A3
Printers: What
to look for
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A3
Printers...
If you need to print in
a wide format, such as 11x17, then you will need what is called
an A3 printer.
Hi, my name is Tom and
I've created this special page to explain the benefits of getting a
wide carriage A3 printer and educate you on the several different types
you can find. Like with most computer printers, the choices
can be confusing, so hopefully this page will clear things up about
looking for an A3 printer. |
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Benefits
of an A3 Printer
An A3
printer, sometimes also called an 11x117 printer,is a great
choice for printing documents that look best in a larger size than will
print on standard letter size paper. | |
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While these larger format
printers are usually found in offices, many home users are also finding
that once they experience the advantages of being able to print in a
larger format, they don't want to give up their A3 printer.
For applications where larger
sizes are necessary, an A3 printer is a necessity. Even those
who aren't graphic designers can appreciate being able to print on
paper that is twice as big as A4, or letter size, paper.
Posters and notices are just a couple of the frequent uses for an A3
printer. Also, for printing booklets or newsletters, an A3
printer is able to produce letter size booklets by folding.
This adds a nice touch of professionalism.
Another advantage of an A3
printer is that it can print letter size pages faster than a letter
size printer. The reason for this is that the pages are
printed sideways and the wider carriage on an A3 printer can print more
pages in the same time as an A4 printer.
Also, while a laser A3 printer
requires several times the memory of an ink jet printer, the cost of
memory has become so low that a black and white A3 printer is now
affordable for most small offices and are starting to even find their
way into home offices.
Another benefit, especially
for businesses that still use regular size printers but have regular
large format printing needs, is that with an A3 printer you'll save time
by not having to run to the local copy store when you
need to print large documents. Otherwise, you end up having
to modify the document to shrink it down to a letter size printer.
An A3 printer also offers
flexibility. It can print the same size documents as an A4
printer, but it can also print posters, larger graphs, large maps,
calendars, etc. In the home, with your A3 printer you can print wide photo
formats, very nice screenshots, reproductions of paintings, garage sale
posters, the list is almost endless. Additionally, printing
wider formats for home use is much more cost effective than having to
use a professional printing service.
Whether at the office or in
your home, once you use a wide format A3 printer and are able to see
for yourself the convenience of larger size printing, you won't want to
return to your smaller printer.
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Types
of A3 Printers
You'll
find there are basically three choices when shopping for an A3 printer,
sometimes known as an 11x17, printer. There are laser A3
printers, ink jet A3 printers, and the far less common dye sublimation
A3 printers. | |
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These three choices for an A3 printer, when combined with all the different manufacturers, can make for quite a confusing shopping experience, so let's look as the pros and cons for each choice.
All three have advantages and disadvantages, so knowing these in
advance will enable you to make the right choice for your particular
needs.
First, let's look at the laser
jet A3 printer. These have the advantages of speed and very
high quality text. These are best used for text,
illustrations and line art. The main disadvantage of the laser A3 printer is
cost. Black and white laser printers are now pretty
affordable, but color laser printers are much more expensive, both to
buy and to maintain. They require fairly expensive multiple
toner cartridges for black and for colors. While a large
A3 printer does an excellent job on text, line art and illustrations,
it is not as good as an ink jet printer when it comes to printing
half tones and photos. This is due to the coarser resolution
of a laser printer compared to a good ink jet printer.
Next, we have the A3 ink jet
printer. Far and away this is your best choice for
printing photographs, due to the high resolution. Their
biggest drawback is to an ink jet A3 printer is speed, as they are much slower than a laser
printer. On the plus side, they usually are far less
expensive to buy than a laser printer, especially a color laser
printer. Also, an ink jet A3 printer can usually print up to
13x19 inches. This enables them to do a "full
bleed" 11x17 print, which means it can print all the way up to the
edges with no white border.
Finally, there is the fairly
uncommon dye sublimation A3 printer. These are the most
expensive wide format printers but they have the best print color print
quality. A dye sublimation A3 printer uses wax-based inks
that are actually injected into the paper. This results in a
very vivid print out, which is also water-resistant. The main
trade-off here, in addition to a higher price, is that a dye
sublimation A3 printer prints the slowest of all three types.
No matter which type of A3
printer you choose, be sure to look at the same things you should look
when buying any kind of printer: purchase price, the price of
replacement ink cartridges, how many pages per ink cartridge can be
printed, and the number of pages the printer can print per minute. |
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New
Printer Buyer's Guide
While there can
be literally dozens of technical considerations to buying a new
printer, here are the more general ones to keep in mind as you
shop. | |
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There are two main
types of printers: laser printers and ink jet printers. Laser printers
are generally better for high-volume printing, as they have a lower per
page cost. However, they will cost more to buy than an ink
jet
printer. Ink jet printers have a lower hardware cost but a
higher
consumables (ink jet cartridges) cost. This is one of the
primary
trade-offs.
