Sublimation printers

[bms]

Is that just too sensible?

Absolutely - now back to the real world

[bikertec]

I have a epson BX310FN and a epson SX115 lying about which have not been used i was wondering would one of these or both be suitable to use as a sublimation printer

Sorry Matthew, these printers are supported with either an ink system or profile. You options for a supported printer, colour management and inks are going to be:
A4: Ricoh GXe3300 (ICC Profile or PowerDriver - supplied)
A4: Epson B40W (ICC Profile - supplied)
A3: Epson B1100 (ICC Profile - supplied)
A3: Epson Photo 1400 (ICC Profile - supplied)
A3: Ricoh GX7000 (ICC Profile or PowerDriver - supplied)

These are in price assending order! The ICC profiles are for use with PhotoShop or CorelDraw whereas the PowerDrive software can be used with any software.

This is fine if you want an a3 printer but could you recommend an a4 printer that has supported color management.

Cheers Mick.

[bms]

A4: Ricoh GXe3300 (ICC Profile or PowerDriver - supplied)
A4: Epson B40W (ICC Profile - supplied)

[bikertec]

Thankyou There must be more than just one epson seeing this one is quite expensive for a a4. I persume your paying for the wireless connection.

[bms]

Epson discontinued the previously supported A4 printer which was the D120. There is just the one current A4 Epson printer supported at present which is the B40W. Problem is with buying a cheap A4 printer is that the printers aren't made that well, so Sawgrass tend to go for printers that will stand printing daily rather than the cheap entry level printers which may be more useful for occasional home printing.

[JSR]

If you go for an A4 printer, be wary of how quickly they change. Epson in particular seem to have a "revolving door policy" when it comes to A4 printers in which they change their models quicker than they change their socks.

For example, the Epson 1290 (A3) was around for 6-7 years before it was replaced by the Epson 1400 (which itself has now been around for about three years). Compare that to their A4 printers and I wouldn't have the space here to list all the numbers they've gone through. Just in the dye-sub arena, the A4 models went from D88, to R285, to D120, to B40W in about 2-3 years - and for what? A4 printers seem to have a 6 month turnaround cycle.

If you buy a set-up complete with CISS and you want to be sure that you won't have to replace your whole set-up if your printer fails, consider investing in an A3 model. Either that, or buy a second A4 model for backup right off the bat.

Of course, the ideal solution would be for the people who make loads of profit from the high price of ink to actually make and support the printer themselves - but that'd be far too sensible. It's what happens in the regular printing arena (you buy Epson inks, Epson invest in R&D for the printer) - but it doesn't happen in the dye-sub arena (you buy the inks, you have to change your printer every six months).

[Claretman]

Hi

Think I may have asked this before, but bought a new Epson B1100 and as yet not got round to using it with the CISS. Says it comes with an ICC profile but if it's not a daft question where do I find that? regards Steve

[JSR]

Hi

Think I may have asked this before, but bought a new Epson B1100 and as yet not got round to using it with the CISS. Says it comes with an ICC profile but if it's not a daft question where do I find that? regards Steve

The ICC profile tells the printer how to work with the supplied ink and paper. For third-party inks (which is what sublimation is), the ICC profile should be available from your ink supplier.

The printer itself only comes with ICC profiles designed for Epson OEM ink and Epson OEM paper. These profiles are no good for using third-party inks.

[Claretman]

Hi JSR, many thanks for that, think I've got the gist of it now, cheers Steve