I was in the same boat a few weeks ago. a quote for 10 copies was about $410. if I came in with 10 copies, cutting and binding (wiro) would come out to about $35.

I wound up getting the canon i9900...up to 13x19 borderless (though I doubt I'll use the borderless feature much - it wastes ink) $400 for the printer, ink tanks are only about $9 a pop online (much cheaper if you go generic), and from the reviews I read, the canon doesn't have the printhead clogging problems that seem to plauge alot of the similarly - priced epsons.

it's worked out pretty well. the printer + the 50 lb matte from redriver paper ($14 for 50 sheets) produces much better looking results than the best printshops I've used, and while it'll total slightly more than a printshop, the results are better, and I've got a kickass printer for all the small format stuff I need from here on out.

HTH

I was hoping for soming more around the 200 dollar range, a 13x19 would be nice but not sure I can afford it. But I guess I'll have to pay it either way you look at it.

you could probably find a good smaller format printer for that...I just went for the larger one because it will come in handy + save money in the future. I figured that if I was going to spend the money, I might as well spend a little more and get something more useful/versitile (there have been many times I've been frustrated with printshops and really wanted an 11x17 printer)

epson and canon seem to be making the best inkjets at the moment. be sure to look into ink costs, replacement printhead costs, how thick of a paper it can handle, and resolution. some printers claim crazy high resolutions for photos, but then the fine print lists something more restricted for black. keep an eye out.

Does it make a difference in the printouts if the resoultion is set at 300 rather than say 200 or 150 just curious. Just an issue of file size which doesn't matter my computer handles it alright but if it doesn't make a difference than smaller files are always easier

Is 299 a good deal on the Epson 1280?

yeah, but it's pretty old. Gotta be pushing a few years now.

Don't get the 11x17 unless you need it, as you pay a huge premium for the printer. Canon's got the best large format printer for the cheapest ($500). Epson's new one got great reviews, but it's $730.

I believe Epson and Canon both make superb printers for less than $300. If that's too much, consider a refurbished one. I bought an Espon Photo 960 for about 30% off and it's essentially brand new. I've been printing on it almost daily for a year now, no troubles.

ah, yeah, it's that Canon i9900 that manamana mentioned - $400 seems pretty good.

Personally, I stick with Epson just because I have had so many and are familiar with them, but you can't go wrong with either. Go to PCMag and CNET to read reviews (just make sure they were done in the last 6 months - like the 1280 will have gotten good reviews, but they'll be years old).

Any insight on the epson stylus photo r340? Its more affordable at around 200.00. I only need to do 8.5x11, but I do need to do double sided how possible is it to do that accurately?

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i've been looking at the hp 1200d (MSRP $200) for double sided. i don't need 11x17, but 8.5x11 doublesided accurately would be nice. i know the hp's aren't as good but i figured the ink consumption is less. we have a really great epson pro 4000 at the office but it's voracious for ink.

they have some automatic duplexing for the hp which i liked. you have to use two-sided paper though. and i have no idea if it's accurate (which is really important for me and i'm assuming you as well). i might take the plunge this weekend and will report back if i do.

The double sided printing has to be accurate but I don't know of anyone who has experimented with this. Do some printers such as the one you mention have a feature that supports printing double sided.

I was down to the 1280 vs the i9900. the i9900 had enough advantages (speed, quality, ink cost) that I thought it was worth the extra $100.

regarding resolution - you'll have to experiment. I certainly wouldn't ever use less than 250 DPI for images if I could help it (should be well within the capability of any decent inkjet). I generally set indesign to resample down to 350 for color images on pdf export.

my last printer had a duplexer on it (hp 970), it was great for sheets of text and research papers, but it would choke on thicker art/photo papers and anything with tons of ink on it. I'd find some reviews on that epson to see if anybody's had problems with the duplexer.

I personally wouldn't use an inkjet with a duplexer for anything serious - it isn't that hard to hit the "print odd pages only" button, print, put the stack back in, and then run it again on "print even pages only"

I just googled the 340. It looks like a good printer, but it seems like you'd be paying extra for that preview LCD, which IMO seems about worthless - it's for people who want to print straight off a camera w/no computer involved. From the press release:

"The EPSON Stylus Photo R340 is a full-featured, versatile, PC-free printer that offers the same outstanding photo quality and convenient CD/DVD printing as the Epson Stylus Photo R220. What sets this printer apart is its high-quality 2.4” LCD preview monitor, which enables customers to select, crop and print favorite photos in full color without ever having to turn on a computer."

I also don't see anything about automatic double sided printing?

maybe you should look at the R220 - it's cheaper and it looks like it will do the same job.

Yeah, I was sort of thinking the same thing, but I haven't seen any printers that mention anything about double sided printing

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there's an inkjet that can print double sided? hmmmm

hp1200d, as i mentioned, claims to do it. but i don't know how the mechanism actually works or how accurate it is...

from hp's website " Reduce document bulk and save paper with the automatic two-sided printing unit"

I believe the inkjets that can do double sided have a tray and pass-through feed. The paper originates in the tray, gets printed on, and is then fed backwards through the pass-through, back into the tray (so now its essentially been flipped over), and then the printing for the second side starts. Not too sure on this though...

Pixelwhore - that's basically what my HP970 does. problem is, if you have anything with significant ink volume on it, you have to futz with the settings to give it time to dry before winding it back through the mechanism, which can smear it.

like I said, it's great for papers with mostly text, much beyond that it isn't worth the hassel (at least on the model I have)

on a "manamana is irritated" note:

amazon dropped their price on the 9900. it's now $381 shipped. of course that would happen less than a week after I bought it.

I want $20 back :angry;