Recommendations for High Volume Color Laser Printers? 96
dughutch asks: "My church currently uses a small business color laser printer (Minolta 2200), but alas, it can not handle the load of our growing congregation. We are looking at buying a higher volume color laser printer and I wanted to ask the Slashdot readers for any and all information on possible solutions relating to this question, including, but not limited to: cost, volume, repairs, and outsourcing?"
Why ask Slashdot? (Score:2, Funny)
*grin*
Re:Why ask Slashdot? (Score:2, Funny)
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a color laser printer.
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a mercedes benz.
Re:Why ask Slashdot? (Score:1)
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/janisjoplin/merc
Geesh, even the guy who I replied to was more of a troll than this. Oh-well. All you Non-Janis lovin' folks. Go learn ya some real music.
Re:Why ask Slashdot? tsarkon reports : NOT FUNNY (Score:1)
She was part of an era of artists who were rarely sober. Some things haven't changed since then. I do not condone such behavior, but the music is a lot of fun.
Then, if you look at the original post that I was replying to:
Why dont you send a prayer and god will give you advice - or even a color laser printer!
The song fits in quite well. Whether you like Janis or not, its an appropriate post.
Perhaps you need to read something a little more
Does it need to be laser? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Does it need to be laser? (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless ofcourse you don't mind paying through the nose for ink.
Answer to original poster. (Score:3, Informative)
It sounds like your printer -almost- handles the load but falls just a little short. Simple - add another identical printer and have both printers service the same print queue. You are already experienced with that particular printer, no need to modify anything on the client side, you already have a stock of toner cartridges.
Actually I am thinking about the way
Re:Answer to original poster. (Score:1)
Thanks for the response.
You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:5, Informative)
Remember, high volume, is not only that it prints fast. High volume is that it can print a lot of papers without breaking down. We've got several HP's at work that print relatively quickly, but if you print more then say 40K pages a month to them, they breakdown and need a lot of tender loving care to get them to run again. We have an nearly identical printer that prints at the same pages per minute rate, but it's rated to print 150K pages a month.
If he needs something that can print 10,000 pages without a break, that's different then he needs 86,400 pages to be printed in a day.
Kirby
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:3, Informative)
The only thing I would say about it is that if it isn't used continuously it goes into a cool down cycle that makes waiting for the warm-up on first document of the day tedious.
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:2)
I'd also echo the comments above to look into a print house to do any of your medium and large volume printing. You should find your per-page costs lower than printing
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:2, Interesting)
Also there is good support from HP for the 8550 for open source printing systems. It is also capable of directly printing pdf's
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:2)
HP 4600 series (Score:1)
As a bonus, it duplexes, so you don't have to re-load your bulletins to do the other side.
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:1)
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:1)
Add to that 10gigs of HDD inside standard for that model, and not a bad idea for any network printer.
5500 can also print on A3 sized papers, duplex.
OTOH, print quality is better on Epson, but comparable model is much more expensive if you go with that.
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:2)
Re:You're barking up the wrong tree (Score:1)
The price? Nicely configured at $4200 (starts at $3500).
I have seen the output from the 7300/7700/6200, and it is very impressive. Xerox is really leading the pack in desktop laser color printing right now.
ah, crap (Score:2, Funny)
then I saw the word "Printer" on the end.
Can you define "high volume" (Score:4, Insightful)
500 flyers for the sunday service each week
or
10,000 11x17 double-sided brochures every week.
Do you have any special requirements?
Must print on paper type ______.
Must handle these sizes?
Doublesided printing in single pass?
Do you care: postscript/PCL?
A little more info would be helpful.
Re:Can you define "high volume" (Score:4, Interesting)
Professional Printers? (Score:5, Informative)
I think you'd probably have a lot less hassle with that route than with trying to find, purchase, install and support a color laser printer.
Re:Anyhow... (Score:2)
In fact, I am unhappy with it because it is so full of shit. As, indeed, are you.
Re:Anyhow... (Score:2)
Did this come completely out of the blue or what?
Re:Anyhow... (Score:2)
Re:Anyhow... (Score:1)
s/religionists/slashbots/
Sometimes black and white works. Such as my church is fairly small. Infact, my wife and I are the ones who donated the printer to our church. My wife does the bulletins and I do the audio recording for our church.
Now, perhaps if we wanted we could have decided what we wanted to donate. We did look into some color lasers before, and our research took us to xerox's site (mainly we w
Re:Anyhow... (Score:2)
In fact when I said someone might donate a B&W printer, I had in mind a used one. I gather from your post that you bought one for your church specially.
What I was suggesting is that perhaps people like you should donate the money to a truly worthy cause
e.g. feeding the hungry
instead of a less worthy one
e.g. having colour photos in the parish magazine.
Re:Anyhow... (Score:1)
Your basic assumption that a church should survive on bread and water alone is quite foolish. I suppose that you would also say that a church softball league is just a silly expenditure not helping the poor or needy. However, it als
Re:Anyhow... (Score:1, Flamebait)
ROTFLMAO.
