Almost photo quality printer

[gmff]

I need to replace my xerox phaser 860. I have used for printing documents and to do my "hartman style" quick proofs. 5 years ago when I got this printer it made about the best quality proofs and documents but the cost per peice was high and the print speed was about 3 per minute after the first which took about 3 minutes. Now to replace the thing and have other questions if someone can help.
1) Do laser printers offer near photo quality copy, what brand and model and about what is the cost per print?
2) What print speed are laser printers or other printers.
3) Can anyone recommend another type of printer.
Thanks,
George

[Tom Swaman]

IMHO, photo quality is in the eyes of the beholder. The best, IMHO, photo qua;lity laser printer is that made by OKIDATA. You can purchase the c3400n for $300 U.S. and it is positively darn good, i.e. not as good as a pigment-base ink, profesional printer in resulte, but as good or better in its reliability.

[EOS_JD]

Originally Posted by gmff

1) Do laser printers offer near photo quality copy, what brand and model and about what is the cost per print?

Not really photo-quality but not too bad. You can get pretty decent results but they are not near as good as even a cheap inkjet. I have a cheap Epson that does a great job but I don't use it to proof as my inkject can provide better more detailed prints.

Originally Posted by gmff

2) What print speed are laser printers or other printers.

Mine is slow at only 4 colour pagers per minute but as you increase spend, the speed increases. Some offer 20ppm in colour.... Speed varies greatly. Cheaper = slower and generllay the more expensive lasers are faster.

Originally Posted by gmff

3) Can anyone recommend another type of printer.

Dye Sublimination have excellent quality but are pretty slow I believe. Other than that, a cheap inkjet should be better although likely to be more expensive running costs.

[SquirrelDip]

I'm using an HP 2605 (the 5 adds duplex) - quality is not bad. I use/reuse many cheap frames from Ikea as the quality gets better behind glass.

On the cheap side I'll send to Costco.ca in the evening and pick up on my way home from work the next day - 18 cents for 4x6 and only $3 for 12x18. For the "keepers" there's a couple of good local printing options that offer online service.

Even though there are some excelent inkjet options, I've given up on them because I don't print often enough - cost per page goes through the roof when your heads keep drying up...