Doug Kerr
Well-known member
Prior
About 15 years ago we bought an Epson Stylus Photo R1900 inkjet printer. It will print on paper at least 11" wide, and will nicely print on (printable) CD and DVD disks. It uses ink cartridges, with two kinds of black ink (which one is used depends on the paper type), plus yellow, cyan, magenta, red, and orange, plus a "gloss optimizer", a sort of lacquer used when printing on glossy paper.
But our use of this printer has been very infrequent, and over the years I have neglected to print a nozzle test pattern every couple of weeks, and so we often had severe nozzle clogging problems. The machine has a very clever nozzle unclogging system, but it uses a lot of ink, which all goes into the waste ink collection system.
In that machine the ultimate destination for waste ink is a field of absorbent pads located at the very bottom of the machine. When the machine reckons they are almost "full", it gives a repeated error message. When it reckons that they are "full", it gives an error light display and will not operate.
There is no authorized Epson repair facility within reach, and the local printer repair technician (quite knowledgeable) was not optimistic about replacing the pad field.
For this and other reasons, we decided to retire the R1900.
A new printer—choosing
Over the years our need for a color printer have changed. We never any more print photos in the sense of making a print that would be exhibited. The need to print on CD or DVD disks has vanished with changes in how data is distributed. And on the occasions when we really need a large format print, the local office supply store can do that conveniently and at small cost.
So the most sensible thing would be to not get any kind of replacement color printer. But it just didn't seem tight not to be able to print in color at all. So what kind of printer should we get? We pondered this for a couple of weeks.
One attractive choice would have been a so-called color "laser" printer (the modern ones don't actually use a laser but rather a line of tiny LEDs to expose the photosensitive drum). An advantage is that under infrequent use one does not need to have the printer "blow its noses" periodically to avoid nozzle clogs.
But, interpolating among many reviews and opinions, it seemed that this style of printer would not do as well at photo printing as an inkjet printer, even the "4-color" kind.
The new printer
The ultimate result of this pondering was that we bought a Canon Pixma G3270 four-color inkjet printer, essentially an entry-level machine, and quite inexpensive ($149.99 almost everywhere). We bought the white version. Here we see it in place:
This machine uses a continuous ink supply system (CISS): rather than having cartridges with a small quantity of ink, this has stationary tanks with a substantial capacity, which are refilled from bottles. The standard bottle for each color contains enough ink to refill the corresponding tank when it is at the "replace ink soon" level. (There is a sight glass for each tank so the actual ink level can be seen.) The machine is shipped with a full set of bottles, of the normal capacity (not "starter" bottles with a wee amount of ink).
In addition to direct connection via a USB port, this machine has a variety of "wireless" modes, including using it as a network printer on a wireless LAN or allowing it to be directly driven from a smartphone or tablet. I don't expect us to exploit any of that. But who knows!
The machine has in its lid a flatbed scanner that will accept up to a letter-size or A4 page. We didn't really need this, but that ls the way most inkjet printers come these days. It has a "copier" mode that seems to work very well.
For making settings without going to the driver control panel, the machine has an easy-to-use control panel, but with a really tiny LCD screen. (There is a "higher" model that has a larger, touch-screen display and more control keys, such as a 10-key pad for entering numeric values. We decided not to spring for that.)
First tests of printing photos on glossy inkjet paper were very encouraging. But those were "quick 'n' dirty". I'll have some further observations later.
Best regards,
Doug
About 15 years ago we bought an Epson Stylus Photo R1900 inkjet printer. It will print on paper at least 11" wide, and will nicely print on (printable) CD and DVD disks. It uses ink cartridges, with two kinds of black ink (which one is used depends on the paper type), plus yellow, cyan, magenta, red, and orange, plus a "gloss optimizer", a sort of lacquer used when printing on glossy paper.
But our use of this printer has been very infrequent, and over the years I have neglected to print a nozzle test pattern every couple of weeks, and so we often had severe nozzle clogging problems. The machine has a very clever nozzle unclogging system, but it uses a lot of ink, which all goes into the waste ink collection system.
In that machine the ultimate destination for waste ink is a field of absorbent pads located at the very bottom of the machine. When the machine reckons they are almost "full", it gives a repeated error message. When it reckons that they are "full", it gives an error light display and will not operate.
There is no authorized Epson repair facility within reach, and the local printer repair technician (quite knowledgeable) was not optimistic about replacing the pad field.
For this and other reasons, we decided to retire the R1900.
A new printer—choosing
Over the years our need for a color printer have changed. We never any more print photos in the sense of making a print that would be exhibited. The need to print on CD or DVD disks has vanished with changes in how data is distributed. And on the occasions when we really need a large format print, the local office supply store can do that conveniently and at small cost.
So the most sensible thing would be to not get any kind of replacement color printer. But it just didn't seem tight not to be able to print in color at all. So what kind of printer should we get? We pondered this for a couple of weeks.
One attractive choice would have been a so-called color "laser" printer (the modern ones don't actually use a laser but rather a line of tiny LEDs to expose the photosensitive drum). An advantage is that under infrequent use one does not need to have the printer "blow its noses" periodically to avoid nozzle clogs.
But, interpolating among many reviews and opinions, it seemed that this style of printer would not do as well at photo printing as an inkjet printer, even the "4-color" kind.
The new printer
The ultimate result of this pondering was that we bought a Canon Pixma G3270 four-color inkjet printer, essentially an entry-level machine, and quite inexpensive ($149.99 almost everywhere). We bought the white version. Here we see it in place:
This machine uses a continuous ink supply system (CISS): rather than having cartridges with a small quantity of ink, this has stationary tanks with a substantial capacity, which are refilled from bottles. The standard bottle for each color contains enough ink to refill the corresponding tank when it is at the "replace ink soon" level. (There is a sight glass for each tank so the actual ink level can be seen.) The machine is shipped with a full set of bottles, of the normal capacity (not "starter" bottles with a wee amount of ink).
In addition to direct connection via a USB port, this machine has a variety of "wireless" modes, including using it as a network printer on a wireless LAN or allowing it to be directly driven from a smartphone or tablet. I don't expect us to exploit any of that. But who knows!
The machine has in its lid a flatbed scanner that will accept up to a letter-size or A4 page. We didn't really need this, but that ls the way most inkjet printers come these days. It has a "copier" mode that seems to work very well.
For making settings without going to the driver control panel, the machine has an easy-to-use control panel, but with a really tiny LCD screen. (There is a "higher" model that has a larger, touch-screen display and more control keys, such as a 10-key pad for entering numeric values. We decided not to spring for that.)
First tests of printing photos on glossy inkjet paper were very encouraging. But those were "quick 'n' dirty". I'll have some further observations later.
Best regards,
Doug
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