What type of wide format printer to use?

[dwkma]

Title says it all.

[stilesj]

We like our HP DesignJet 1050c...much faster than the 755 and other predecessors, prints decent color, and good quality monochrome. If you want really fast production prints and only need monochrome, I understand that some of the other brands, such as Kip, Oce, and Xerox make good toner-based wide-format printers. I can't give a personal recommendation on these, though, as we have not yet used one of them within my office.

[CADKitty]

We like our HP DesignJet 1050c...

I'll second that! Ours is a regular workhorse that we've had very few problems with. Good blackline/grayscale output, does well with color as well. We've used it for everything from standard drawing submissions to color presentation drawings, and couldn't be happier with the results.

Seeing as I've only ever used the 1050c and the HP 600, I can't really help when it comes to comparison shopping. We have an Oce wide-format copier that we're pleased with, but I've never had the opportunity to try any of their printers.

[BrenBren]

Title says it all.

I lot would depend on how much use you plan on getting out of your plotter, how many people are in the office, how many people will be using the plotter, do you plot 40 drawings a day, 40 a week or 40 a year?

[Phil Ferguson]

We use a Kip (scanner/printer/copier/controller) that is great if you need to get a lot of copies out. We have not replaced our old Hp 650C so we have no color capability. I guess what it boils down to is...What do you need to do? If you don't do a lot of quantity, the HP plotters are the way to go (though they are no loser when it comes to speed). If you need to get a lot of sets out in a hurry and you do that a lot, then a toner type printer/copier might be the answer. The only problem that I have with our Kip is the software (it's not Kip software) that use to drive it all because it is prone to fail (but it's packed with features that we like). You just have to shop around and break things down into catagories and rate how they meet your needs. I personally would like to have one of the new HP 4000 plotters...but who am I to say...

[dwkma]

I lot would depend on how much use you plan on getting out of your plotter, how many people are in the office, how many people will be using the plotter, do you plot 40 drawings a day, 40 a week or 40 a year?

Brenda, we have 4 people who will be usually using the plotter/printer, output varies greatly. We have had months we only run about 100 prints, and I have days where I ran close to 300, just me, I don't know the total for those days. We would like copying/scanning capability as well. Currently we are looking at a Rocoh 240W.

[aaronrumple]

We do better than a million sq. ft. a year on a Xerox 8830. A real workhorse, but the line quality isn't as refined as I'd like. I'd prefer an Oce - much better line quality.

We also use a HP 1055 for color. Color is always a pita, but the printer works well.

[tyshofner]

Like the rest of the replies said it really depends on if you need color or just monochrome and the volume of prints you run. We use a KIP Starprint 6000 in our office, it's a monochrome toner plotter and it is FAST!! It will do about 5-6 (30x42) sheets a minute. We continually run 200, 300 & 400 sheet sets on our KIP and it rips them out. As another poster said the software for the KIP acts up sometimes but it's never hindered our production. If you need color though I would recommend the HP4000. I just attended a demo of this plotter and would have to say it is SWEET!! It did a color (30x42) line drawing in about :45 seconds and also a full color poster (24x36) in about 3:00-4:00 minutes the print quality was also excellent. Needless to say I think we're going to purchase this plotter for our marketing department and for the few color jobs that we do.

Ty

[Mike.Craven]

We have several at our disposal here.

The "latest and greatest" is the HP1050C...very fast...good color

We also have DesignJet 750Cplus...slow...but very good color

And an DesignJet 350C...obsolete...used only as a backup...prints adequately...but not fast...HP still sells supplies for it...

My choice though is the 1050C..awesome

[Kris.Keller]

There are a lot of variables to consider. We are a firm of over 100 in our drafting department. We used to use Xerox 8830. They sure were nice for spitting out high volume plots, but the line quality was sacrificed. We converted our Xerox's over to HP DesignJet 1050c's and HP DesignJet 1055c's. They are slower but very crisp line work.