Thinking of buying a new Printer?

One of the constant questions we get asked here atThere are two different types of photo printers, Canon
Stinkyink towers is 'I'm thinking of buying a new printer,,Samsung and Kodak produce 4 x 6? photo printers,
what do you recommend?' I believethat we can givewhich use a ribbon technique calleddye sublimation
an honest opinion on this as we don't sell printers - justprinting. These produce a very high quality print which is
the consumables, and we have loads of printers hereequivalent to or better than that produced by traditional
to feed! These areall personal opinions and in no waysilver halidephoto processing in shops etc, the
are intended to denigrate or damage anybody'sdrawback is that you are limited to the sizes that you
reputation.can print and it can also be expensive.
This is not an easy question to answer because thereYour other option is an inkjet printer. To be able to print
are so many options out there, so before we can starthigh quality photos you must have at least six colours
to answer your question we need toask you someavailable, and some of the top endprinters now use up
questions.to 10 different colour cartridges. Using these inks and
What will you use the printer for, is it:good quality inkjet photo paper, the output you can
Purely for home use, kids homework etc. For printingachieve isbreathtaking and in many cases better than
high quality photos For small office use - mainlytraditional methods of outputting photos. Which one to
documents, but with some requirement for colour Forchoose is a really difficult question andprobably
office or business use - high speed documentsrevolves more around your personal preferences and
1. For home usethe thickness of your wallet than anything else. My
Needs to be easy to use and low cost to run, so thatown personal preference is forthe new Canon Pixma
you can afford to print off those school projects andprinters, results achieved with their new Chromalife 100
loads of web page information withouthaving to takeinks are stunning, the inks are guaranteed for up to 100
out a second mortgage. DO NOT BUY HP, Lexmarkyears
or Dell. These manufacturers all use an ink cartridge(with some caveats!) and they are using
with a built in print head,but also use a method whichsemiconductor manufacturing technology for the print
puts three different colours all in one cartridge - whenheads which enables the printers to producesuperb
one colour is run out the cartridge is finished. Epson,output every time.
Canonand Brother all use a technology where the printFinally number 4, office use.
head is built into the printer, so as you finish one colourWith the advent of Colour Laser printers for under
you just replace that ink tank - a muchcheaper option£200 there is no argument - go for a colour laser.
immediately. These days, I would recommend lookingThese days they are small footprint,
for a Multi-Function device, that is a printer that is alsousuallynetworkable and the toner used is a Chemical
a scanner, copierand printer all in one. Basically onetoner which will give outstanding results. They will print
machine will print documents from your PC, but willfaster than an inkjet printer, the cost perpage is less
also allow you to scan documents back into the PCthan an inkjet printer and they are much more robust
againand Photo Copy documents whenever you needthan an inkjet printer. We also offer compatible toner
them. All of the major manufacturers offer thesecartridges for a largerange of laser toners, so the
types of machines so costs are very competitive,therunning costs are significantly reduced. The biggest
thing you need to know is the cost of owning andissue we found using these printers here at Stinkyink
using them.Towerswas they were a bit fussy about the quality of
When you start looking at the cost of ink cartridgesthe paper we were putting through them. We can't get
the immediate thing that jumps out is the priceaway with the very cheapest 80gsm copierpaper, but
differential between original and compatible orrefilledstill use an 80gsm laserjet paper which goes through all
cartridges. For home use the compatible/refilledof our machines very happily and causes us no
cartridges are more than adequate for purpose.problems at all. If you canafford it look at the
Compatible cartridges aremanufactured by third partyMulti-Function machines, again up to 4 applications in
manufacturers and are generally significantly cheaperone small(ish) footprint. We have an HP MFP(Multi
than the Manufacturers original cartridges.Function Printer)which includes a fax, Network printer,
So, we need a Multi-Function printer, made by Epson,scanner and copier all in one machine and is
Canon or Brother and we now get down to personalreasonable to run
preference. For ease of use and easeavailability ofIn summary then, for home/small office use get hold of
competitively priced ink cartridges, I personallya Brother Multi Function inkjet printer, cheap and easy
recommend Brother products - my daughter atto use and run. For High Quality
University has one and is delightedwith the results.Photo Printing you won't go far wrong with one of the
This also fulfills the requirements for No 3 - Smallnew Canon Pixma Photo printers and finally for Office
office/Home office use; one device in a small footprintuse a colour laser or MFP device
which will fulfill three requirements - onceagain BrotherI hope that this distillation of our collective wisdom is of
wins out in my opinion.use, if you need any more information please feel free
So I have covered options 1 and 3 above, nextto give us a call.
number 2 photo printing;