which laser printer for DTP?

[andymcd]

hi...i'm new to this forum and hope i'm posting in the right dept.

i am setting up an office in my house and need a printer to do proofs and an occasional brochure or flyer for my clients. i was formerly 'in house' where there were monster lexmark printers, serviced by someone outside. now that i'm at home, i need to buy something practical, but professional.

can anyone afford me some advice on printers suited for this type of work?

i'm currently ready to pull the trigger on the konica minolta 2430dl ... my worries are (but not limited to) : proper resolution, reliability, cost for toner, etc.

thanks for your help.

...andy

[terrie]

Hi Andy...welcome to the forum...

Do you want/need color or will b/w do?

Do you want/need postscript?

Letter size enough?

PC or mac?

Terrie

[andymcd]

terri...
thanks so much for your response... i appreciate any help you can provide.
below is my best attempt at answers to your questions. forgive me if there are holes.

...andy

Do you want/need color or will b/w do? ...color

Do you want/need postscript? ...i'm using adobe cs almost exclusively...not sure about dependencies on ps

Letter size enough? ...yup, but would like duplex

PC or mac? ...PC (for now anyway...have had macs..love them, but can't afford them)

let me know if i overlooked anything or if there is something else i should be considering. postscript is a good question... i'm looking into that now. ....thanks. ...andy

[annc]

I saw a review in PC Magazine of the one you're considering, and the only criticism was the cost of the extra tray and duplex unit. It seemed to me that that criticism was a bit harsh, bearing in mind that only a very small percentage of potential purchasers will require them, thus boosting the price. A colour laser at $500 seems like good value to me.

[Richard Hunt]

The Konicaminolta printers are good. I have the 2430's predecessor, the Minolta-QMS 2350, and it is a good reliable workhorse. I also added lots of memory - which was expensive - and the duplexer, which has more than paid for itself in time and hassle saved. The printer driver has a neat make booklet option as well, Quality is fine. I printed a couple of photos at A4 size: framed, hung on the wall, at viewing distance they're fine.

Richard Hut

[andymcd]

thanks, all
great info. on the konicaminolta..i'm going off to check on prices now. it makes me feel better that someone is using them for dtp and is happy about it. let's just say that the sales folks i've been talking to really don't understand much of anything i've asked.

of course, any more input is welcome. ....andy

[andymcd]

by the way...here is a question i'm having trouble answering: do i need postscript? the next model up 2450 supports it, but i'm not sure i need it if all my work is with adobe cs. are there applications that put out raw postscript? any advantage to having this? ...andy

[ktinkel]

do i need postscript? the next model up 2450 supports it, but i'm not sure i need it if all my work is with adobe cs. are there applications that put out raw postscript? any advantage to having this? ...andyI use my Epson color printer without PostScript.

And you should be able to use any PostScript printer by first making a PDF from your page. But I cannot say I have a lot of experience with that. Most of the time I hit print, and off it goes.

If there were a problem, I suspect it would be related to fonts.

[terrie]

andy: ...colorOk...I'm glad that others have popped in with their recommendations as I've never used a color laser myself so I'd go with their suggestions...

That said, there was a review I read just last night that had very good things to say about the 2430dl...he suggested if you didn't need ethernet, that the 2400W might do just as well however, there is no duplexing option with the 2400W.

Terrie

[Michael Rowley]

KT:

'And you should be able to use any PostScript printer by first making a PDF from your page'

Nearly all laser printers have had PS emulation for years, and I suspect that does just as well as genuine PostScript, for which you have to pay a substantial premium.

[ktinkel]

Nearly all laser printers have had PS emulation for years, and I suspect that does just as well as genuine PostScript …That I would not bank on.

It is one thing for someone printing the odd page at home and another for people trying to produce critical output for commercial printing. It has been a few years, but I remember many nightmares from people who tried to rely on clone PostScript.

I think the PDF route should work, so long as there are no font problems. But otherwise? Dunno.

[Michael Rowley]

KT:

'I think the PDF route should work, so long as there are no font problems'

That's safe anyway. But I still wonder at the necessity of genuine PostScript printers; it's been many years since PS appeared, and it is impossible to keep something exclusive for all that time. I don't know what is involved, just sceptical.

[Richard Hunt]

by the way...here is a question i'm having trouble answering: do i need postscript? the next model up 2450 supports it, but i'm not sure i need it if all my work is with adobe cs. are there applications that put out raw postscript? any advantage to having this? ...andy

Absolute requirement? No. Nice to have? Yes. The 2350 does PCL6e and PS3, and just occasionally I get a file whih fprints with PS but not PCL or the other way round.

Eichard

[Howard White]

thanks, all

of course, any more input is welcome. ....andy

o.k. Staples has a sale on the Konica you crave--$100 rebate, or $399.Expires soon.

http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?prodCatType=1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=122186

HW