Low-volume printing: Wide Color Gamut and Cheap Toner

[marienbad]

I apologize for joining this forum simply to ask a single question, and please direct me somewhere else if there is a better place to ask this kind of question. Thank you...


I'm interested in finding a cheap color printer for my home studio that has absurdly cheap consumables so that I can print thousands of pages; fortunately I have a source of free paper. I did some research a few years ago and determined that the cheapest consumables belong to the HP Color Laserjet 4600 as well as some old Tektronix Phasers. For example, with my Laserjet 4600, a complete set of compatible color toners for printing 32,000 pages costs $200. However, like most color laser printers, the compatible color gamut is very small.

What are some models of office-grade printers (i.e. models in the $2000 used range, not the $20k range) that have unusually wide color gamut reproduction as well as low consumable cost?

Are there some general criteria under which to choose? For example, it appears that "solid ink" (sublimation) printers generally have wider color gamut than laser, but with cheap consumables.

 

[xfactor printing]

Is your printing very very low coverage? Remember the page count of retail consumables is rated at only 5% coverage which is atypical for real-world printer printing (it's light office text document type printing only.)

 

[marienbad]

hmm, sometimes yes sometimes no.

Maybe I should scrap this question and simply ask instead: "can I buy a used printer for around $1000 that prints wide-gamut color at a cost less than 5 cents per page?"

 

[xfactor printing]

Not in my experience. Maybe if your coverage is light and you are willing to spend much time sourcing supplies.