🚀 go-pugleaf

I like the Dell but I can't make assumption about what your judgment 
will be.

Bob

I can speak to the Xerox Phaser 6180 printer. It has Adobe PostScript 3, not some unreliable CloneScript; I had an eval unit from Xerox for a month and put it through its paces for a wide range of tasks. The quality is good and probably at least as good as the other alternatives you mention. But it is not up to the quality that you would get from high end laser solutions such as the Xerox Docucolor printers or even the high end Phaser 7700. If you really want to produce "low cost" wedding invites via digital printing, you might try finding a digital print shop with printers such as the Docucolor, iGen, Indigo, or NexPress. If you supply ready to print, high quality PDF files, you should be able to beat the price of process offset or thermography printing but have excellent quality.

- Dov

Amy, 

      Best Color Laser Printers for printing wedding invitations




With all due respect, none. Personally, I can't conceive of having a proper wedding invitation prepared this way -- it just strikes a bit too close to being an office copy, with nothing special about it.

My choices would be genuine engraved, high-quality thermography, or even carefully considered offset litho on the right choice of stock. You just don't get the choices of stock and colors, and the feel of an inviting invitation with xerographic reproduction.

That said, if there is a market for this in your area, a high-quality laser printer or inkjet, properly maintained, and using high-quality dyes/pigments/toner printing on the right stock should be able to print properly without any banding. But if it were up to me, I'd choose a good inkjet like an Epson R2400.

Neil

Bob....would you say that the issues I am having with my Oki are due to it not being a postscript printer or just old issues with color laser printers that are getting better....or is there something that I can possibly change in the printer settings to improve the output? The issues I am having are what I have always hated about color lasers...and yet I know many in my field that use them and are very happy.

Dov posted before I completed writing, but if it must be laser, then I'd follow his recommendations (with the same look-and-feel reservations as in my previous post).

Neil

      would you say that the issues I am having with my Oki are due to it not
      being a postscript printer




I'd say it is either printer quality or a maintenance issue with the machine. Lasers can produce better solid areas than you describe.

I've seen the quality of the expensive high-end (outsourced) digital "presses" and they are very close to litho in quality.

Nenil

Neil...thanks for your input. When it comes to handmade invitations nowadays, flat printing is more preferred because brides would rather spend their money on details of exquisite paper (which I use a lot of), ribbons and the like. For flat, traditional invitations I always use thermography or even letterpress, but on more ornate, handmade designs the demand is elsewhere. I have printed an invitation before on my Epson R1800 and my local printer couldn't tell that he didn't do it. The issue I have is that then I need to spray-coat everything to ensure the ink doesn't bleed. The recommendation made to me by one of my national vendors (www.envelopments.com) is to use a Oki C5300 as then the ink won't have the bleeding tendencies. They are one of the top in the field, but with my model (older I know) I am just leary. The inkjet also has limitations in printing on metallic stock, which I also use a lot of, and for this envelopments always recommends a color laser.

My Oki is only a few months old and I have only used genuine toners...I would have a hard time believing it to be a maintenance issue.

I like the idea about outsourcing to a digital "press"...I will do some research into that in my area.

In article <3bc46c8c.1@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI>,
 "Dov Isaacs" <isaacs@adobe.com> wrote:

> I can speak to the Xerox Phaser 6180 printer. It has Adobe PostScript 3, not 
> some unreliable CloneScript; I had an eval unit from Xerox for a month and 
> put it through its paces for a wide range of tasks. The quality is good [...]

My partner has had her (quite inexpensive) Xerox Phaser 6120 for nearly 
a year now and is very pleased with its performance and image quality. 
She uses it for printing small quantities of labels, business cards, and 
the like, as well as for proofing; it's already more than paid for 
itself and its next set of (comparatively expensive) replacement toner 
cartridges.

-- 
Odysseus

Amy, 

      because brides would rather spend their money on details of exquisite
      paper




Again, to me, it seems like a misuse of resources to choose a fine paper, and then simply laser it, like putting cheap, narrow tires on a high-performance car.

Also, there are limitations of papers that are suitable for xerography (proper toner adhesion) that doesn't exist with "legitimate" printing processes.

And, like Dov, most desktop laser printing that I've seen does not compare well with other reproduction methods. But if there is a sizable market here (and there appears to be), then I would still choose a service provider who has a high-end digital press. Those are the closest in quality to offset and can be nearly indistinguishable. You also don't have to worry about the care and feeding of such equipment if you can make a special "wholesale" pricing deal with a local provider. (You tell the provider that you have to mark up the work and that you need his very best pricing. You tell him that you'll be a very regular customer if he provides appropriate pricing and service levels.)

Neil

Check if the printer you want is postscript. I have the new c9800dn which is excellent. I sent the exact same print PDF to a number of shops including Xerox for the Phasers and OKI printers. I asked them to print samples of my CMYK PDF on each of the printers I was interested in. The OKI c9800dn won hands down in colour matching and prints to 268gsm (thicker than the others).

I had a sample prints also of the OKI c8600 but it's colour was terrible and it's GDI printing, not postscript. The price of the c8600 is fantastic but it's not good for design work. It's best for office printing.

(The best way I can describe GDI printing is where the printer converts the complete file to an RGB bitmap image to print, no matter if the file was CMYK to begin with.)

PS If your current OKI is under warranty you should ring OKI for advice as regardless of the colour, you shouldn't have diagonal lines running through text, and I have found OKI good to talk through with getting my printer configured the best way possible.