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Best Printer for Prototyping?

13 replies [Last post]
Sun, 01/30/2005 - 18:53
Anonymous

Hey all, sorry to litter this forum with another "Best to.. / How do I..." post but I didn't really see this anywhere else.

Although I'm new to this site, I do a fair bit of design on my games. I am looking to actually start printing some prototypes, and this leads me to a new printer purchase to do so? So, what's the best printer for this? I am looking to buy a color laser printer that will handle most labelled and pre-perforated items well.

Anyone have any advice from experience? From reading here, I have heard good things about the HP Color LaserJet 4500 but I just wanted to get some more feedback.

Thanks,
-Scott

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Sun, 01/30/2005 - 19:07
#1
Scurra
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Best Printer for Prototyping?

I'm using a Xerox Phaser, but it's got horrifyingly high running costs. OTOH the quality is sensational... It's handled most things I've put through it too, although I haven't tried anything exceptionally weird. :)

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Sun, 01/30/2005 - 19:14
#2
Anonymous
Best Printer for Prototyping?

The Phasers DO look interesting... which model are you using? Briefly looking online, they seem to range from $1000 - $6500 depending on model.

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Sun, 01/30/2005 - 19:32
#3
Hamumu
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Best Printer for Prototyping?

Well I don't know anything about best, but my Minolta 2300DL is a color laser that's way cheaper than your normal color laser, and I've been extremely happy with results. Costs around $700 I think. In the long run I think it's cheaper than inkjet, due to the toner lasting much longer.

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Sun, 01/30/2005 - 22:59
#4
Zzzzz
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Best Printer for Prototyping?

Look into the Epson Stylus Photo 2200

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=20306147

If I had the money right now, I would pick one up. Coworker has one and the printing is amazing. It also seems to handle thicker paper pretty well, the watercolor paper they promote is almost coverstock thickness. So card prototypes on coverstock should work (though I do not know for sure).

Another positive, the 7-color UltraChrome™ individual ink cartridges. Less ink wasted and most of the cartridges are about $6 on the net!

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Mon, 01/31/2005 - 10:52
#5
Anonymous
Best Printer for Prototyping?

Zzzzz wrote:
Look into the Epson Stylus Photo 2200

Looks sweet! I like that it can print 13" wide by up to 44" long paper. You can print half of a full sized game board (including full bleed and crop marks).

I print some of my color work on an old Epson Color Stylus 3000 (still in their current line up of printers). I have been very pleased with the results (though you can't line up the fronts and backs of a page with any consistency).

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Mon, 01/31/2005 - 13:40
#6
Scurra
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Best Printer for Prototyping?

sparker wrote:
The Phasers DO look interesting... which model are you using? Briefly looking online, they seem to range from $1000 - $6500 depending on model.

I've got an 8200 - which was promptly slashed in price about the week after I bought one to make way for the 8300 ;-((

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Mon, 01/31/2005 - 13:59
#7
CDRodeffer
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Best Printer for Prototyping?

I use an HP 4600 DN. The automatic duplexing is wonderful for making cards that line up on both sides, and the colors are rich. The down side is that a full set of toner cartridges will run you $1000. The up side is that a full set of toner cartridges will probably last 10,000 pages or more, depending upon your coverage, which is still a heck of a lot cheaper than any inkjet I've seen.

Clark

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Mon, 01/31/2005 - 14:19
#8
phpbbadmin
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Best Printer for Prototyping?

CDRodeffer wrote:
I use an HP 4600 DN. The automatic duplexing is wonderful for making cards that line up on both sides, and the colors are rich. The down side is that a full set of toner cartridges will run you $1000. The up side is that a full set of toner cartridges will probably last 10,000 pages or more, depending upon your coverage, which is still a heck of a lot cheaper than any inkjet I've seen.

Clark

Clark,

I never thought about that (Duplexing). Does duplexing guarantee proper registration of double sided material? Do they make a wide carriage duplexing inkjet? Or affordable color laser?

-Darke

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Mon, 01/31/2005 - 14:32
#9
CDRodeffer
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Best Printer for Prototyping?

Darkehorse wrote:
I never thought about that (Duplexing). Does duplexing guarantee proper registration of double sided material? Do they make a wide carriage duplexing inkjet? Or affordable color laser?
Those are questions I can't really answer, except to say I've never had a problem printing duplex to line things up. There are probably large format duplexing color laser printers out there, but I don't know anything about that.

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Mon, 01/31/2005 - 15:03
#10
phpbbadmin
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Best Printer for Prototyping?

Hmmm apparently this printer can do duplex and wide printing.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06b/18972-236251-236261-14438-...

It seems to me that the ink would smear when you tried to duplex it.

-Darke

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Mon, 01/31/2005 - 15:52
#11
Anonymous
Best Printer for Prototyping?

CDRodeffer wrote:
There are probably large format duplexing color laser printers out there...

I know that the HP laser printers that I have used can reliably line up 2 sided printing, while the several different Epson ink jets cannot.

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Mon, 07/25/2005 - 18:04
#12
markmist
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Printer problems

I have an epson printer (CX3200) that I have been using to print cards on card stock (110 lb.) I have been happy with the quality of the printing and the printer handles the card stock with no problem.

What is driving me nuts is that it does not reliably line-up printing on both sides!!! One page could line up perfect. The next page might be off slightly, but still acceptable. Then the next page will be way off!! There is no way to predict it, and I have wasted much ink and paper because of this problem.

Does anyone know what an alternative is? Should I take my files to Kinkos and try to print them there? I did my graphics in Macromedia Fireworks (yes that is an odd choice, but it is what I learned), so I am assuming I need to convert the files to jpgs.

Other ideas?

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Mon, 07/25/2005 - 22:47
#13
FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Best Printer for Prototyping?

I don't have any suggestions on lining up the printer, but I did want to suggest that you're better of saving them out as TIFF or PNG from Fireworks, if you can. Still reasonably sized, but better quality.

-- Matthew

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