You, on the other hand, fail to see that the church is interested in furthering it's own needs before those of anyone else: While the core ideas that it propounds are basically good (though at times naive), the organisation itself is an irrelevant construct which parasitically feeds on the memetically successful ideas of a simple carpenter.
So yes, I can see why the printer would be good for your church, but that do
Re:Anyhow... (Score:1)
Good night.
Re:Anyhow... (Score:3, Interesting)
However, there is some truth in what you say. In my ch
Re:Anyhow... (Score:1)
I agree. There's no excuse for BS like that...
>And the atheist says "what's not good about me? I'm good enough that I don't need God".
Some may say that. Some have simply decided that they feel the bible is far too inconsistent to base one's most important life decisions on. Just because you've rejected religion _doesn't_ automa
Re:Anyhow... (Score:2)
I was wrong as you pointed out about all atheists saying that they are good enough that they don't need God. It is only some that say that.
I am confused about this paradox you present - gays that believe in the bible are asked to commit suicide peacefully?
It is obvious that homosexuality is abnormal and counterproductive to both natural selection and christianity. It does not mean that if someone
Re:Anyhow... (Score:1)
It's only by talking about issues that people can best understand each other's opinions, and by that, better understand one's own opinions.
>I am confused about this paradox you present - gays that believe in the bible are asked to commit suicide peacefully?
Perhaps you can better educate me on this point. It's my understanding that if one takes the KJV bible literally, Leviticus 20:13 [web-books.com] suggests that gays will be put to death.
Howev
Re:Anyhow... (Score:2)
It is worth noting that it is practicing homosexuality that the Bible condem
Re:Anyhow... (Score:2)
I'd be curious to see just exactly what it is an atheist could possibly believe they are "good enough" at so that they don't need God.
I think you don't quite get atheist. It's not that we are so good that we don't need God, it is that God does not exist wheter we need him or not.
Nice troll, BTW. So good actually that I have biten.
Re:Anyhow... (Score:1)
Phaser/Xerox (Score:3, Informative)
Here [xerox.com] is what they currently have on sale.
Re: Xerox (Tektronix) Phaser 8200 (Score:2)
It's not really a laser printer (in that it doesn't use toner). It uses a solid ink technology - think 'melting large crayons.'
The quality is pretty good, but it depends on what you want to do. The unit we got has network printing built in, and will do doublesided printing automatically.
It is fairly cheap to operate. (you can get cheaper ink sticks at www.inktechnologies.com) and has a decent quality output. It doesn't do
Phaser/Xerox for free, direct from Xerox (Score:3, Informative)
It's kind of like a lease: any failures they pay for (you pay for wear parts). After three years, the printer is yours to do with what you will at no cost to you. Use it for a do
Re:Phaser/Xerox for free, direct from Xerox (Score:2)
I do a fair bit of work with a place that has one of these, the Tektronix Phaser 850DP. I don't know that it's the best deal.
For one thing, if you don't make your commitmen
Printing house (Score:1)
Print in black and white (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Print in black and white (Score:1)
Re:Print in black and white (Score:2)
Perhaps you should pay more attention to the spiritual side of what you believe in and less time shoring up the flanks of the stinking corpse of the church.
Re:Print in black and white (Score:2)
Re:Print in black and white (Score:2)
The best idea in the Us economy right now... (Score:1)
Outsource, outsource
FreeColorPrinters (Score:5, Informative)
Check out the following website:
FreeColorPrinters [freecolorprinters.com]
The fraternity that I am in has been using this service for the past 3 years (that is how long the contract lasts); the printer lease runs out in a week (the printer is yours to keep after the lease expires). We have a Phaser 850DP, and I believe the current model is a Phaser 8200, which are both color wax transfer printers - check out this link for the specs:
Phaser 8200 Specs [freecolorprinters.com]
The only thing you have to do is print the quota (if some guys living in a dorm can do it, I am sure you can as well), and buy your ink from them (all black ink is free; color ink is kind of expensive, but it is worth it for the free printer). Also included is an on-site service agreement for the length of the 3 year lease.
I would definitely recommend this service, especially for small organizations. Good luck with finding one for the church!
Re:FreeColorPrinters (Score:1)
...also, we have printed over 115,000 pages and it's still running great. It has only needed servicing twice over the past 3 years, and it was taken care of next-day without much hassle at all. The technicians say that these printers get well over 300,000 pages before they begin to die.
Re:FreeColorPrinters (Score:2)
The Xerox ink is expensive, so you DO pay for the printer that way. If you fall below the quota, they charge you $100/mo. At that rate, you'd pay for the printer in about 2 years anyway.
There is cheaper ink [inktechnologies.com] but you can't use it if you sign up for this program. Since you have to send in the monthly reports from the printer, you can't buy jus
Re:FreeColorPrinters (Score:2, Interesting)
This is all true, and we definitely second-guessed our decision since the ink is so expensive. In the end, though, it was a good decision since we did print our quota (the printer automatically sends the reports via email), and we took advantage of the service agreement (which really makes the plan worth it).
