ink and printer questions for BRAND NEWBIE

[leslieb]

Hi
I haven't even printed my first page yet- been practicing with some of the tutorials. My question is this: Isn't the ink for printing all this going to cost a fortune???? Here is the problem. I have a Dell computer and printer. when I purchased it I did not realize that I would HAVE to order the Ink from Dell- just can't run down to Office Depot and purchase. I am trying to be frugal with my color ink as it is expensive and I have to wait for it to arrive in mail AND I havne't been to happy with full color priinting (seems to stay wet and bleed.) And it jut doens't seem to last long- don't get enough pics from the color cartridge before it starts to run out! UGH! What are other economical choices for printing- I am certainly willing to purchase another printer for this purpose if needed. PLEASE advise. I am ready to get started. I assume you are supposed to print layouts on photo paper??

[Biffylady]

I havent printed any of my layouts....yet, but I know that lots of the folks here take their LOs to places like Costco and Office Max for printing. They cost, yes, but it saves your ink and the quality, I'm sure, is better.

[Margie]

there are lots of printing threads with more helpful info too. do a search (above) for printing and you'll find a bunch. some print at home, some print locally, some print online, it's just personal preference. for an HP printer at home, it costs around $1.75 per page in ink/paper. that's fine by me! and the quality is great on photo paper. i've even found one cheap brand of paper i like, print works i think, it's similar to cardstock, not as thick, but the prints are really good. not quite as crisp as photo paper, but great especially for mini albums. but you need to experiment for your brand of printer as all inks print differently on different mediums.

[Lauren]

I have a Canon Printer - I live in New Zealand where ink is Very expensive by US standards but I print at 8x8 and one set of cartridges has lasted over 40 layouts ( Just got a warning that one colour is running low) - so that works out to about $2 NZ per page for me + paper which costs me about 75c per page - total cost $2.75 NZ which is about $1.90 US per page - I think thats a pretty reasonable price compared to doing a paper scrapbook page where I might spend more than that on just one sheet of background paper!!!!
I do buy the genuine ink though and good paper - I could do this cheaper but I think its worth paying the extra to get a good result

[premier]

dell printers are really lexmark printers and the quality isn't good and it has a known reputation of having a high ink consumption cost. RIT independently tested all of the printer brands and concluded that Epson had the highest quality for the lowest cost of ink and paper. You can purchase a R220 for $99 that does amazing printing.

[Tara]

Another thing to consider is the size you want to print. If you want to print 12x12 pages, you'll need a large format printer and these are pricey (but worth it, in my opinion!). The Epson R1800 has great reviews and so does the Canon...um, can't remember the number.

You also want to consider how long you want the prints to last (i.e. the archival quality). This may not matter since you can also store your layouts on CD...but it is important to many people (like me!). Using Epson paper and Epson inks, certain Epson prints are supposed to last up to 200 years. So check into that too...

Good luck! And yes, do a search in the forums for this...there is much info out there.

[leslieb]

Thanks everyone for your comments and input! Greatly appreciated! Thanks especially to Premier as I had NOOOOOO idea that Dell printers were made by Lexmark or I would have never purchased one. I will look into the R220.
thanks a bunch!
Leslie