[SOLVED] Which printer for long documents of color text?

[Horrux]

I print a fairly large document (400 pages) repeatedly. It is all text, and color. My current printer is OK, but can't print more than 35 or so pages at a time, when I'm lucky, wihtout the paper tangling in the output tray and the pages becoming all mixed up. Obviously when I am publishing such a document, manually sorting the pages is out of the question.

So basically what I want is a LASER printer (or any other technology where the ink isn't going to run if you sneeze on it, such as inkjet), that will print my 400 pages unattended. My current cost for the document is about $50 for paper and ink, and obviously I would prefer doing without an increase in cost.

Now I know, I can read reviews about printers that will tell me print quality and output speed, and while these two factors are not without importance to my needs, they aren't critical. I need a reliable printer that can do what I wrote above, printing 400 pages of color text unattended with good results.

Obviously there are color printers with 500-page output trays out there, and some of them have decent ratings.

Does anybody out here have a similar situation and have advice?

Thanks

 

[ex_bubblehead]

How much are you prepared to spend? Your requirements are well beyond consumer level equipment and can easily reach $5,000+. Inkjet is absolutely out of the question here.

 

[Horrux]

Well, I don't really WANT TO spend 5k but if that's what it will take... I'll do it. This is my main business after all.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Your best bet is to contact your local Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh or Xerox dealers and see what they offer. Just a guess but you're likely looking at a sorter and duplexer in addition to the copier/printer. The specialized dealers can steer you in the right direction.

 

[Ralston18]

How often is "repeatedly"?

Consider that perhaps you could contract the printing out.

At $50 per "document" you could get 100 documents printed for $5,000.

As a regular customer you may be able to get some discounts for the print jobs and the contracted printing service has the responsibility for paper, ink, quality, etc..

And you may be able to directly expense the printing costs versus being a capital expense (laser printer) that may only be depreciated over 2 - 3 years depending on tax laws/options etc..

Just adding in a late thought.....

 

[Horrux]

Well this business is only just now taking off, printing a $2500 course only about twice a month for now, but I am developing ways to increase demand to where I can sell a few every week.

I don't want to outsource anything. It all must be done in-house. Once business picks up, I'll probably hire somebody to handle the printing, assembly, packing and shipping aspects of the business.

 

[USAFRet]

Paying a printing service $50, twice a month, is only $1200/year.

vs the capital cost of a commercial printer (the aforementioned $5k) to do this.
And your time in managing this 'in house' printer.

'outsorcing' is not necessarily a 4 letter word, especially if preceded by "local".

 

[ex_bubblehead]

And always keep in mind that "Speed Cost$". Your 400 page document will take 20 minutes to print at 20 color pages per minute (fairly fast for a color printer). If you must have it faster then prepare to pay very handsomely for it, whether you own/lease your own equipment or not. Price pretty much increases exponentially with speed.