What Kind Of Printer?

[TOG]

A printing company we've used for many years shut down recently and I'm very disappointed in the quality of the other printing companies we've tried since. In short, I've decided I will do my company's printing right here at home until I can find a decent replacement company. I'm just wanting to do some basic document printing: Proposals/Estimates, Invoices, Change Order Forms etc. in full color.

So my question: What specs should I be looking for in a printer to do this type of printing? The quality doesn't have to be AMAZING, just not something noticeably amateur. I'm not even sure what our budget is, but I'd like to keep the costs reasonable for the basic printing that I'm wanting to do - i.e. I'm not needing a dream machine

Oh and it doesn't have to be Canon. I just posted in this section because it's first on the list of laser printers here.

 

[OkiTech]

Hi, so what exactly are you planning on printing? Pre-printed forms to fill-up later? Lets start with the fact that obtaining, maintaining and running color device is significantly more expensive.... If you pre-order your forms in qty of thousands, most likely they were printed on offset press or if digital printer was used, it was high volume machine, general rule of the industry - than more machine cost to buy than less it cost per print, Except Xerox So really you need to find a printer who can print your orders in a good quality... If you feel that you ran out of options locally, try internet, there many professional folks around and I am sure UPS/FedEx can deliver.... Hence, I am in NY and can print your forms.... Yes it will be a few days delay for transport, so let's not wait till the last sheet.

 

[TOG]

Hi thanks for the reply. I actually design my documents myself and make frequent changes to the design, wording etc. Therefore, I always print only a few at a time because otherwise, there will be a lot of waste. Our old printing company would print 100 at a time for us. Most printing companies near us have 250 minimum and we usually have a change before we go through all of those. Also, it looks like they are scanning and then printing our documents because they are faded, especially on our proposal sheet which has a grid on it. Either way, I would like to have the flexibility of printing myself here at home, so I can make changes and create new documents as needed.

So what kind of machine would be needed for printing acceptable documents? What specs should I be looking at. I read something about 400 dpi or something.

 

[OkiTech]

400 dpi is a resolution for a design file, so you're saying that you supply a file and they scan it? Get a Xerox Phaser 7760 printer it should serve you well, you can email me few files and your address, I can print a few samples and mail it back to you. UnlimitedBT@yahoo.com
Nice printer like that should cost about $1500, if everything you print is not bigger that 8.5x11 page I could print it on OKI MC560+ MFP, this machine print stunning quality, has large cartridges and cost $600, we are OKI authorized service partner and have 14 of these refurbished - really like new.