Community poll forum: What brand of printer do you own, and are you happy with it?

Sorry Dena, but sublimation is the process in which solid is changed directly to gas. Deposition is the process that changes gas directly to solid. Melting is solid to liquid and freezing is liquid to solid.

Now back to the subject. Dye Sublimation is a process of instead of using liquid ink, the ink is solid on a piece of plastic film. When printing, the print head passes on top of the corresponding color and vaporizes the ink. Then the gaseous ink passes onto the glossy paper before it soldifies again. This process is repeated for each of the 4 colors, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The mixing of any two/three/four will create other colors. Because the printing is layering process (one color on top the other), you will actually be able to "feel" and see contours of the details of the photo on the paper after printing.

Now the reason the printing style is good is because there are no pixels. Its a continuous shade of color much like photos from regular film cameras. Also since there is not real dying process, the print-outs do not fade. The only drawback is that its terribly slow and its expensive to buy the consumables (The ink is packaged with the paper).

I have found a dye sub printer that prints 8 1/2" X 11 photos, but it is quite costly. I rarely print large photos though, so for now the one I have is sufficient. I really don't think the paper and cartridge are that expensive. Canon says that the prints are only 28 cents each. I haven't found out for myself because the printer came with 108 post card size papers and a cartridge good for 108 photos. I am not sure that this is the same package that you get in the stores, but Canon USA shows all different kinds of supplys for the printer. Here is a link that I found the printer that prints 8 1/2 by 11.
http://www.bizrate.com/marketplace/product_info/overview/index__cat_id--420,keyword--dye%20sublimation%20printers,prod_id--335454269.html

I bought my CP400 dye sub at a close out for 39.95. Unfortunately, they don't ship out of the US. I bought one for my son in Amsterdam and shipped it myself. Try Ebay. I have seen them advertized on there. You stay well too.

There are printers that print bigger (letter).

Many manufacturer make the printers (Canon, Sony, Olympus, Kodak, Mitsubishi Electric, etc.).

They are faster than before.

The consumables are expensive relative to inkjets/lasers

The ink and paper are not that expensive. 108 postcard sheets and dye cartridges for 108 prints for 29.95 from the Canon USA site. I found the Canon CP 400 (the one that I have) at J & R Electronics on a closeout sale for 39.95 + shipping, including the paper and cartridges. Of course I don't have as good of a camera as you. Mine is only the G5 Powershot (5 mp), so the postcard size is good enough for me. I also like that I can take it with me and print photos immediately right from my camera. I found a kodak that prints on regular size prints on the Kodak site. They are between $400 & $500. I didn't check on the supplys.

Actually, I have 3 printers I use, a Brother HL-5040 laser which I use for documents printed in black and white, an HP Office Jet D145 which I use to scan, and copy in black and white and color, as well as use as a fax, and an Oki C5200 I use for color cards and photos...it does a superb job. Actually all 3 printers are great, and do superbly with the jobs sent to them

For years we've been a two printer home - a monochrome laser for lower cost, higher speed text, and a color inkjet for everything else. With four heavy users averaging 1100 pages per month, it didn't take long to justify the laser. I've helped our two college kiddoes similarly. Our latest lasers are all Samsungs. I've been attracted to their low purchase price, small footprint, bulletproof reliability, speed, and low cost per page. Play it right and you can get a new printer for less than the cost of a replacement toner cartidge - just like inkjets. I have a Samsung ML-1430 at home with 8230 flawless pages on the clock, and both kids have ML-1740 lasers which have worked equally well.

The kids have multifunction inkjets - an HP PSC950 and an Epson CX5400. Both do everything reasonably well, though the Epson seems to be a little more reliable and economical. That surprised me.

I have an Epson Stylus Photo R300M for photos, color, and CD/DVD printing. It works very well, although I understand Epson has since made some needed improvements to the disc tray feeder mechanism. Photos, text, graphics, and discs all print wonderfully at a low cost and with decent speeds for a photo printer.

BTW, I love HP stuff, especially their lasers. I'm writing this on an HP MediaCenter PC. HP printers are like tanks, but I've seldom had a need to pay a premium for them when nearly equivalent reliability and equal quality can be had for less.

All of these printers network easily. Some cheapies, like the KonicaMinolta 1350W, do not.

I own a DELL all-in-one 922. It does an excellent job, including color and black and white photo scan and print. I really like it because it was free as part of my purchase of a desktop computer.

Brother for ever. The toner cartridge is separate from the drum. You only replace the toner as needed. My HL-660 ran for 13 years before needing a second drum. Now I have an HL-5250DN. The best yet!

I have a model HL-5240 and it is great. Fast and sharp text. Had a HL-1240 for about 3 years and needed a newer faster printer.

wallyc

This is the fourth Epson which I have owned in the past 15 or so years and I am competely happy with it. When the photos are tweeked just right and printed on the appropiate paper they are super. The printer is capable of printing up to 13x19 and that is a BIG print. I regularly print up to 11x14 without any trouble. The new Chrome Inks are also great. This is my choice as it has served me well since I first got it about 4 years ago. I have placed several on my walls so my guests can readily see some of my animal and scenic photos plus some of my portraits. I get nothing but great compliments.

This printer replaced the old HP LaserJet 5MP that I had been using for about the last 10 years. The old HP I had always did an outstanding job. I have had the new printer about three months so far and have been very pleased with it.

I own two HP printers. One is a HP PSC750 and I really like the flat bed scanner and the quality of the print but the replacement cartridges are really expensive if you print a lot like I do. I also own an HP Laserjet 3015 which allows me to fax and the laser helps me keep my printing costs down for my regular every day black and white printing. However, something in the software on the laserjet doesn't interface well with my PC and I think it's because I'm networked to two different HP printers and they won't place nice together. But it's easy just to X the box and they both still work really well.

Our family has had eight different ink jet printers over the years according to my last count. We have had HP, Epson and Canon. While all have been fairly dependable and done what was necessary, I like may Canon i860 very much. It is dependable, does great photos and is easy to use. In fact, I appreciate it so much I bought my son a Canon Pixma for Christmas.

An added bonus for both of our Canon printers: We can refill the ink tanks at home with relatively cheap ink without any problem.

Been using my HP PSC 2355 for about a year and love all it's features. Great.