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Which sublimation printer?
Just setting up again from scratch in Sublimation. I have an Epson D120 which works fine but want something better and preferbly A3.
Pretty much decided to get an 1800 but then started looking more at the 1400. Do the additional 2 colours in an 1800 make much difference?
I used to use Epson 4800 8 colour system and the resolution was excellent, could the 1400 get anywhere close to this?One of my customers has a very detailed pattern which worked out fine on the 4800 but I need to reproduce on a cheaper printer.
Appreciate any advice 🙂
Cheers,
Justin -
10 Replies
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You have 3 choices really for the A3 printer. There is the Epson Photo 1400, the Epson R1900 (updated from the R1800) and the Ricoh GX7000.
The Photo 1400 uses 6 colours – Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta. A bulk feed system of inks is available for this.
The R1900 uses 2 Blacks (same standard black for sublimation), Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Orange, Red and 2 Cleaning cartridges in place of the Gloss Optimiser. Like the Photo 1400 this printer has a bulk feed ink system available.
The GX7000 uses 4 colours in Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. Only a cartridge set up is available for this printer and each cartridge holds 60ml each.
Hope that helps.
Personally I don’t think the R1900 is worth the extra over the Photo 1400. The printer is more expensive to buy, the bulk ink system is more expensive to buy and there is no real evidence to suggest the use of Orange ink makes the prints in sublimation any better. On the whole this is a more expensive option with little, if any, benefit.
Your choice comes down to the Photo 1400 or the GX7000. The GX7000 is more expensive to buy and only uses 4 colours, but it has benefits over the Epson printers and anyone who has suffered from head clogs knows these. A previous thread gives some insights into the GX7000.
Most images you print from are made up of CMYK (4 colour) and so there is an argument that the extra colours probably won’t make that much difference. The resolution on the Photo 1400 and GX7000 will match the 4800 so long as your original image is set to the recommended 300dpi.
I think it will come down to personal choice whether you go for the Photo 1400 or the GX7000. The GX7000 is a recent addition to the range of sublimation printers supported by Sawgrass so fewer people will be using this.
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Appreciate the detailed response thank you. I’ve always doubted that the additional colours of a 6/8 colour system really do serve to improve the image, certainly test prints I’ve run in the past back this up.
The 1400 looks like a good option, CIS readily available and not too expensive. That said I will look at your other sugestion first.
Thanks again,
Justin 🙂 -
Not needing A3 I’ve been looking at the A4 r285. A sublimation CISS is available for it…
But does anyone have any reasons why I shouldn’t go for it?
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So long as you can get the artainium sublimation ink system with the colour correction profile supplied then this should be okay. I’ve just had a look on the Sawgrass website and the R285 isn’t listed as a supported printer although the printer can still be purchased new so maybe there is a reason for this. The normal entry level A4 printer is now the Epson D120 but this is 4 colour printing compared to 6 colour printing on the R285. Anyone got the R285 with artainium ink available to comment?
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Reading with interest, I have been thinking about the 1400 as an as printer that could do small runs of stickers that could be laminated with acrylic spray, with the option of moving into some sublimation printing on fabric and so on.
Can anyone tell how the bulk feed sublimation set up ink performs as a regular ink onto ink jet vinyl or paper?
Could you print a photograph for instance with subli ink, or even a short run of business cards?
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Subli ink isn’t suitable for normal printing/photos etc I’m afraid. Whilst you can change a bulk system back to normal cartridges it isn’t really practical to keep doing so.
I’ve decided the 1400 is the way to go, I found them for £242 inc. vat on the web.
Justin 🙂 -
How does the colour config. work on the 1800? Quick look and I see it uses 2 blacks and a gloss optimiser. Can these be substituted with light cyan and light magenta when using for sublimation? Does anything need to be done to tell the printer?
Cheers,
Justin 🙂 -
Unless you want to go down the route of colour profiling the R1800 with different coloured inks, I wouldn’t recommend this. For sublimation printing the R1800 uses 2x blacks (same blacks), cyan, magenta, yellow, red, blue and a cleaning solution in place of the gloss optimiser. The sublimation ink system for this is correctly set up from the factory with the colour correction profile supplied on CD.
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quote JNMann:How does the colour config. work on the 1800? Quick look and I see it uses 2 blacks and a gloss optimiser. Can these be substituted with light cyan and light magenta when using for sublimation? Does anything need to be done to tell the printer?Cheers,
Justin 🙂mod-notice
please reinstate your profile information 100% as it was before.
removing information from your account after it has been activated will result in the account being closed. rob@uksignboards.com -
[quote="mod-notice
please reinstate your profile information 100% as it was before.
removing information from your account after it has been activated will result in the account being closed. rob@uksignboards.com[/quote]Not sure what this means, I haven’t changed anything as far as I’m aware?
Justin
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