Canon Pro 1000 or Epson P900?
Hi. I've been selling my art prints for 2 years now. I use POD services but since they're getting more and more expensive which affects the price tags of my prints I thought it's time to get a large format (A2) printer and make these prints at home. It looks like the best options are Canon Pro 1000 and Epson P900. I think I'm going to get Epson since it's smaller and lighter, but before I do it, I thought I'd ask you guys about your thoughts. I know both printers waste a lot of ink for cleaning, but apparently Canon is worse at that. Did you happen to have one of these? Did you have any problems with it? Thank you!
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- Pleasure! Happy printing adventures friend!
- @Elle Sorridente What an absolute legend you are! This essay is priceless to me. I will have a look at the links you shared and I will do more research. I don’t mind being on a pricier side with my prints if they’re printed on a good paper. I just don’t want my clients to pay more only because I’m using a 3rd party company to make prints. I watched a few more videos and I’ve decided to go with Canon Pro 1000. You converted me! :) Many thanks!
- Hey Robert,I would say that there are more factors to the equation than simply waste/usage, and I can't speak to the Epson waste/usage dynamic.However there are some basic priciples for printing. If you print frequently then you tend to get less wastage as when it idles for a few months, then you print it has to do a lot more agitating and cleaning before you can print again. So little and often is good in terms of optimising the actual machine and ink flows.The second major part of the equation is pricing. The inks that the pro 1000 uses are pigment inks and archival quality, they are expensive. If you use a paper that is also quality you can sell your prints as giclée archival quality prints which is a great standard to offer. However these are not cheap prints. They are a primium print. Etsy and other markets often encourage us to charge as little as possible, but this is unrealistic. You have to factor your materials, your postage and packaging, your time printing, your time that went into making the images that you're printing, then think about what is a balance between a fair wage for yourself, and a fair price for customers. A lot of prints sold are digital, not giclée, so if you're comparing prices to other people's make sure that you're looking at the right type of prints. Also make sure you're up to date on shipping costs as they are steep these days!The other thing to bare in mind is some people will be shifting a lot of prints, that's great for them, but it can mean that some of their outlay costs are reduced because of bulk discounts that people like me can't afford. My prints are not cheap. I can't afford for them to be. But they are the best quality I can make them and I have, fingers crossed and touching wood, only ever had five star reviews.There's no simple plan for pricing. Look at people selling the type of prints you want to make. Look at shipping costs. Look at packaging costs. Look at papers. It can be daunting, but the payoff is that everything is in your control, to your spec, and only made by you, and that becomes part of your usp.Again, sorry about the essay!The first two links are my shops, one web, one etsy, the last is another artist I know selling giclée on etsy.https://www.ellesorridente.com/printshttps://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ElleSorridentehttps://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/845823737/red-crowned-japanese-crane-print-with?click_key=3532847b000bd713c2af3ded89060312d4d0506c%3A845823737&click_sum=aabe3ccd&ref=shop_home_active_3
- @Elle Sorridente Aw Elle!!! Thank you so much for taking time to respond to my question. Canon Pro 1000 was my first choice, but then I read so much about the ink waste and I started digging and this is when I thought about Epson P900. Now I'm thinking about Canon one again hahaha. From your experience do you think the ratio usage/waste of ink is ok. I guess you do since you love your print so much. I don't mind being a print technician and learn more about this stuff. I need to find the way to decrease pricing of my prints, as they're way too expensive compared to other sellers on Etsy. Here's my shop: www.robbien.art so you can see the prices, and I think my prints could be way more affordable if I get my own printer. Do you mind if I ask about the URL of your shop, please, just so I can learn a bit more about the price tags of art printed with Canon Pro 1000? Thank you!
- Hello Robert!I have been printing and selling my work for quite some years now, I started with an Epson (can't remember the model) and I now use a Canon Pro 1000.The first thing I would say is if you want to make your own prints, which has a whole host of benefits, you need to be comfortable with becoming a print technichian. Things will go wrong, you'll end up on forums and looking for workarounds, that's just the nature of printing.Having said that I moved from Epon to Canon because I was spending so much time troubleshooting the Epson. I have not looked back. I love my Canon and will never go back to Epson.Things do still go wrong and I still end up on forums occassionally. But I can honestly say it's such a small percentage of my time spent on troubleshooting the Canon compared to the Epson.Also I love the Canon ink! The reproduction quality and colour gamut I can create is stunning.I print on textured watercolour paper mostly and I hardly ever have any problems with it. Previously with the Epon I was continually wasting ink making test prints just trying to get the printer head at the right hieght. This makes a big difference if you plan on using any kind of specialst paper as if it's not set right you get lots of problems with streaking and unwanted marks. I have never once had to change these settings on my Canon. It drivers for specialst papers are so good, I just select what paper I'm printing on and hit go.I could go on, as I'm sure you can tell. If you'd like more info I'm happy to help, but I feel like I've written you an essay already!Hope that helps though.Elle
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