The service agreement to go along with the printer (if buying stand-alone) costs about $650 from Xerox, and only lasts one year. The plan that comes with this lasts 3 years and is on-site, which is
Get a good service contract (Score:3, Informative)
If you're not having a speed of printing issue, but are having trouble with the printer jamming, what you should look into is getting a good service contract. No matter what kind of "high volume" printer you get, excessive printing will wear down the rollers and cause a lot of paper dust to accumulate. The only way to keep them going is by cleaning them and replacing the rollers when they wear out.
I worked at a place that had 12 printer on a single floor that printed between 5,000 to 10,000 pages per printer per month. They were all great printers, but on average needed to be serviced ever six to eight weeks to keep working.
I'd recommend getting an additional printer, and getting a service contract on both printers when one needs to be serviced.
Even better is... (Score:2)
Oh, I forgot that you're a church. Nevermind.
GCC Printers (Score:3, Informative)
GCC Printers Elite Color 16 DN [gccprinters.com] $2099
That should be plenty for a church.
HP Color Laserjet 4500... (Score:5, Informative)
I picked up an HP Color Laserjet 4500 about a year ago for $600. This awesome printer had less than 10,000 pages on it. One $89 JetDirect 10bT Ethernet card later, I have a fantastic network printer that will last me for many years. I do a lot of prepress, brochures, etc. and the thing has already paid for itself just in printing out work for my clients (I charge them about half of what the local printer charges, and I've made plenty of money from that.)
I admit that $600 for a printer with less than 10,000 pages is a great deal, but there are some on eBay that are coming down under $800. (Note: Don't have one shipped... buy locally if at ALL possible. These things are HEAVY.)
If you're interested in a new color laser, the little Laserjet 1500L printers [hp.com] offer great bang for the buck. They're more unobtrusive than the giant 4500 series, but they have the same great laser quality starting at around $800. PC Connection [pcconnection.com] has good prices for these as well, especially if you open an account with them.
If you want a brand-new giant color laser, try the Color Laserjet 4600. [hp.com] Yes, these are in the $2000 range, but if you're printing hundreds of pages per day, they are a good value.
I would never buy an inkjet again for a business. Yes, you can get an inkjet printer for $100, but those cartridges are a killer ($30 and they last perhaps 150 pages.) My color toner cartridges are $125, but they last for six thousand pages. The black toner cartridges are cheaper and go for 10,000 pages or more. At 11,000 pages, I've only ever had to replace one cyan cartridge, and I routinely do runs of a few hundred pages each. I'll never go back to the treadmill of inkjet cartridge upgrades.
For a church, I'd say the 1100 and 2500 series ($1200 or less) will work out great. Good luck on finding a printer that works well for you!
Re:HP Color Laserjet 4500... (Score:1)
I have nothing to add, really, but I just wanted to say that this is an excellent post. Positive and very informative. Almost makes me turn on the "I'm willing to moderate" flag so I can give points to posts like this. =)
Doug
Re:HP Color Laserjet 4500... (Score:2)
The 4600 has a really weird manual input tray that draws the paper *under* the installed tray. Very strange. And there is a little plastic wheel on the right side of the manual feed tray that can snap off easily if you aren't careful.
All in all though, I would choose the 4600. We have three of them around here and I only ever really get
Re:I suggest you look elsewhere for this answer... (Score:2)
Re:I suggest you look elsewhere for this answer... (Score:2)
Just adding my uninformed $0.02 (Score:1)
FreeColorPrinters.com (Score:2)
Re:FreeColorPrinters.com (Score:1)
After 3 years, the printer is yours!
There are a few strings attached: You have to buy your ink from them. And if you forget to send in the form every month they'll charge you a fee."
"Additionally, the black ink is completely free! "
Do the reports indicate whether the pages were color prints? If not, I could sure use a free printer and free black ink and take a slight loss on the color ink b
Re:FreeColorPrinters.com (Score:2)
Obvious (Score:1, Funny)
Risograph (Score:1)
If you're doing reasonably high-volume duplicating, but not such a high volume that an offset press is required, then what you want is a machine called a "digital duplicator", such as a Risograph [riso.com]. It's sort of a cross between a photocopier and one of the old crank Gestetner duplicating machines that used to be popular in schools. You put your original document on the scanner board just like a photocopier
4 Color Mimeography (Score:2)
Check the following : (Score:1)
How much paper can it store ?
How many pages/minute ?
Most important of all: What is the total click cost (cost per imprint.)
Consider asking a copier dealer about a pay per click.
Thanks for all the suggestions. (Score:1)
We're expecting to do around 15,000 color pages per month, double sided. 11"x17" ability needed.
Copier functionality is a possibility... we are just checking our options.
Thanks for the idea of local printing houses... that is actually one of the options we are considering.
Thanks again for all the useful feedback.
Thoughts on using external print shops (Score:2)
I help run a fairly large club (2,000 members) that has a publicity drive every 3-4 months, during which time we print something like 20,000 flyers, brochures, etc. in various formats. We also print quite a lot of lower volume things: tickets, certificates, etc.
We've investigated this area in some depth, and concluded that for the high volume stuff, it's much cheaper to use an external print shop if other practicalities permit. There are several around and they're quite competitive for the sort of busines
Xerox iGen3 (Score:2)