FAQ: Which Printer?

[tlworkwear]

I'm assuming CPP means cost per print.

[Sawgrass]

@Sawgrass: Thanks a lot for your reply . what does it means CPP? sorry i am really new in this field. As you said earlier, a set of inks for the R-3110 retails at £175, is that including tax and delivery cost? So that means if I don't found ink for 3110, I can use R-3300, right? how much it ll cost me in total. Thanks

CPP = Cost per print. Check any of our dealers for MSRP for our inks, whether for a 3110 or a 3300

[mags1892]

Slightly incorrect about all printers using ICC profiles infact all Epsons etc do in fact install ICC however a std setup on epson will use its own CLT colour lookup tables which are built into the printer. You can edit this with sliders in the print driver or indeed switch to using ICM/ICC proflies for a slightly different result.

Making your own profiles for Sublimation is notoriously difficult as we really need to measure the colours from the final printed product, On Mugs this is very hard and costly as the charts will need to be printed over many mugs, on Tees its even harder as the grain or pattern within the garment will have no ink in parts and cause a misread in the spectrophotometer, then again you should also use a spectro with a UV filter to combat problems in white tees with optical brightener (used to make white look brighter) this will also cause misreading in icc profiling.

[GoonerGary]

I think this thread is missing a list of dye sub friendly printers, so people can actually choose a printer. Should we start one?

Here are some for starters. Some printers may be discontinued, but available second hand.

Ricoh SG 3110DN
Ricoh SG 7100DN
Ricoh GX e3300N
Ricoh GX 5050
Ricoh GX7000
Ricoh GX e7700N

Epson 4015 DN
Epson WF7015
Epson R300
Epson Stylus Photo 1500W
Epson Artisan 1430
Epson Stylus C88/C88+
Epson Stylus C120
Epson Workforce 30
Epson Workforce 1100
Epson Workforce 7010
Epson Stylus 1280
Epson Stylus 1400
Epson Stylus R1800
Epson Stylus R1900
Epson Stylus 4800/4000

Epson SC-T3000
Epson SC-T Series
Epson 7700
Epson 9700
Epson 7890/9890
Epson 4450

Brother MFC-J5910DW

An up to date list of Sawgrass supported printers can be found here:

http://www.sawgrasseurope.com/consumer- ... ters/epson

http://www.sawgrasseurope.com/consumer- ... ters/ricoh

[pisquee]

Any piezo-headed (mainly Epson in small format world) inkjet printer that you can get refillable cartridges for, is technically dye-sub friendly once you've got an ICC profile made. A specific list of all of Epson's printers which have refillable carts (or CISS systems) available for them would be pretty big that I don't think it would be much help.

The first post in the thread I thought explained this concept ... does it need updating?

[GoonerGary]

Assuming that a newcomer knows what a piezo headed printer is and whether that printer is 'supported' or not. It can only reduce the confusion and learning curve if you are told in black and white which printer to choose? People end up buying unsuitable printers or buying a bundle kit with a crappy B1100 in it not knowing they could have had a choice. The list makes a good starting point to check out reviews and prices that's all.

[Paul]

but your list does not say what printer is supported and what one isn't and you just called supported B1100 "crappy" printer now this would well confuse newcomers...

[GoonerGary]

All I do then is add the word supported to the top of the list! The B1100 isn't in the list because people have had so many problems with it.

[pisquee]

People have problems with lots of printer models but a lot of the time this is down to user error, and no fault of the printer.
Supported is too broad a term to use, as there is more than one sublimation ink manufacturer out there, and more than one of them offers support/warranties.
The first post in the thread says that you can go with the Sawgrass supported route, or go it on your own, and gives good guidance on the pros and cons of both.
The main problem does seem to be people don't actually read this thread, and so the same questions still get asked which are all answered here.

[GoonerGary]

The above list is for guidance and contains all of the current supported printers, you can of course use any good quality sublimation ink in those printers, Rotech, Artainium, Inktec have been my personal choices over the years. With Inktec being the 'do it yourself' method for larger printers.

My annoyance with the 'authorized' market is that you are guided into buying a particular printer with a certain ink brand. If I want to use Artainium ink, I'm expected to choose from a list of four printers:
http://www.sawgrasseurope.com/consumer- ... tainium-uv

But I don't want that printer, I want my own choice of printer or an A4 printer with my trusted brand of ink going back years. So you buy refill carts and use whichever ink you prefer.