Best B&W A4 Printer?

[Leigh Youdale]

So, for those of us who don't have the space or the money for a top of the line A3+ Epson, Canon or HP printer, what is the best small (A4) printer for black and white digital printing?
They all seem somewhat compromised by an inability to fit enough cartridges into the chassis to emulate their big brothers, but there must be at least one that produces a high quality output?

 

[wintoid]

Epson R800?

 

[robbo]

I second that. The R800 has Photo and Matte Black cartridges

 

[Fuchs]

I'd rather go for any of the HP printers with Photo Gray inks. They have a photo black and two more shades of gray, so grayscale prints have a larger tonal range and less metamerism than other printers using color inks to render gray tones.
I have an old Deskjet 9800 (it prints up to A3+) that with the right papers can rival in tonal range printers costing ca.10 times more. I'm sure there is an A4 newer version of this one.

 

[januaryman]

What about the Epson R2880? I picked up a refurb with a coupon and paid just over $500 for it. Free shipping at Epson.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Epson refurbished 1400 (~$200) plus the U14 black and white inkset from inksupply.com ($100). Add a copy of Quadtone RIP ($50) and print out of that. That's what I've got and it works beautifully.

 

[Paul Roark]

For lots of information on B&W digital printing and printers, see http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/

I also have a lot of info on my website, below.

(I know this is a bit late, but I'm new to the forum.)

Paul
http://www.paulroark.com/
http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/

 

[Robin P]

I'll second the suggestion for an HP, check that the model you choose has the option for Photo Grey ink (some don't).
I get luxurious B&W prints from my HP on Ilford Galerie Classic paper.

Cheers, Robin

 

[KEH]

Good to see Paul has joined the forum. I am very happy with the Epson 1400, MIS ink, Quadtone RIP combo. Steep learning curve for the RIP, but worth it. Once you are competent with the RIP then a whole variety of inksets are possible - I am using the MIS UTFSN inks at the moment.

Kirk

 

[NDAv]

Epson R800 is a one of the worst black and white printer out there. It lacks the light grey, light cyan and light magenta inks that Epson uses for neutral black and white. The R800 is no longer in production anyways.

The best 8.5x11 black and white printers now are Canon MP990 and ip4700. Like all Canon printers, they both have grayscale mode that disables the colour inks for neutral black and white. The ip4700 has fine enough ink droplet size (1 picolitre) so that smooth tones are possible even without the grey ink. The MP990 is the same but it still has a dedicated grey ink tank for even smoother tones, not only for black and white but also smoother tones for colour printing.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. In the end I bought an Epson R2880, which of course is a different beast to the A4 size I started asking about. Very tempted by the 1400 quad tone setup, but my wife had something to say about her needs!