Printer suggestions

derrabe

Senior Member
I have gotten to the point that I want to replace my inkjet printer for something better for photo printing. My budget is under 300$ and the ink cardridges I would like to be lower cost for replacement and/or refillable. I also what something I can calibrate. Currently my printer does not have calibrations and is not getting my photos even close to what I show on my screens. I have played with brightness, contrast and some of the other settings on the printer and when I think I have it where I want it the next time is way off again and I have to set it up differently again wasting several sheets to get something acceptable. Is it really that hard to find one that will come close to replicating the way it is displayed on a monitor.

BTW sorry if this is not the right section for this question, but I didnt see anywhere else that looked like a better choice.
 
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Scott Murray

Senior Member
I have gotten to the point that I want to replace my inkjet printer for something better for photo printing. My budget is under 300$ and the ink cardridges I would like to be lower cost for replacement and/or refillable. I also am something calibratable. Currently my print does not have calibrations and is not getting my photos even close to what I show on my screens. I have played with brightness, contrast and some of the other settings on the printer and when I think I have it where I want it the next time is way off again and I have to set it up differently again wasting several sheets to get something acceptable. Is it really that hard to find one that will come close to replicating the way it is displayed on a monitor.

Is your monitor calibrated?
 

derrabe

Senior Member
Yes I have used a X-Rite Colormunki Display(HW) and DisplayCAL (SW) on them about once a month. My pictures look the fine when I post them and view them on other devices, just dont print how they look. My current printer is Brother MFC-J870W
 
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Fred Kingston

Senior Member
You need to research, understand, and how to do "soft-proofing"...there are extensive tutorials on the subject. It's the process of using your software to edit images as it uses ICC files that match your printer's paper characteristics.
 

jtk

Senior Member
6 mths ago I was also in this position, after asking one of my professional photography friends he suggested the Canon Pixma iP8750 which is an A3 printer & uses 6 ink cartridges, over here in Ireland the cheapest deal I could find anywhere was PC World €330 instead of €450 (I know I could have ordered it online & possibly get it next day but I really wanted to buy as locally as possible)
After calibrating my screen (HP Envy 23" all-in-one) I'm still having a bit of difficulty getting it setup to print exactly what I see on the screen in LR, but PS appears to be doing a better job so that's what I'm doing... After using it for a good few inter-club competitions etc I'm very happy with it.
 

Fortkentdad

Senior Member
I have an Epson Artisian 837 and like it.
Not sure about pricing. Looked up on line and the Artisan 1430 is available in Canada for $300.

I would recommend printers that take more than three colour cartridges. Mine take five colour cartridges plus a black.
 

Danno

Senior Member
I purchased the Canon Pro 100. Love it. It did take a while for me to get comfortable with it, but it does a good job and I have found a source for ink and how to refill the cartridges. What Fred said about soft proofing in Lightroom is true. I did not really understand it, but I have finally learned a bit about it and it is helpful in getting your printed images the way you like.

I bought mine for very cheap after the $250 rebate. I am not sure if that is still in place.

I will also recomend a man name Jose Rodriguez on Youtube. He talks about printing with the Pro 100 and the refilling process. Below is his link. I learned quite a bit watching his videos.

https://www.youtube.com/user/cheo1949
 

bandit993

Senior Member
I bought an Epson P400. I know that is above your budget, but, to be honest I don't find it much better than my last Epson printer (WF633). I think all Epson's do a great job. I agree that the more cartridges, the better the print.
 

derrabe

Senior Member
You need to research, understand, and how to do "soft-proofing"...there are extensive tutorials on the subject. It's the process of using your software to edit images as it uses ICC files that match your printer's paper characteristics.
I have been banging my head on this suggestion for a good portion of the weekend. Can you direct me to some of these tutorials you have mentioned as the ones I have found do not seem to be tutorials more so a what it is. Also I have been searching for an ICC file or how to create one for my printer with no luck any suggestions for this as well would be helpful.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Printing & Soft Proofing « Julieanne Kost's Blog

Above is a link to several tutorials discussing the subject.

ICC files are created by paper manufacturers for their papers. Goto their web sites, and download their ICC files... their web sites will contain directions on how to do this...

Soft proofing is an editing work flow for editing a file with a specific ICC file so that what you see on your screen is what actually gets printed. Different papers have different characteristics and profiles when an inkjet squirts ink on them. ICC profiles are created by the paper folks to compensate for the different color characteristics of their papers...

Your calibrated monitor is adjusted to display an image for that monitor. A monitor displays an image considerably differently than what a printer produces... The soft proofing process eliminates all the blind printing that folks do to get a print that closely matches what they see on their screens.
 

derrabe

Senior Member
ICC files are created by paper manufacturers for their papers. Goto their web sites, and download their ICC files... their web sites will contain directions on how to do this...

I have canon photo paper for my Brother MFC-j870DW but have been unable to locate the icc for their paper on thier site. This is the one I am currently using.

https://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/glossy-photo-paper-gp-701-4x6-50-sheets

Maybe I am just in the wrong spot but the only thing I have been able to find is ICC profiles for their printers for 3rd party papers
 

derrabe

Senior Member
What profiles do you see when you open the Profiles drop-down? Looks like any Glossy paper will work...

Capture.JPG

This is what I have currently and I have tried the photo print and now even close
 
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Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Probably correct. You need to load the photo into an editor that supports soft proofing. I use Lightroom. Once you do that, you basically edit the photo using an ICC file for that paper/printer... then once you've edited the image, then you print the image using that ICC file..

Simply selecting an ICC file in a Brother print program won't do anything...
 

derrabe

Senior Member
Probably correct. You need to load the photo into an editor that supports soft proofing. I use Lightroom. Once you do that, you basically edit the photo using an ICC file for that paper/printer... then once you've edited the image, then you print the image using that ICC file..
Simply selecting an ICC file in a Brother print program won't do anything...
Ugh...that is my problem I am using Photoshop cc and Lightroom CC and I have tried the varies profiles I can find on the computer but I am not finding anything paper specific these are the only options I have. Also when I click the other I and empty window of profiles to choose.

Capture.JPG
 
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