[Neil Jones]

Bit of a random question but I seem to be doing a lot of printing for marketing and its costing me a fortune in ink. Could anyone recommend an economical printer where I can print a smaller costs.
What does everyone use?

[AshWhite]

I don't care what anyone says - whatever printer you buy, you'll get tucked up somewhere. Either the price of the printer, the cost of the ink, the way the ink systems work, or even just sh*tty functionality.

Basically, they're all crap.

[Richard Cole]

I got a second hand laser printer off ebay for around £50, it only prints in b & w but it can print up to 20,000 A4 sheets off one cartridge and a replacement costs me £54. I have a HP Laserjet 4300 if that is any help.

[Neil Jones]

I thought as much Ash, I've emailed you btw.
Laser printer maybe the way to go and stick to black and white when I can, I'll have to start looking.

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

Just pay a professional to do it, i't is almost always more cost effective anyway and tax deductable.

[Richard Cole]

Thought I would just add, i brought my printer to print my own leaflets, which I had quite good results with, A4 printed on "pink" paper with black text, was getting around 4 jobs per thousand. At xmas i decided to have a glossy leaflet made up but using the same text as my d.i.y leafet, only difference is that is A5 and green with black text, I think it looks great but the results have been awful so far, may its just the time of year but even so I've put out 4,000 of the new glossy ones and only had 1 job and 3 calls so far

[benny d]

Pink paper costs a fortune!!!

I looked into it as it was on the Fast Track, got to do list, as chicks love anythink pink!

Perhaps it may be worth a bash as I can see behind me I have about 200 sheets of pink A4 , so can get two adverts on one sheet.
It will be interesting to see how well it works!

[Radek Jablonski]

take a look at this:

CISS - continuous ink supply system

here you can buy it: http://www.cityinkexpress.co.uk/

using myself and very happy, cost nothing

[AshWhite]

Bloody hell, Radek.

Welcome to the darkside

[Radek Jablonski]

there is no darkside and no whiteside 
knowledge is everywhere

[heritagecleaning]

B/W laser is very cost effective, however colour is expensive - a set of toners (3 colours and a black) can be £150

[peter maybury]

If you are doing anything in large volume then it is going to be in the long run cheaper to get it done professionally.
Even if you spend a couple of grand on a laser printer the toner is still going to be an issue. I once bought a ricoh laser printer with the intention of creating my own printing but it is not worth the hassle. The other think is if the job does not look 100% then the message that you are trying to get accross will fail. I see a lot of leaflets/cards etc where I think that they are projecting the wrong image totally. We do do runs of black and white offer lists that we post with leaflets on a laser printer but the leaflet that is delivered with them is full colour and looks the business. Printers buy inks and paper very cheaply and havbe the equipment to produce cheaply. Ad the hassle and cost of doing it yourself and scrutinise the quality and consider is it reall worth it?
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[robertphil]

epson sx235 or 435 , cheap as chips and ebay ink cartridges are very cheap on ebay (ten times cheaper than the genuine Epson .)  i cant praise this combo enough , i must hav ran off 100000 on this little beaut and if it plays up i hurry on back to pc world where they will replace it under warranty  no questions

   

[Neil Jones]

I've got the SX425W, its a heap of crap, I've been using the cheap ink cartridges off ebay and they either don't recognise them or run dry in five minutes.
Could you send me a link to the ones you buy and maybe I could try those please.

[robertphil]

the sellers name is    taiyang_ink         , i only print using black and im thinking young taiyang is downtown london mailing out ink like nobodys business as he has a feedback total score of 29904

[wynne jones]

There's a lot of sense in buying a RISO if you can afford the upfront.

[*Hector*]

There's a lot of sense in buying a RISO if you can afford the upfront.

Yes there is.... It is a printer that is built for the job..

[james roffey]

I was spending a fortune on those silly cartridges on a printer that cost me about £20. So i decided last year to buy a Xerox Phaser Laser printer cost me about £700 from a company called Printerbase. That was a great investment, the tiny cartridge tester that it came with lasted ten months, and i have still not changed the colours ones from the test ones that it came with. I expect the thing will go bang before i have to buy any more.

[Ian Gourlay]

Tou can pick up a secondhand Riso for  £300 upwards  plus ink and masters but if you are self distributing less than 2000  a week  perhaps as had been suggested a Lazzer that you can print 1000 at a time is a way to go.

I did use this method but was time consuming , but with a Riso I can get job done while doing the washing up or cooking a meal. Wife does complain about it taking space in utility room.

I do Agree Full Colour Leaflets look good but not convinced the results are better,
Best to have a Colour Lazzer also and leave a full Colour Proposal with Customer after survey

Shame about Pink Paper  I think Viking is now £7 inculding VAT in bulk. I liked Green but we were all sold on Green is Best  and avoided dirty carpets
Used to be £3.50 , but I think staples took them over and price went up some years ago.

[Allan Simmons]

Hi Ian, is that price A3 or A4 from Viking?  I think we're now paying just over £11+ VAT a ream for green, pink or yellow A3 so I'm guessing its A4.  paper costs have shot up in the last 18 months.

I'd agree if you're doing a lot of single colour stuff the Riso is the way to go, you can even run it through twice to do spot colour with a second drum of course.  The beauty of those is you can do lots of short run but very locally targeted leaflets for hardly any more than the cost of the paper.