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11x17 printers-home office-help!

urbanaa

looking for input in purchasing a large-format 11x17 printer for architectural home office use. need it for line drawings as well as portfolio printing. please give me your feedback on:

-epson stylus 1400 (i know this will do the best color images, but worried about b/w line dwgs and ink consumption/costs for b/w)

-hp K8600 (concerned that photo prints will not be sharp, think b/w will look better then epson's b/w, also ink consumption seems to be lower then epson, prices are better, also)

-canon PIXMA Pro9000 (don't know anyone who uses this)

thanks in advance.

 
Jan 4, 09 7:05 pm
MArch n' unemployed

epson everyday and twice on sunday

Jan 4, 09 7:52 pm  · 
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cln1

I have the Epson R1800 and it is amazing!

Jan 4, 09 8:18 pm  · 
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urbanaa

i too, am an unemployed march...fwiw...

-how do you find the line quailty of PDFS printed to your epson??
-why the R1800 vs the 1400??

thanks..

Jan 4, 09 8:35 pm  · 
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MArch n' unemployed

i have the 1280 and i've had it for 5 years and i still love the print quality. i can print .07 stroke lines from illustrator no problem.

Jan 4, 09 9:03 pm  · 
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urbanaa

i have the 870, it's 10 years old and now really dead. loved it, though.

i think i am going to go with the 1400 since i can't find the 1900 locally and want the extended warranty from a store.

will let you know how it goes.

thanks.

Jan 4, 09 9:08 pm  · 
 · 
binary

hp deskjet 9800

Jan 4, 09 9:21 pm  · 
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blah

The cost of cartridges will kill ya'

I'd go laser and black and white.

Jan 5, 09 2:11 am  · 
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urbanaa

why the hp9800 instead of the 8600?? what is the difference to you as a user?

tia again...

Jan 5, 09 10:14 am  · 
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narmer

I would definitely recommend Epson for your color oversize. It gets expensive if you do a lot of prints though. I also found printing drawing sets on an 11x17 inkjet to be very time consuming as well.
I do mass amounts of 11x17 b&w drawings, so I bought a used HP 11x17 B&W laser from pcretro.com and its been fast and reliable to date.

Jan 5, 09 12:53 pm  · 
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etiennecoutu

for PIXMA Pro9000

I used this printer for large renderings. Once you get through calibration tests, and have all 7 colors carthridges full, the results are impressive.

The carthridges cost about 50 $ for the C, M, Y and Photo Bk altogether, then the other Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta, Red and Green cost about 30 $ each and are harder to find.

You need photo paper of course to get the best results, and quality is pricey...

I haven't tried B/W plans, but I guess a 600$ printer must have results.

I'd say, find a second hand HP laser printer 11X17 for plans. The only thing is their big physical size.



Jan 5, 09 1:32 pm  · 
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binary

i dont print much on my 9800... but the few color prints i did came out nice.... plus i cn print 13x19 i think....

b

Jan 5, 09 6:06 pm  · 
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urbanaa

ok, so despite all of the epson love, i went with the hp...in the end the ink usage and costs seemed more feasible to me as i am on a tight (archi-poor, as i like to say) budget.

i can't afford to buy 2 printers at this time, but will upgrade to the b/w 11x17 printer and a separate epson color photo in the distant future.

i will post back about the hp...thanks again, all.

Jan 6, 09 12:15 pm  · 
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innes

i bought an HP deskjet 9800 a couple of months ago - last year's model - at staples for $150 (floor model). it's awesome for printing renderings, photos and drawings. it's very fast as well. not sure about the new model that's replaced the 9800.

Jan 6, 09 12:52 pm  · 
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legeuse

epson r1800 will set you back some on cartridges (about £13 a piece currently here in london) but will never fail in quality. plus having 8 rather than 3/4 cartridges (parallel rgb/cmyk sets plus a "gloss optimizer") has in my 2 1/2 year experience paid off as it consumes more "specifically", so to speak..

Jan 6, 09 12:58 pm  · 
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crave

I have an HP deskjet 9650 that I bought about 4 years ago so I could print true half size sets (12X18) and I even found 12X18 velum to print on. To this day, I still haven't been able to figure it out...cuts off titleblock, not centered, you name it, wtf? I'm printing from autocad...any help? thanks!

Jan 6, 09 4:03 pm  · 
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surface

I just used a canon i9900 (not sure if this is the most recent model in this line of printers, or if it's older - I borrowed a friend's.) I liked the colors - pinks and yellows came out sort of glowing neon. I realize this would be a problem for some people, but I liked it. I would buy one, but there is apparently no driver for OSX.

Jan 6, 09 5:57 pm  · 
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