How many times has your printer done this?
- Grabbing two or three sheets of paper at a time, or none at all.
- Clogging so much that every time you perform a nozzle check and subsequent head cleaning you just watch your ink tanks drain costing you time and money.
- The nozzle you thought was clogged clears but another one clogs.
- A head clog causing banding half way through a print so you have to reprint the whole thing over again using up more ink, paper and time.
Some people think that to avoid these problems, you must only print with Epson paper. This is just not true! Epson isn't a paper manufacturer and you can run whatever paper you want in their printers.
Let's face it. Someone was bound to create printers that just work. If you do any sort of fine art printing Canon imagePROGRAF printers are the way to go. I personally do all of my printing on a Canon imagePROGRAF IPF6400. This is the 24 inch version, which is great for feeding sheets, as well as for roll printing. It solves all of the above problems and costs less than $2,550!
Yes, it is bigger than your standard desktop printer and it initially costs more, but it is flawless in its ability to overcome all of the above mentioned Epson issues. It is about 5 times more economical to run from an ink standpoint than any desktop printer; 14ml ink cartridge versus 130ml ink cartridges. It senses nozzle clogs before you do and will clear them automatically. Thermal print head technology and automatic sensors eliminate all of these clogging issues. I have run a nozzle check once on my Canon 6400 printer in a 6 month period. The sheet feeder takes one sheet at a time and does it flawlessly. No skew paper errors, ever! When you first fill the printer with ink, sub tanks in the printer are filled so when the printer tells you that you are low on ink you have plenty of time to insert a new cartridge - and you don't have to stop printing to change the cartridge!
You'll be amazed that each ink cartridge is completely empty when you remove it. Every drop of ink is used. Nothing is wasted. The Canon imagePROGRAF printing plug-in for Photoshop is so easy to use compared to the standard Photoshop printer driver; I will never go back to using anything else. Switching between Photo Black and Matte Black ink, flushing out printer lines and using up a ton of ink? NO MORE! Canon printers don't switch ink; they just print the ink you want.
I could go on and on and on about how great these printers are. The image quality is easily as good as, or better than Epson. They print faster. The feature set is far better and I, personally, will not print on anything else.
We are selling many Canon printers to educators, professional photographers and lab owners who used to own Epson printers. Almost all of them, including me, wish we had made the switch sooner. Yes, they cost more up front than your typical desktop printer; but, they come with so much ink that you can buy several desktop printers at $1,000 each before you use up the ink that comes with an imagePROGRAF printer. No school should be without at least one of these printers. No one serious about printing should be without one of these printers. Compare for yourself and see...
The chart below highlights Canon Wide Format Printers vs. Epson Wide Format Printers:
| Dare to Compare Wide Format Printers |
| Critical Issues |
Canon
imagePROGRAF Printers |
Epson
Wide Format Printers |
| Replaceable Printheads? |
| Yes | Replaceable printhead in about 10 minutes and costs approximately $450. |
|
| No | Requires technician onsite visit and costs between $2,500 and $3,000. |
|
| Head Clogging? |
| Rarely | Self-cleaning thermal heads saves ink, time and cost. |
|
| No | Piezo-electric heads clog more often and do not self-clean - wastes ink with every cleaning. |
|
| Built-in Densitometer? |
| Yes | Printer relinearizes itself when environment changes or if you replace printhead. |
|
| No | Requires technician to relinearize printer with external electronic tools after replacing printhead. |
|
| Import Custom Profiles directly into print driver and printer firmware? |
| Yes | Built-in media configuration tool. |
|
|
And... through the end of December, Canon is offering the following Rebates on imageProGraf Printers.