If
you print photos or graphics, you'll for sure want a color
printer. Generally, ink jets produce better color while
lasers
produce better text quality. But this differential is rapidly
fading and either is acceptable for most uses. However, for
photos a color ink jet still produces the highest quality
color.
You
want to consider a multifunction printer, as they combine are capable
of multiple functions, such as printing, scanning, copying and perhaps
faxing. These are highly convenient devices and cheaper than
buying separate hardware for each function. But that low
price
and convenience comes as the expense of performance, such as lower
resolution and slower print speeds (measured as ppm, or pages per minute). You'll have to decide for yourself
if this is an acceptable trade-off.
A
common thing to consider with a new printer is resolution, which is a
primary determinant of print quality. Print images are made
of
small dots of ink (or toner for a laser printer) and resolution means
the number of "dots per inch", or "dpi". The higher the
number of
dots per inch, the higher the quality of the printing, all other things
being equal.
Most
modern printers support 600.600 dpi, which gives acceptable quality for
most uses. Except for printing photographs, resolution higher than
600.600 isn't really noticeable and the higher the resolution the more
ink you will use, so consider your needs carefully before buying a high
resolution printer. Unless you are printing lots of photos
you
will be just wasting money on ink, which is the most expensive cost for
any printer in the long run.
Pay
attention to what the ink cartridge arrangement is on a
printer.
With ink jet printers, some use separate cartridges for each color, and
some have all colors contained in one cartridge. Over time,
separate tanks for each color will be less expensive, as you only have
to replace the one color that runs out. With all colors in
the
same cartridge, you'll have to replace the entire cartridge even though
only one color is used up.
Also
look at the path the paper travels in the printer. The more
straight through the path, the less trouble you'll have. This
is
especially important if you do a lot printing on photo paper stock,
envelopes, thick paper, or any other unusual materials.
Finally,
consider the print drivers, which provide the software interface for
you printer. This allows you to control things such as number
of
copies, page size, orientation, etc. The best drivers will
include
more advanced features such as low ink level warnings. Also, stick with the major brands, such as HP, Epson and Canon.
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How to
Cut Your Printing Costs
If you're in the market for a
new printer, this is one universal truth: your long term costs are
mostly comprised of the ink cartridges. | |
Some time ago, I found a great price on a new color
printer - under $50. So I snapped it up. I found
out later that replacement ink cartridges were almost $40, and my usage
was such that I had to replace them about every four months or
so. This meant I was spending more on ink that it would cost
me to buy two new printers a year! Such was the cost of not
paying attention up front to ink cartridge costs.
This means that before purchasing any new printer, you should compare
the cost and page capacity of the ink cartridges. If you plan
on doing a lot of printing, especially photo printing or using an A3 printer, you may be
better off buying a more expensive printer that has ink cartridges that
either cost less or print substantially more pages.
When looking at the cost of ink cartridges, pay particular attention to
the number of pages the cartridge can print, once again especially for an A3 printer. What
you want to do is go for the printer that has the lowest per page print
cost and the features you want.
You may want to consider a laser printer instead of an inkjet printer,
especially that inkjet printer that came "free" with the computer you
purchased. That "free" printer will usually cost you much
more in the long run due to high ink replacement costs and low page
count.
The cost of laser printers, like all printers, has fallen enough that
it may be cheaper in the long run than an inkjet, taking into
consideration that the cost of ink work out to be about one third as
expensive.
Laser printers do not print as good in color as in inkjet, so many
people have an inexpensive inkjet for color printing and a laser jet
for higher volume black-and-white printing.
Can you save money on ink by buying a kit to refill your used
cartridge? While this may look attractive, it almost always
results in low quality and sometimes a leaky cartridge.
Two better choices are: "generic brand" compatible ink cartridges and
remanufactured ink cartridges.
Compatible cartridges are new cartridges that are designed to meet or
exceed the manufacturer's original standards but are priced much
lower. It's sort of like buying the store brand of canned
peaches.
Remanufactured ink cartridges are recycled ink cartridges that are
"rebuilt" and filled with original quality ink. This is the least
expensive way to go, although they are most often available for laser
printers, as laser cartridges are better engineered than inkjet
cartridges. Be sure you get ones that are remanufactured and
not just refilled with ink and that they offer a money back guarantee
if not satisfied.
The bottom line is that you can significantly reduce your printing
costs, especially for an A3 printer, by buying the right printer and using the less expensive generic
brand or remanufactured ink cartridges.
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