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imiogri
Aug '19

Is it worth the effort and money to print on your own?
I've recently had ideas to start selling prints, but haven't found anyone talking about investing in your own printer instead of contacting professionals, so I'm a bit unsure if it is such a good idea. I don't know, maybe I'm talking to the wrong people. I'm planning on making zines of my comic and offer physical copies of commissions. This obviously won't be a large scale business I can maintain on my own.

Would love some advice and hear peoples experiences before I make this big of an investment.
(Right now I'm planning on buying the Canon PIXMA Pro-100S)

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    Aug '19

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    Jul '20
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Tanako
Aug '19

The price of ink alone will take you down lol i don't think its worth it. i've looked into it. i personally will not do it but if you feel its worth the price then by all means go for it.

AceRagz
Aug '19

Depends on the type of printer your thinking about. A high end one for small jobs or if a print shop quality end product is the goal then.... they are massive and not just one machine there is the press and then the guillotines for cutting the prints and that is not even going into how you intend to bind the product.

imiogri
Aug '19
AceRagz

I guess it's worth mentioning I've studied print and how to design art for print so I know the ins and outs of that bit. If you layout properly cutting and binding isn't the biggest issue. I'm armed with InDesign and know how to choose paper.

AceRagz
Aug '19

If you have the time, know how and money to invest into it then why not.

Shanny8
Aug '19

If you get a good printer that has really good resolution, print quality, and you're making prints like small 8.5" x 11" size, then it can possibly be done...but if you're looking to print 11" x 17" sized prints- the ink cost is gonna kill you.

nostalgicroxas
Aug '19

If you want to be able to print on your own kind of paper, and have your contact info on it, and are just printing small batches of sizes larger than 8x11 - then yes. If you have the money to sink into it. One of my friends is a paper nerd2 and she recently got some super nice paper that makes her prints look like their original form (copics+colored pencil) and it looks stupendous - but she prints on that special paper on the larger size of her art, and only will ever do 25 of the print on that paper. So whoever buys one, will know it's going to be a limited run edition thing. And she doesn't carry many of those with her to the con, maybe about 30 of varying print designs.

ZatchZ
Aug '19

If you were to get a printer, what type of printer would you recommend?

imiogri
Aug '19
1

Glad you asked, because I found a printer I am getting! When I made this thread I planned to get Canon PIXMA Pro-100S, but hearing from everyone saying how the ink would ruin me, I looked it up and they were absolutely right. Canon ink is extremely overpriced.

That's why I've now switched to getting an Epson EcoTank ET-7750. This printer is pretty expensive, but is the most economical photo printer on the market. They boast being able to print 3400 color photos (4" x 6") out of the box with cheap refills. I've done a lot of research by now, and it's not bogus. I'm pretty sure I'm buying this, so if anyone's interested in hearing about it hit me up (in a few weeks/month).

2 months later
silacinnamon
Oct '19

I always print my stickers and shrink paper charms using my dad's Epson EcoTank L495 and I really like it, the quality is even better than some print shops I tried.

My dad uses it a lot but almost only for black text, and he only had to buy the first black ink refill after over a year of use. The cyan, magenta and yellow ink tanks are still between 3/4 and 2/3 full since I don't use it that much, but I have a friend who uses the same model to make her A4 and A5 prints and she says it takes her a long time before having to buy refills too.

imiogri
Oct '19
1
serenitysquirrel

I did, It's excellent! It's a bit hard to display the print quality through just photos but it's very professional looking and does absolutely everything I wanted it to. The ink capacity is also incredible, have printed close to 50 color drawings and photos now and still only about 20% through the first fill. (it also has a really good scanner)

Here's a comparison between glossy (left) vs. matte (right) paper

image.png995x754 870 KB

Stickers and charms

image.png1072x603 785 KB

image.png1069x943 752 KB

I also have a preview of a tiny book I made on my Instagram if you wanna see more.

I've yet to start printing comics and that will surely suck out all the ink fast, but much slower than most other printers. Super worth the buy despite the high price, I'm having a ton of fun with it.

9 months later
lolipopmontana
Jul '20
1

If you are going to invest in such a thing, especially since it is for years, then I advise you to take it with a built-in scanner and copier. You can't be sure when you'll need it. Recently, during the pandemic, I had to sign a contract remotely. I suffered a lot trying to scan a signed contract through my phone. Plus, family members can also benefit from such a universal device(Print family photos.) In General, this is a useful asset. I advise you to read on https://www.juststartinvesting.com about a few useful tips for investing in assets. The main thing to remember is that you can always invest, at any age and in any financial situation)

Zyephen
Jul '20

It depends really. if you're selling a lot and come out with new products often, if might be worth it, but if you're not moving a lot of product, probably easier to just find a print company to do them for you. You should also take into account, the price of the printer and the price of the ink and paper.

I used to do most of my own printing from home. I had a big fancy wide format printer that cost about $1200 and each ink cartridge was about $65, and it took 9 cartridges. I got around the steep price of ink by buying 3rd party ink with "hacked" cartridges that were refillable. The cheap ink made it worth it for a while, but you'll quickly find that printers are jerks and issues arise often, especially with 3rd party ink. It involves a lot of internal printer cleaning as well as getting ink all over the place, every time you need to refill a cartridge, not to mention if your expensive printer breaks and you need to take it to a repair shop, you've voided your warranty by using a refillable ink system.

Of course this is mostly all for more expensive printers. If you're planing to buy a smaller printer that has relatively cheap ink it might be much more manageable. When it breaks, it's much easier to just buy a new printer. If you go through a company, like catprint for example, you can still get fairly cheap prints done without all the hassle of messing with a printer though. I'd suggest doing an order from a company first and comparing your profits to see, before committing to buying a printer.