellow-green. I have not found any good answers; the general approach seems to be: for black and white, buy a "proper" printer (one with several grey/light black inks). The alternative is to experiment with papers and profiles till you get a reasonable print. For my purposes, these prints are OK, and if I want a better one I'll try an external printer service (fancy DSCL, have used Peak Imaging once, nice job but expensive).
Why are so many people suggesting using a lab when the OP has asked for this. DSCL aren't going to print your kids homework for you!
It's also a bit worrying how many times I see people asking for printer recommendations to be told "use a lab". You don't ask for car recommendations and get told "use a bus". If someone's asking for a printer, they're asking for a printer.
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Because in post 7 he asked for recommendations for a lab?
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- Clint
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I can confirm what the others have said. Cheaper to send off for prints rather than print at home. Every year I put in £60 worth of ink but hardly print. The bloody cartridges allow the ink to evaporate! My New Years resolution is to start printing every month. 
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- Richard
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We use a cheap wireless HP3050 printer in the house which anyone can print to from their computer or iPad or whatever. Cost £34 from Currys at the time. Colour and definition are better than needed for schoolwork, and good enough for a lot of professional letters with embedded photos. But yes: you can get more expensive printers that generate better images.
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There's a few recommendations for DSCL photo labs but I can't say I'm to impressed, I sent for 5 test prints 6x4 @10p each and was charged £3.69 p&p after a week no prints delivered. Phoned them up and was told I would have to wait 10 working days before they would send me replacement prints. For a small order at £4.19 so I can check print quality before placing an order for enlargement prints this is very poor service and inconvenient as I want them before xmas. It doesn't fill me with confidence to make a large order with this company..
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- droj
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Actually, if you asked me for a car recommendation, I'd ask if you'd considered ... well, you said it.
The best thing for documents is probably a mono laser printer. I'm not going to bother to back that up, you can do your own cost and energy (environmental) audit. Nobody needs coloured pie charts ...
It's a consumer society, in which most photography is an indulgence. The culture tends to be 'if I can afford it, it must be right'. Individual lives and the long-term future of human life on Earth are a bit deeper than that.
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- Mark
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If you are buying a printer, check it will handle photo paper, I have a HP deskjet F4580 which is OK for standard photocopy paper . This printer feeds from a tray at the front and the paper is bent back on its self and comes out the front . But if I use photo paper the rollers will not drive the thicker paper through the machine and the print is ruined.