What's the best printer for <=A4 colour prints?

[peterqd]

My printer is a HP Deskjet 9300 (A3). I need the A3 size for printing music, but I'm hardly ever going to need it for photographs. Although I've been reasonably happy with the results, the colours never seem as bright as I see on the screen and I've been wondering if I can get better quality using a different machine. Or is it normal for Inkjet printer colours to be a little subdued?

It seems from various websites I've looked at that Canon and Epson are the most favoured machines for photographs, and HP is hardly ever mentioned. What's your view?

[Juanma]

Epson is better if you do a lot of printing. If you don't, the head gets stuck and you waste a lot of ink on the cleaning process.

Canon is better if you don't print too often. Colors are a bit more saturated than in your usual lab prints. Quality is very very good. I have a Canon PIXMA IP 4300 and I am very happy with it. I send 10x15 or 13x18 prints to the lab (because they are cheaper), and I do other sizes on the printer. No complaints for less than 100 euros.

HP is the more expensive election. That is the reason why it's not so popular.

[bob955i]

I believe that as HP printer heads are part of the ink cartridge this is why they're so expensive to replace.

[peterqd]

[Rob Leslie]

IMO Epson printers are the best photo printers. I have an old A3 Photo Ex which still turns out great quality and a more recent Photo 890 A4 printer. I often don’t use the A3 printer for a couple of months and a couple of cleans always clear the heads.
You may want to think about looking into printing.
For example if you are just sending your files to the printer via File - Print then you are only getting the basic defaults the printer offers. You should always print in the same Colour profile with your photo programme (PhotoShop) managing the printing. This is done via File - Print with Preview.
The subject really is too much to go into on a Forum board (Luminous Landscape’s Tutorial DVD on the subject is 6 hours!) but of course the first essential is to have a calibrated monitor and all of your work flow (Inc the Printer) working to the same colour Profiles) Also choice of paper plays a huge part in the final result.
Although I think Epson are the better printers I see no reason why you should not get exactly the results you want from your HP
Here is a good start
http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/und-print-mgmt.shtml

[Rob Leslie]

I am surprised there isn’t more chat about printing.
Printing and its related subjects make up about 30+% of the chat at my photo club.
I’m thinking forum members either have no printing problems or they don’t bother to print?
If they have no printing problems then I would love to read some of their ideas, methods, favourite papers, special techniques etc.

[maddog10]

I have an Epson R1900 and have not used it enough to develop an opinion just yet. The couple of prints that I have done (8x10 and 13x19) showed excellent color and detail. I have used premium gloss (which I liked very much) and premium matte (liked it just so-so) paper. First photo printer that I have used so I have nothing to compare to determine if it is fast or slow to print.

[Schnauzer]

I had an epson, went to a HP, now use the canon pixma pro 9000. The HP was very good but cost a fortune for ink and would clog if I didn't use it often. The pro 9000 has been the best one yet until I got the new computer with vista. It printed great with the old computer and XP pro. Now everything is very dark no matter what I do. All the setting, profiles, print with cs3 or printer. Nothing changes the darkness. The old monitor was profiled and I haven't profiled this one yet, however the pictures look almost identical on both monitors. I wasn't using it much so I took down the old computer a week ago. I think I will set it up again and use it just for printing. Shouldn't be this way, but what to do?