Printer for booklet printing - refill friendly - Inkjet or Laser?

[Deus]

Probably the xxx-th one asking this, but can't make up my mind to go for inkjet or color laser.

Need a new printer to print lots of manuals, has to do duples (booklet) printing.
(Double sided, 2 pages/side so it can be folded into a booklet)
Printer itself doesn't have to support booklet printing, software will fix that.
Running cost has to be low, so has to be refill frienldy.

Booklet printing means text can get pretty small.
Doubting between color laser or an inkjet.
If an inkjet could do an almost laser like print quality on that, might go for it.

Would prefer an all in one A3+ with duplex printing, cd printing if possible.
Woule like an A3+ for printing of schematics, can come in handy, but not really necessary.
Duplex on A4 only is ok, if also on A3+ possible is an extra plus.

If for the duplex booklet printing the only suitable would be a laser was thinking on Kyocera as it doesn't need replacement parts every 10-20000 pages.
Thinking about the Kyocera KYOCERA FS-C5150DN, as it doesn't use a chip on it's toners?
Or maybe the KYOCERA FS-C5350DN for the larger toner capacity.
But needs a chip reset or replacement every time it's refilled?

Anyone experience with kyocera and refilling Kyocera color lasers?
If someone has better suggestions?
All tips/info welcome.

Thanks in advance.

 

[The Hat]

I reckon it would be better and cheaper for you to stick with an A4 inkjet or a mono laser printer.
Colour lasers are much more expensive to run no matter which way you use them.

The problem youll have is finding an older inkjet printer to do both duplex
and good laser black quality text, dont get the latest models.

Most of the A3 inkjets can do duplex but its usually not automatic,
there is a lot of man handling involved like print and turn yourself.

The best way to tackle large print runs is to use two the same printers side by side,
its faster, more convenient, a lot more reliable and far easier to control.

I use inkjet printers for leaflets and booklets all the time and find them very cost effective
its the paper I find that is the most expensive.

This is just my two cent worth on it..

 

[Deus]

Thanks for the advise.
But it needs to be coloer as most things have graphs and photos requiring it.

Why an old model printer?
And not a new one?
For the text print quality?
Or for the refill options?

Btw, I don'tmind spending a bit more for quality if needed
Something should fit?

Just think, maybe one of those Ricosh Gelsprinters?
I know they're not the best in print quality, but maybe good for the text part?
Seen there are also refills available for it?
Anyone experience with them?
Or stay away from them?

Hope to get some good suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[cls]

Try out the WF-7010/WF-7015 Models with refillable ink cartriges
it a A3 printer and i use it frequently for printing broschure dummys and even high output stuff, an church newspaper for a local church for example

 

[The Hat]

All the A4 inkjet printers are colour and have great text quality but if you intend to use colour on both sides
then youre going to need 100 gm copier, 80 gm wont cut it.

The older Canon printers are far better in build quality and have slightly bigger cartridges and are of course easier to refill and maintain,
the newer ones are of a rubbish build have smaller cartridges no resetter
and drink ink like it was free and most certainly are not recommended for long print runs.

Colour lasers on the other hand are good but can beset by continued running problems,
any one of a number of things can put them out of action there are too many to mention
plus a duplex unit is fairly costly and you must always remember to put the paper in them the same way up
and not have it upside down, there are two sides to all copy paper.

On a single pass lasers it doesnt really matter which way the paper is loaded
but on duplex models it does if you wish to avoid paper jams constantly..

 

[Deus]

Is refilling still risky?
Was thinking of an AIO.
But if the printer fails...

Do you guys mostly go for separate setups?
Or is it safe to go for an AIO, like the Epson 7525 these days?
Advantage would be I have an A3 scanner to with it.
And save space...

Hope some share their opinions on it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[The Hat]

Refilling is not risky, far from it, it's very easy.

The risk of a printer failure is fairly slim however if you got two of them then that problem becomes manageable.

I dont like AIOs and have never used them so I cant answer that one for you,
plus theres a lot more to fail when using them.

I can only comment on Canon printers and have no experience with any of Epsons current models sorry..

 

[ghwellsjr]

Several months ago, when my iP4000R died (which had wireless), I bought an Epson Workforce Pro WP-4530, specifically because I wanted to do color booklets which it does very well and it is an AIO. It only handles letter and legal size paper and won't print on CD's.

I don't plan to refill the very large cartridges. Instead, I'm recycling cartridges at Staples to bring the cost down. However, even without that advantage, I think the ink cost is very reasonable. I'm still using the starter cartridges that came with the printer. I'm getting impatient with how long the cartridges last. I'm not used to cartridges that last so long. By the way, the cartridges do not ride on the print head, they sit in one corner of the printer and tubes feed the ink to the print head.

Another advantage of the Epson ink is that it is pigment so you don't have to worry about fading issues or the smearing problem when plain paper printouts get a little water on them which are problems with dye ink.

Furthermore, the newer Epson DURABrite Ultra ink prints on standard photo paper, unlike the previous DURABrite ink that required Epson's special photo papers.

One word of caution--I went through three of these printers bought locally from Staples stores in the Los Angeles area and they all had the same problem that the paper would feed too much leaving white gaps in printouts for fast printing. (High quality printing is EXTREMELY slow.) I finally called Epson and they sent me another one that did not have the problem. So if you buy one and it has this problem, don't waste your time returning it to the store and getting another one, just contact Epson.

Also, the list price is $300 but different stores have been putting it on sale for $190 at different times and some of them offer $50 for turning in a used printer so I got mine for $140.

I would recommend not buying replacement cartridges until the printer warns you that one is getting low (unless you have Staples rewards that will expire earlier).

I can't promise you that this printer will not have long term problems like nozzle clogging or leaking or whatever because I haven't had it that long but so far, I'm very happy with it. I never owned a laser printer, so I cannot offer a comparative evaluation.

 

[websnail]

If I were to have my time over I would probably recommend a set of 2 or more C84, C86 or C88 (D88 units in Europe) with the old style ARC chips on a decent bottle feed CIS and print batches of single pages before flipping and putting next page on (you can figure out the mechanics).

Reasoning being that they are/were good solid printers, pigmented ink, no faff chips and can handle heavier paper up to around 160gsm (no idea what that is in US paper terms).

Unfortunately they are nigh on ancient (10+ years old now) so difficult to get hold of but it would work with a well worked out system of what to print, flip, etc...

 

[Deus]

Agree.
But can't find the old printers anymore.
Also, if I'm correct, Epson WF 7015 is a host based printer?
Probably me, but I don't like that.

For booklet printing I can use something like fineprint.
Works flawlesly.

Friend printed some booklets with his epson stylus photo R800.
Other friend printed it on a color laser at work, a kyocera.
Lser looked much better, easier, more comfortable to read.

Not saying the inkjet was bad, is a choice one has to make.
Would go for inkjet purely for the payable A3(+) option.
but oh dear... seeing the clarity of the laser, also in the graphs and picture....
Starts me doubting again...

Someone advised the brother range.
As they are easy to refill and can print A3 to manual (it prints A4 documents landscape oriented).
But doesn't seem to get very good reviews...

Anyone experience with them?


Thanks an advance.