Another Startup Advice Questionaire :)

Okay, So I've done some reading around here and I have a basic Understanding of what I need, I just need some confirmation.

I've always been curious about printing, absolutely love it when something comes out amazingly, but I know little more than how to handle your basic Home Printer.

At the moment I'm working in my grandfathers company as a designer, and we're looking to internalise a large ammount of printing which we are outsourcing, which we would like to internalise.

At the moment we have only a Canon Pixma iX 4000, which I'm looking to retro-fit with a CISS, although we are looking at the option of getting somethign slightly larger and that can handle more "stuff"

Let me start out by naming what it is that we need to print.

- Flyers (preferably glossy) (qty: about 1k/month)
- Banners
- Stickers (small)
- Outdoor Stickers
- Buisness cards (qty: about 1k/2-3 months) (300 gsm)
- A4/Letter sized handouts
- Large Format Photographs (max, something like 1m x .5m)
- designs on thick paper/card (+200 Gsm, max 400gsm).

Now we dont need to internalise everything but a solution that could do most of this would be nice. Also I think investing in an Offset printer is off the table.

The option I'm presently looking at, is as I mentioned retro-fitting the iX with a CISS, and purchasing a Roland SolJet Pro III, which can print up to 1.3M width, good photography quality (6inks) & comes with a built in Cutter & blower.

however I'm not sure if this has the option of sheet feeding should I want to use thicker paper, what would you reccomend? Use the Roland for flyers, prints, etc, on its photographic paper roll & the iX for things on thicker card, which I can then have the Roland cut (the cutter part does accept sheet feed)? or is there an alternative solution?




Secondly, I'm looking to start my own printing buisness within the next year, and I'm using this oportunity my grandfather has given me to setup in house printing as a training ground. Id be looking to get an offset printer, with the Pre-press and post-press bits, although this is where I'm completely lost. I'm setting this up in Asia, and I am inspiring the company after a European one whose quality I absolutely love. They print very high quality Items, using a, "high quality digital printing presses, using a 4 colour ink process." Now from what I've read Heidelbergh is the way to go with regards to a quality printing press. I would use this to produce flyers, buisness cards, letterheads, greeting cards, stationary, etc, the works.

However I have an interest in also supplying extremely high quality photographic prints. for this quality is my biggest issue, and I'd be looking for atm to produce prints Up to A3/A2. Now I've read online on the forums that getting a 6/8 inkjet printer is the solution for this correct? any reccomendations?


Now with what I've mentioned above, are there any add ons, or other solutions to provide prints on other media? like t shirts & mugs? What about metallic prints? Printing on surfaces?

I know its a lot to ask, but I hope if someone can take the time to answer these questions it would be much appreciated (and if I ever meet you at any kind of convention a drink will be involved! And possibly samples of how i'm doing ).

Also so you have a gauge point, my budget is between 100k - 200k USD, although it could be stretched to 250 but I'd rather not


Oh yes, and if you'd rather contact me directly my email is sbalani@gmail.com

 

For flyers and handouts, I'd start with a docucolor 252 - call xerox or your xerox dealer and get some pricing details on a machine and full service contract including supplies and service. If you want to do it on the cheap, you could also get a refurbished or used 240 or 242 or 250 - (same basic machine; I have the 242 but I believe I read this year the 252 is the entry point.) I'm not sure that it will work out for you for that low quantity, but if you can get a full service contract, that's the way to go in my book for parts availability, advice, and basically the same or lower cost once you start printing any volume - it would give you an incentive to grow from 1k a month up to 25k a month which isn't really that hard once you get going. It's a nice flexible machine that will do what I feel is pretty good gloss on gloss stock. Easy to run and a nice modular design. Have 475,000 on ours so far and am really happy with my decision to get one so far. We don't run too much heavy stock through ours, but have run some rack cards on 100 lb cover and postcards on 12 pt kromekote and like the results. The only drawback for using it for business cards is that the registration is a bit "trial and error" and is not as tight as bigger machines or the KM, but what it has that the KM doesn't for me is the ability to run gloss with an eye pleasing result. The canon imagepress c1 is another option but it's slower for color (the small docucolors do slow down for enhanced gloss mode and for heavier stock, but the same machine runs faster for non-gloss and normal weight, so that's an advantage if you are looking for a "one machine fits all" solution.) Overall get samples from km, canon, and xerox, but for me the xerox docucolor was a great mix of features for a do-it-all digital machine.

I'm still eyeing the hp-z series, but no sheet fed. Epson has been the benchmark for photo/art printing for yearsl; I've had good luck with hp designjets in years past so I look fondly on the hp-z series which puts hp back in the game, but for one-off photo printing the epson inks won't let you down either. I've dabbled with canon's ipf for a somewhat lower cost per print solution, but I'm still on the fence since to my eye the quality hasn't quite matched... not that it's bad.

I don't have any advice for stickers, outdoor banners, or thicker paper than 300 gsm as I've not found an ideal solution (or had the opportunity to seek one) there. Hopefully others will give you some input soon.

 

Alright! thanks so much for your answer! .

I was also wondering if theres a website you guys can reccomend, like some sort of "Printing-Wiki" with regards to learning more about technical aspects, terminology, the difference between a 2 colour and 4 colour printer, more info about large printers, presses etc.