Marko
Established
Hi guys.
I search a A4 printer for b/w printing. It should be a printer that i can use with the "out of the box" inks. No third party inks (such as inksupply and so on) no A3 monster. Please help
--Marko
I search a A4 printer for b/w printing. It should be a printer that i can use with the "out of the box" inks. No third party inks (such as inksupply and so on) no A3 monster. Please help
--Marko
AirTimid
Member
You can check out the Yahoo group that specializes in B&W prints. I don't print, but i've been looking into it. I guess HP is good except 1) ink is expensive, especially the photo grey/black cartridge you'd be using for B&W. 2)your choice of paper is limited because it uses Dye inks(I think). It appears Epson is the company of choice when doing B&W only printing. A cheap starter would be to get a C86, c88 or R220 and the MIS specialty inks. The R220 is apparently hard to find, so the R340 should be a suitible replacement since it uses the same inks and is based off the same engine. Epson printers also allow the use of various papers. Drawbacks are 1) need to buy specialty black/grey inks, thus making your printer B&W only, unless you print with "black only", which works better on some printers vs others. Check this guys website, http://home1.gte.net/res0a2zt/photos.html , he is one of the gurus of B&W printing on the yahoo list. Very informative stuff. Good luck.
Marko
Established
Thanks for the answer. But it helps not very much. I need a simple solution for the printing. I have take a look on the HP Photosmart 8250. Is this printer okay? Many peoples on photo.net say, that this printer makes very good b/w prints with the Vivera inks.
AirTimid
Member
I'm sure it's a good printer, but it's limited by what I said above. The photo black ink cartridge is expensive and the choice of paper is essentially limited to the HP brand. If you wanted to print B/W and color, i'd probably go with the HP. If you were interested in a B/W only printer, i'd look into Epson options.
sf
Veteran
Marko said:Hi guys.
I search a A4 printer for b/w printing. It should be a printer that i can use with the "out of the box" inks. No third party inks (such as inksupply and so on) no A3 monster. Please help
--Marko
Canon IP5000
I have one, and people are constantly surprised by the prints. I took some down to Glazers Camera here in Seattle and they were all complimenting the printer.
And I am just using the color inks to print B&W. Amazing printer.
But, you could probably do better now. I bought it two years ago. The Epson R1800?
Artorius
Caribbean Traveler
Hp Dj 30
Hp Dj 30
You can get the calibration profiles on line at their site. I am doing 13x19" with no problems with the DJ 30.
Hp Dj 30
You can get the calibration profiles on line at their site. I am doing 13x19" with no problems with the DJ 30.
wdenies
wdenies
HP prints only on HP paper?
Before switching to Canon I used several brands (Permajet, Fuji,Ilford.....) in the HP.
BW printing without colour cast?
give your pictures a colour cast by quadtoning them (bronze,sepia,...) before printing
For Canon users: activate "grayscale printing" in the driver, slow but exellent results.
Before switching to Canon I used several brands (Permajet, Fuji,Ilford.....) in the HP.
BW printing without colour cast?
give your pictures a colour cast by quadtoning them (bronze,sepia,...) before printing
For Canon users: activate "grayscale printing" in the driver, slow but exellent results.
jlw
Rangefinder camera pedant
Marko has said he only wants an A4 printer; A4 is a European-standard size that corresponds to 8.26 x 11.69 inches. And he doesn't want to mess with third-party inksets. Most of the recommendations so far are good ones, but they are outside those parameters.
Marko, you haven't said anything about how much permanence you want or what paper surfaces you need; that could be important as well.
Without knowing any more, I'd say one to consider would be the Epson R800 (European model number may be slightly different.) This is a pigment-based printer that offers good permanence. It's like the R1800 printer but with an A4 carriage and a much more convenient size.
I use this printer and am reasonably satisfied with it. Its results for color printing are very nice; for b&w, it can produce good results if you're willing to spend some time tweaking the settings for each print.
The drawbacks I've noticed from it for critical b&w printing are a slight tendency toward "bronzing" (different reflectances in different tone areas when the print is viewed from an angle); sometimes not perfectly smooth transitions in light gray tones; and slight variations in tint between light and dark areas (compared to a perfectly neutral gray.)
Please understand that most people think the prints look fine; I'm speaking only of critical comparisons, the kind that an experienced b&w printer might make. But every inkjet printer I've tried falls somewhat short of a traditional "wet" print in these areas, so the R800 probably is as good as anything you'll find in the A4 size.
(The makers and partisans of all the special ink sets always claim they've solved all these problems; maybe they have, but I haven't got the patience to investigate them all, or to standardize on something that has to be special-ordered and might disappear as soon as its small manufacturer goes out of business! From your reluctance to consider third-party inksets I suspect you've drawn the same conclusions...)
Marko, you haven't said anything about how much permanence you want or what paper surfaces you need; that could be important as well.
Without knowing any more, I'd say one to consider would be the Epson R800 (European model number may be slightly different.) This is a pigment-based printer that offers good permanence. It's like the R1800 printer but with an A4 carriage and a much more convenient size.
I use this printer and am reasonably satisfied with it. Its results for color printing are very nice; for b&w, it can produce good results if you're willing to spend some time tweaking the settings for each print.
The drawbacks I've noticed from it for critical b&w printing are a slight tendency toward "bronzing" (different reflectances in different tone areas when the print is viewed from an angle); sometimes not perfectly smooth transitions in light gray tones; and slight variations in tint between light and dark areas (compared to a perfectly neutral gray.)
Please understand that most people think the prints look fine; I'm speaking only of critical comparisons, the kind that an experienced b&w printer might make. But every inkjet printer I've tried falls somewhat short of a traditional "wet" print in these areas, so the R800 probably is as good as anything you'll find in the A4 size.
(The makers and partisans of all the special ink sets always claim they've solved all these problems; maybe they have, but I haven't got the patience to investigate them all, or to standardize on something that has to be special-ordered and might disappear as soon as its small manufacturer goes out of business! From your reluctance to consider third-party inksets I suspect you've drawn the same conclusions...)
wintoid
Back to film
I have no direct experience, but I have "heard" that the HP8450 is very good at B+W (based on various magazine reviews). It also seems to be very cheap. I wouldn't want to recommend anything I haven't personally tried, but perhaps pop down to a local store to see one in action.
ampguy
Veteran
I've read one review so far
I've read one review so far
Where good results were had with Kodak's paper in the 8250, which was a bit less expensive than the premium HP. Let me know if you have trouble finding the review and I'll try to find it and post.
This was with the stock HP inks.
I've read one review so far
Where good results were had with Kodak's paper in the 8250, which was a bit less expensive than the premium HP. Let me know if you have trouble finding the review and I'll try to find it and post.
This was with the stock HP inks.
wdenies said:
Marko
Established
Thank you for your answers. I now owned one. He can also print on my beloved Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308g without problems. But now to the "shadow" site. I have make a printer profile with 935 metering fields. The colour prints looks wonderful with this profil but the b/w prints are ugly red/bronze! The printer simply ignore my photoshop profil for b/w and print with the ugly red/bronze!! I think the printer driver dont understand the photoshop instructions for greyscale. So this printer is not useable for b/w.