What Printer: Is good for DVD Covers
 

AS the title states what is a good or great printer to print cover art the best clear and crisp?

i asked the very same question on another site. got a good reply from the site mod. take a peek here.

i managed to source a Konica Minolta Magicolor 5440 DL.
but have not come round to printing off my covers yet.

- Color lasers are best for printing graphics/artwork.
- Very high end inkjets ($500+) for printing photos on photo-grade paper.

Most sub-$500 consumer inkjets are worthless money pits, with lousy quality that fades in a few years. I have laser prints from 15 years ago that are still as crisp and colorful as the first days they were printed!

You can't tell the difference between a laser color print, and a retail DVD case, unless you look very closely, or outright remove the paper from the case. An ink printed case is easily spotted, sometimes from many feet away. This assumes the artwork is good, of course -- quality design, good resolution of images, not shoddy amateur (stretched images, etc)

This Konica/Minolta is only $110: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B001Q3KMUI
That's a steal.
Years and years ago, a color laser was a MINIMUM of about $400.

A lot of people cry about toner (laser "ink") replacement costs, but they falsely assume they'll be buying new ones every few weeks/months, like they did on their old piece-o-crap inkjet. That's just not the case. You can literally go for YEARS without replacing toner carts, depending on how often you print. You can easily get 500-1,000 full color prints from a single cartridge rack.

Breakdown per cover is anywhere from $1-3 each, depending on the paper you use, and your model of printer.
Inkjet, by contrast, tends to be up to double that per-page cost!
You'll run through dozens of crappy little ink tanks before you'll hit the output capacity of a single laser toner cartridge.

question: when you buy a new KM 1600W, does the printer come with all the toners?

question: do i need to buy toners specifically for the 5440 DL or will any magicolor toner do?

New laser printers usually come with "low capacity" or "standard capacity" toner carts.
I've never seen a laser of any kind packaged without toner ready to use.

Then you can buy your own "high capacity" carts. (Or standard ones, if you want to lower your upfront toner costs.)

... Let's call these SC and HC, for convenience...

Laser toner is single color cartridges: C, M, Y and K --- or cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K)
(I forget why black is 'K' instead of 'B' -- too many years since college. It's an antiquated printing term, and I forget what it was.)

My HC carts, for my older model Minolta, as a cost example, are $70 for K, and $110 for each of C, M and Y. So $400 to replace them. But I never replace them all at once! Black tends to go earliest. The SC carts are about 25% less price, but about 50% less toner. Not a great deal there. Like the ink industry, and their non-refill scam, toner runs the scam of making the SC's easy to find, but the HC's can only be bought online. The local OfficeMax/etc also charges about the same $$$ for the SC's as the HC's cost online.

CDW sells a lot of these to businesses, government, education sector, etc. (via purchase orders)
Consumers should go to Amazon.

does this ebay seller seem legit?

is the seller "remanufacturing" the toner properly?
or is it a scam?

could i refill the toner myself?

reply to post #6 - all 4 toners cost $400. a 2nd 1600W with SC toners $110. so you get spare toners and a printer on standby!

does that make sense?

Yea I am on there but where I was when posted wasnt able to access digitalfaq due to Firewalls

You could access this site, but not that one?
I need to know more about that. Who would be firewalling that site? [xx(] :mad:

No, it does not make sense.
For my printer, SC = 1500, HC = 4500
It's a break-even sort of deal, and comes with extra printer.
Get 1/3rd capacity for 1/4th cost.

And then you have to make room for a second printer. [xx(]

Technically, the price is better in this specific case, yes, but not by much.

And then not all new printer models come with SC carts, they come with "sample" type cartridges that are comparable to half-filled SC carts. I've had three color Minolta models, and all came with SC carts. Of course, those were all $400+ models, too.

Regardless, $100 is a good buy for the printer, and $400 is fair for the "ink" (which will likely last many months, if not longer).

Another thought...

Laser also doesn't dry, and make you waste half an ink cart on test prints to "clean" the nozzles. That's the #1 thing that pissed me off about inkjets. All that expensive ink wasted because the head nozzles clog and dry. Laser doesn't have that issue, because toner is a dry powder that is laser adhered to the paper.