Photo printer and office document printer .. one and the same ?

[Rupert49]

I am taking early retirement in September and before then I plan to equip myself with a new computer with a nice quality monitor with Photoshop use in mind, plus the latest version of Adobe Photoshop Elements, a high resolution film/document scanner and a decent quality photographic printer. It'll probably amuse many that at the moment I do all my photo stuff on my five year old work-supplied laptop, with Elements 3 as my editing suite and the local Snappy Snaps as my printer

I believe I shall also need a deskjet type printer for ordinary documents - at least that's what I assume, hence my question: do photo enthusiasts need two printers (one for office documents, one for glossy photographs up to A3) or does something like the Epson R2880 also print office paper documents, and if so does it only use a fraction of the expensive multiple ink cartridge when it does so, i.e. does it depend on the paper used (80gsm for office stuff, nice glossy photo grade paper for pictures)?

Any thoughts on the subject would be extremely welcome as I'm totally new to this area of the digital age and I only intend to purchase a good qualty home set-up the once

[Benchista]

Ignoring the printer for a second, Elements 7 is (just) under £50 at Cameraworld right now.

Personally, on the printer front, I've always used the same (A3) one for documents and prints. You'll need a fair bit of space to run two printers, for one thing.

[john_g]

...or does something like the Epson R2880 also print office paper documents, and if so does it only use a fraction of the expensive multiple ink cartridge when it does so...

You do need to look into this carefully. I don't have the answer for you, but you should be aware that all the A3 printers I know of use separate ink cartridges for each ink, not multiple inks per cartridge. This is clearly a good thing as you'll never have to discard a cartridge that hasn't been completely exhausted but one thing to watch out for with the Epson R2880 is that it has two black cartridges - one for matte black and one for photo black. If the papers you use necessitate swapping these, it'll not only be inconvenient, it'll also waste a lot of ink because the printer has to purge the black feed when the inks are swapped. Others, who actually own one of these will be able to give a fuller answer than I can but at least now you know to look out for it.

A great place for printer reviews and discussion is http://www.photo-i.co.uk/

[Rupert49]

Thanks John, this is really helpful; by the sound of things two printers will probably be required. Thanks also for the review link

[The Circle Of Confusion]

A lot depends on what sort of thing you will be printing. At work I have a laser printer for day to day user (invoices, user manuals etc) and an inkjet for pretty pictures. We used to have only the inkjet but running costs were high and it was soooooo slow for text documents. In our case we use the laser the most and the inkjet occasionally. But if your volume of basic text documents is low and you mostly print photos then just buy an inkjet (that's the setup I have at home)

[Rupert49]

... which really confirms what I suspected, that two printers will probably be the optimum set-up, in spite of extra space considerations.

However, do current computers have two printer output connections? That might actually be the decider!

[john_g]

The vast majority connect via USB, so it's really not a problem - if you run out of ports, you just buy a hub for a tenner or so.

[Monobod]

You can print documents using the photo black ink. You do not need to repalce it with the matte ink for this. The matte ink is only required for printing photos on high quality matte papers.

I have only ever used one printer for all my output and it works fine. Using the photo inkjet for documents also means you use it more often, which helps to keep the heads from blocking due to drying out.

[Rupert49]

Thanks for this helpful info David.

If I print quite a lot of documents regularly (e.g. 'How To' stuff from the internet) would the cost in inks be much higher when using a dedicated photo printer (such as Epson R2880) than, say, my current HP 960c (deskjet) printer?

Regards, Rupert

[Fen]

I use two printers, an old Epson 1290s for photo printing and a HP LaserThingy for documents.

If I used the Epson for documents I run out of ink in no time at all. Much better to have the two separate ones in my opinion. The HP is also plugged into the hub and I can connect wireless to it from the laptop

[ermintrude]

I use the Epson for everything, but if its a document I set it to Black and Economy.

[Nod]

I use an old HP LaserJet for documents (although it's not working at the moment for some reason - good job I haven't needed to do large runs for a while!) and photo quality inkjets for photos (and other colour documents). Take up a faior amount of space but save money! (The LaserJet was an office cast-off from a friend (with a full toner tank) and I picked up a spare toner from Smith's for a fiver.)

[Rupert49]

Take up a fair amount of space but save money!

And that's ultimately what it comes down to I think. I really can't see myself running off office type documents on an expensive Epson R2880, which I will have purchased specifically to produce exhibition quality prints from images that I will have lovingly nurtured in Photoshop!

[Monobod]

Printing documents on a photo printer, using the 'draft quality' setting is economic, fast and produces excellent quality as well. My Pro 3800 draft quality is very acceptable and fast for Word documents and pdf's.

[Prenzie]

I have never posted to a forum before, so please forgive anything odd! I notice you mention that when using the Epson R2880 at home you use it for printing correspondence etc. as well as your photos. I have been doing this for some months, but find that the ink use for a black and white text document is quite high. Is there a setting I should use to cut down on the printer using all eight inks when only black is needed? I choose "plain papers" and "greyscale" on the print menu and use the matte ink cartridge. (I notice another contributor recommends just using the gloss black for office stuff and only use the matte cartridge for printing monochrome photography work on art paper.) This would make my life a lot easier too! I haven't room for two printers at home, so I bought the printer for photos, but do need occasionally to print out correspondence and would like to minimize ink usage if possible. I hope you can help. Regards, Carolyn

[digitravel]

The same as David.... naturally

[ermintrude]

Is there a setting I should use to cut down on the printer using all eight inks when only black is needed? I choose "plain papers" and "greyscale" on the print menu and use the matte ink cartridge.

In Print Settings I select Plain Paper and Black, and also in Mode I select Advanced and Economy. (I use the R2400 btw but I don't imagine it's very different).

[Prenzie]

Thank you so much (sorry I am not sure who I am saying thank you to), the curse of the newbie! I have slightly different options with plain paper being plain papers and no option of black. That may be the problem. I have the option of colour or greyscale and I suppose the printer is using all the black cartridges to produce the printed page.

I have tried to work out how to place a jpeg onto the page as you have done to show you my print options. Not sure how succcesful it is. So many learning curves......

Thanks again, Carolyn
[image]http://img195.imageshack.us/i/printdialoguebox.jpg/[/image]

[Prenzie]

Just in case someone finds this useful. I have spent an hour in an on line chat with Epson and the printer or 'firmware' as they call it, has been updated. It no longer prints in just black. Greyscale is the only option and that uses several (if not all) of the cartridges. So printing correspondence is going to continue to cost me a fortune.

Be advised - if you want a printer for photo work and office documents, don't buy the R2880. It was sold with a 'black only' option, their web site actually tells you how to use it. But it is no longer available unless (presumably) you have a printer which is not updated. I am astonished and fed up. I keep hoping the guy on line didn't know what he was talking about and I will find out that all I need is a new printer driver! A forlorn hope I guess!

Thanks for your help guys, I need a G&T (or a cup of tea)!

[Fen]

To be honest, I would never buy a photo printer (even an A4 one) to use as a document printer. I've got an Epson A3 printer that is just for photos and a Brother laser printer that is for documents.