Which indoor wide format?

[Ian Hatfield]

Hi Richard

I have had Encads and HPs, have got HP5500 at the moment and it runns 8+ hours a day every day and gives problem free printing 99% of the time. The Encad is quoted at being faser but when it comes down to it is not much faster. I would have to say go for the HP5500. Quality and speed and ease of use are fantastic.

[Russell Huffer]

Have to agree with above comment, we have a 1524 m/m HP 5500PS and it is a great work horse, you can also use both dye and UV inks on it and it only takes 20 mins to change over and no purgeing or ink wastage what so ever.
It will depand on what you want to print though as the Epson and HP are quite different, I do exhibition work and the Epson would not be much use most of the time and to use for exhibition graphics you would pay a lot more for suitable media.

Regards

Russell.

[RobGF]

HI there…

I have both the HP5500 and the Encad 1000i. I will the the first to admit that Encad has really done their homework in creating a great indoor printer. It is faster than the HP if you are running lots of jobs. It also has a built in heater so you can actually laminate with low-melt films quite a bit sooner than with the HP.

Now, with all of that being said, I still run a lot more of my indoor jobs to the HP5500 than the Encad. The HP is easier for most people to use in our office and it does provide a superiour quality of print. Simply put, the dots are smaller at 600dpi than with the Encad and therefore the dithering is less obvious.

I’d probably suggest HP 9/10 for indoor stuff as opposed to the new Encad… it’s just easier to use, still quite fast, and does produce a superior print.

Good luck.

[DARREN]

quote G4B:

Hi Richard

I have had Encads and HPs, have got HP5500 at the moment and it runns 8+ hours a day every day and gives problem free printing 99% of the time. The Encad is quoted at being faser but when it comes down to it is not much faster. I would have to say go for the HP5500. Quality and speed and ease of use are fantastic.

Ditto!

[Deleted User]

We use an HP 1055cm Design Jet. It’s brilliant.

I just wish I could use it for outdoors too 😥

[TonyM]

The HP uses thermal heads and the Epson uses piezo heads.

That won’t make a lot of difference to the output but as an example.

Paper for thermal/dye print heads we sell at £35 for 914mm x 30m and paper for the piezo/pigment inks is £59.95 for the same size.

Buy the HP unless you intend to go for the fine art market, in which case the Epson is approved by the Fine Art Trades Guild for ink longevity.