Ciaran
Senior Moderator
友情は魔法だ
An Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000 will probably do what you need, but I think 80 lb paper will be about as far as you can with one of those without the print heads contacting the paper enough that it loses its quality.
Whatever you get, bring it with you to the hotel for the convention and you might be able to print signage for people before the show. I used to work at a company that made large format printers, and we’d go to conventions about 3 days before opening, get our booth set up, and then spend the next two days printing signage for ourselves and other booths at the show. Maybe even take a scanner with in case people need the full suite of press services.
If you can afford something with big ink packs, that’s the way to go. Less calibration and fewer wasted prints when your tanks run dry.
Your main competitor though is going to be your local Kinko’s, Staples stores, and vistaprint. Whatever you are able to charge and still make money on it, they’ll charge half and will probably ship for free if the artist knows how to wrangle their services.
But, being on site can certainly help get customers.
Other printers that you might look at that are in the 24” wide range are either an HP DesignJet T120 - it will probably do what you need at lower overall margins, and still fit in a suitcase, but I doubt you could get 100 lb stock through it. An Epson SureColor T3170 will give you better color and should take flat cardstock, and it is also rated for canvas, but … I haven’t tried one in person and I’m not sure how well it would work with heavier boards. But at that point you’ve left A3 behind and can start doing banners.
Once you start using 100 lb or heavier boards, with a lighter printer you can sometimes get away with it if you pretty clean and recalibrate between every two or three prints. It doesn’t always work, but I’ve gotten 120 lb through a simple Canon inkjet, but it was a bit of a struggle sometimes.
Anyway, all of those are in the range of “things that might do what you want”, but you might have trouble with the heavier media.
If the heavier media is a must have, one of the things you can do is print on lighter canvas or a plastic media that has a pre-stickied back and then mount it after it dries. But that will definitely add to the base media costs.
Whatever you get, bring it with you to the hotel for the convention and you might be able to print signage for people before the show. I used to work at a company that made large format printers, and we’d go to conventions about 3 days before opening, get our booth set up, and then spend the next two days printing signage for ourselves and other booths at the show. Maybe even take a scanner with in case people need the full suite of press services.
If you can afford something with big ink packs, that’s the way to go. Less calibration and fewer wasted prints when your tanks run dry.
Your main competitor though is going to be your local Kinko’s, Staples stores, and vistaprint. Whatever you are able to charge and still make money on it, they’ll charge half and will probably ship for free if the artist knows how to wrangle their services.
But, being on site can certainly help get customers.
Other printers that you might look at that are in the 24” wide range are either an HP DesignJet T120 - it will probably do what you need at lower overall margins, and still fit in a suitcase, but I doubt you could get 100 lb stock through it. An Epson SureColor T3170 will give you better color and should take flat cardstock, and it is also rated for canvas, but … I haven’t tried one in person and I’m not sure how well it would work with heavier boards. But at that point you’ve left A3 behind and can start doing banners.
Once you start using 100 lb or heavier boards, with a lighter printer you can sometimes get away with it if you pretty clean and recalibrate between every two or three prints. It doesn’t always work, but I’ve gotten 120 lb through a simple Canon inkjet, but it was a bit of a struggle sometimes.
Anyway, all of those are in the range of “things that might do what you want”, but you might have trouble with the heavier media.
If the heavier media is a must have, one of the things you can do is print on lighter canvas or a plastic media that has a pre-stickied back and then mount it after it dries. But that will definitely add to the base media costs.