best value printer to do transparent printing?

[rasseru]

hey guys, just found this forum and have done a search for 'transparency', transparent, etc.


I basically need to be able to make as large as possible transparent prints of my artwork without breaking my bank account.

ideally I would like to do direct to substrate acrylic, but that is $$$...and print shop costs are $$$ too. I have over 250 prints I want made :/ soooo... I am thinking of a transparent film approach and source bulk acrylic and do the rest myself.

im a bit out of the printer loop for a few years now....

what are my best options?

can I get medium to large transparent printers for relativity small bucks?

what size printouts can I expect for what price? (A0,A1,A2)

any issues I need to think about?


Cheers for any help!

 

[rasseru]

something like an imageprograf - canon? good idea?

argh ive just noticed no white ink option.


so what are my options, I have to be able to print white ink on a budget :/

 

[printerdtg]

If you need printer with white ink, you can use epson printer with minimun 6 channel ink, then you can replace the light magenta and light cyan with white ink, but you need a RIP (raster image processing) software

 

[l_d_allan]

I'm ignorant about printing on transparent media, so "consider the source" ...

* How big of prints are involved? A0 is quite large. Do you need that capability?

* Does your artwork involve photos, or graphics?

* Can you provide a link or two to examples of what you are wanting to "print"?

* What is the image quality expectations as far as matching what you see on the monitor? What kind of dynamic range and gamut? Your expectations? Your customers' expectations?

* I infer you've had such "prints" made by a commercial vendor, and are unhappy with the high cost.

* It's none of my business, but how much of the price of your artwork is taken up by the "consumables"? If your markup is relatively low over the ink+media cost, then you may be facing a formidable learning curve.

* How would you rate yourself as a printer of fine-art with regular inkjet media? As applicable, do you out-source that?