Need recommendations for home printers able to do sticker/decals

Discussion in 'Small Format Inkjet Printers' started by decalos, Feb 20, 2019.

  1. decalos

    decalos New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2019
    Messages:
    3
    Location:
    Albany,CA
    I wish to buy a color inkjet or laser printer that can handle outdoor stickers (vinyl, mylar or polyester). Under $500, the more under the better. Printer must have at least average to above average print quality for graphics, connect to the PC via some form of cables (I do not use wifi stuff), and compatible with XP Pro. I am slowly in transition to Linux, but that could take a couple years, and maybe longer to learn GIMP, so it must work with XP Pro. Printer will be used to make stickers mainly for my own use, but I may occasionally do small batch (say 500 stickers) custom orders for the neighborhood kids, to pay for ink and such. If you can suggest brands/model numbers of home office printers that meet the requirements, please advise, and I will certainly look into them.
     
  2. I.T. Supplies

    I.T. Supplies Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2019
    Messages:
    29
    Location:
    Rolling Meadows
    It may be pretty hard to find a printer that works with XP now, since that version is no longer supported. Most printers are up to possibly Vista/ 7, 8 and for sure 10.

    Good luck on the search though. What size sticker/decals are you looking to print?
     
    decalos likes this.
  3. decalos

    decalos New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2019
    Messages:
    3
    Location:
    Albany,CA
    I expect to be using the sort Amazon sells:

    https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Polyester-Sticker-Paper-Printer/dp/B0792JJH9D
    https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Vinyl-Sticker-Paper-Printer/dp/B01NCSQ32W/
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CLLQFSZ

    Of course it depends on whether I buy a color inkjet or color laser. I would expect 3" diameter, or 4"x4 inch square is the largest I would go. Canon seems not to support XP Pro anymore. Epson and Brother mostly does. HP sorta does, but their machines are infested with that awful software:

    https://boingboing.net/2017/09/14/repeat-offenders.html
    https://instantink.hpconnected.com/us/en/l/

    ...I don't expect HP will even be considered. So looks like my choices are down to Epson or Brother. Just need to find a model that is known to actually work with stickers (I have a Brother HL-L6200DW, but it will jam at the slightest opportunity).
     
  4. I.T. Supplies

    I.T. Supplies Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2019
    Messages:
    29
    Location:
    Rolling Meadows
    Epson may not either since most of their printers use drivers from Windows 8.1 up to 10. As Microsoft is pretty much done with XP support, the manufacturers are most likely ending the drivers for the printers as well (unfortunately).

    I would watch out for products on Amazon as they may not be what you expect. Since they're not an authorized seller for most items being sold (like resellers), they don't typically have proper policies if something doesn't work right. If you are looking for something specific, I'd recommend contacting a reseller that has knowledge of the products vs just a customer service person that works at (Amazon) with little knowledge of the product and can't provide proper assistance. Or at least do some research for the product you see on Amazon and make sure it matches proper feedback before getting it. On another site, I've read many people trying to provide negative feedback (honest opinions) of products they got from Amazon and they reject it because it doesn't go along with their policy. To me, that makes me think it's pretty sketchy and rather check other places to verify that's the product you want. Printing products don't normally tend to be very cheap or really expensive (but depends on what you get), so make sure it's what you want before moving forward.

    Brother "may" still offer XP drivers, but I don't want to give you high hopes and find out certain brands stopped dealing with that OS since it's that old, but who knows.
     
    decalos likes this.

  5. decalos

    decalos New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2019
    Messages:
    3
    Location:
    Albany,CA
    Right now I am focused on trying to find out which models are known to work with stickers, after which I will vet them for drivers. I'm well aware of this problem, having got stuck with a Canon Pixma TS9020. All research indicated it had XP drivers (three sites offered downloads), yet all were bogus. I got no doubt these companies are well aware of this, and allow it to continue (to sell such printers to those that would otherwise not buy them). Since then I have become very paranoid about ferreting out drivers prior to purchase. Unfortunately finding printer models that work with stickers are a different matter, as this is either buried in the fine print or not mentioned at all. Given the thousands of models, such research would have to be done by a supercomputer. I have to rely on word of mouth to discover which ones are worth worth looking into.
     
Loading...