greeting card printing

Hello,

I design stationery (greeting cards, note cards, etc.) on the side. I currently have a small crappy Samsung color laser printer, and I'd like to upgrade. The Samsung jams a lot and curls cardstock badly. I'd like to start printing my notecards at home so I can have more control over the finished product (I haven't have very good luck with local and online printers), but I need something that will produce a quality product. Any suggestions on what kind of printer I should try next? My volume of printing is currently pretty low, but I hope that changes once I get my printing issues straightened out.

Thanks!
Jill

 

Tricky thing with low volume and requirement to print cards is that small desktop laser printers don't have very good paper pickups nor a good straight paper path. You might look at off lease larger printers used. It's some gamble as if something goes wrong it may be costly to fix on these bigger machines if you buy used with no warranty and no service contract, but they offer a lot more umph, a bypass tray that can actually handle heavy stock, etc. For example look at a used docucolor 240 or 250. Or a KM 5500. Or an imagepress c1 used. These are big units which weight 500-700 lbs but they'll actually handle card stock. I've not seen a small desktop laser printer to date that I think would hold up well on heavy stock.

 

I really appreciate the advice. Thanks so much!

 

i think these machines would be too big, they are production machines. I would say go for a smaller less page per minute machine second hand ex lease from a dealer. Make sure whatever machine you GET A CONTRACT on it. ie you pay per print. You will need it in the long run, Whatever you do DONT buy second hand from ebay ect or you will end up with a BIG paper weight in the corner, as they do and will go wrong and are very costly to repair and replace parts

 

That's a good point plotter - I agree if you can get a full service and supplies contract that is the way to go. It will save you money and much frustration if you need quality. And with the economy, they will probably be happy to give you a contract on a small machine with no monthly minimum to get you on board. (when I started my contracts had a few thousand print minimums which can be a pain if anything happens and you don't print that much that month.) As to too big, I've tried a few times to use the office printers to print card stock, labels, and envelopes because I didn't want to crease my big machine's fuser with textured or thick stock, but the little feeders have always let me down within a few thousand prints. Now if I had a service contract on those, I'd have them fixed up with new rollers or new bypass mechanisms if necessary.

 

What would be a good smaller machine? I don't have the budget to spend several thousand $ or the space for a big machine. I work out of my home. I really appreciate all of your feedback!

 

to be honest i would look at a mc ricoh, konica minolta magicolor. Phone a couple of dealers, it probably will cost 1500-2000 though and is basically a colour photocopier that you can print to as well as copying. But as i said they break down and need parts replacing. If you get a contract on one usually it covers all toners drums and breakdowns and you pay them per copy. Not sure how much though over there, mine costs 5.5p per a4 colour and 0.004p per a4 black and white + VAT obviously double for a3
I have looked at xerox 7500s, oki 9600 and xantes which you can get on contracts but they are expensive to run and the quality diminishes very quickly apparently

 

ok, thanks!