I'm currently drooling over this printer for affordable high-res large format printing: HP Designjet 130nr<br>I'm specifically attracted by the 24"x50' printing, which would be great for panoramas..<br><br>I'd appreciate any thoughts on the subject.. Many thanks <br><br>Edit: Yes, this would be for studio/commercial use and not home use <br><br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by walzuhair on 11/18/04 08:51 AM (server time).</EM></FONT></P>

I've been looking at several options for the agency I work for and had demo units in the shop for testing. There are two that just produced better results faster than all the rest (including the HP DJ130)<br><br>The Epson 7600<br>For roll-fed printers in the $3,000 and under price range, this one is great.<br><br><br>Epson 4000<br>For desktop printing 17x22" (flat sheet or roll-feed) full bleed at superior color output from 7-color UltraChrome inks, with a Colorburst RIP, ethernet built-in, and the ability to manually feed card stock up to 1.5mm thick. We've been using it as full contract press-proofs and it's just superior in every way except speed (it isn't slow, but you won't get super-fast prints like you would with an HP 5550 DeskJet or anything like that).<br><br><br><br>

Thanks Jim, the was very helpful <br><br>The Epson Stylus Pro 4000 sounds nice with included RIP, ethernet, and firwire.. Not forgetting its 220ml ink cartridge that would be very useful in printing panoramas without risking running out of ink. However, I've had bad experiences with Epson with our dry weather here; the print heads get clogged and the printer needs to spend a week at the shop for print head replacement.<br><br>HP's prices for consumables are much less than Epson here.. HP ink+head = Epson ink.. The HP print heads can be replaced by my 12 year old son, so no technical engineer is needed for consumable-level maintenance.<br><br>Do you remember what you didn't like about the HP Designjet 130?<br><br>Thanks again,<br>Waleed<br><br>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Do you remember what you didn't like about the HP Designjet 130?<p><hr></blockquote><p>The image quality was sub-par, in my opinion, for a printer of that price. It looked no better than my $129 HP Deksjet 5550 - just bigger. The HP WAS faster though, and yes, the inks are cheaper here in the U.S. as well.<br><br>Many years ago I also had problems with the print heads on Epson printers clogging (I live in the desert too, remember! ) But to be honest, I think they've solved that problem since then, at least in my experience they have. However, I've also made it a point to print a very small color bar every day to keep the nozzles clean.<br><br>

I just upgraded my home printer to the <a href="http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=117&modelid=9870" target="printer" <em> Canon i9900 </em> </a>, and I LOVE IT !!<br>It prints up to 13"x 19" fast and beautiful (around 1 minute 30 seconds!), 4" x 6" prints take about 30 seconds to print. And as an added plus the ink cartidges last a very very long time, with replacement costs around $10.00 each. <br>And they don't run out at the same time, which can be a relief. I believe Amazon has it for a bit over $400.<br><br>

It's been a few years since I've done large format output, but I always disliked the HP inkjets. Thye may have changed, but I could always tell a print from an HP due to subtle (but noticable to me) lines that ran the length of the print. <br><br>

I have seen prints from the Canon i9900 and I was very impressed!<br><br>

anyone know how the Canon i9900, or these others for that matter, would stack up against an Epson 2200 or 1280, both of which we have in the office for inkjets.<br><br>essentially, we are looking for ink jets that give the same if not better print quality, but FASTER on 11x17 prints<br><br>suggestions?<br>

Depending on what you want to use your printer for, you might want to look at this too.<br><br>

That's a great site drjohn, thanks <br><br>