Wednesday 6 November 2019

Questions about Printers and Giveaway

This month my questions are about Printers.  I need to buy a new printer as my current one has never been able to cope with printing on card, but it now won't print in colour either.  A couple of crafty friends have told me what they use, but I'm curious to know about other printers being used too.

  - What make and model printer do you have?
  - What thickness card is your printer able to print?
  - Do you print anything else other than card and paper?  If so, what do you print on?
  - Do you use your printer for printing digital stamps and/or papers?  If so, what weight paper/card do you use?
  - Do you have a favourite card/paper for printing?  If so, what is it?
  - What do you like/dislike about your printer?
  - If you were going to buy a new printer - would you buy the one you have now?
  - And, of course, any other advice you can give about buying a new printer.

All comments will be entered for the giveaway, unless you specifically say that you don't want to be included.  As this is going to be my last 'Questions' post I have two Clearly Besotted stamp and die sets to give away to two people - these are 'Jingle Bells' and 'Christmas Pudding'.


Please leave all comments by 08:00 BST on Tuesday 26 November.  I'll announce the winner of the giveaway the following day.

Kath x

11 comments:

Glennis F said...

I have a Canon Pixma MG5350
It has a back feed which is perfect for printing on card.
Please don't enter me in the draw this time - thanks

Liz said...

I have a HP Laserjet colour printer.
I've printed up to about 240 gsm, but not tried thicker card.
I've never tried to print on anything other than card or paper.
I've printed lots of digi stamps, but only occasionally papers.
I usually print on a smooth card, often card from Anna Marie Designs if I've been to a craft fair to buy it or card from Ryman's stationary shop or The Range.
I like my printer because it is also a scanner and photocopier.
The only thing I dislike about my printer is that very occasionally ink smudges down the page with some pre-coloured digi stamps. I'm not sure if it's the printer, card or the actual image though. I don't try to print many pre-coloured images, so it's not too much of a problem. Also, it's really heavy, which would be a problem if I need to move it often, but it just sits on a unit next to the computer.
I probably would buy the same one again. I like how a laser jet printer prints, it seems to give a clearer colour image than an inkjet printer.

Denise Bryant said...

-HP OfficeJet Pro 6975
-I have not tried any thicker papers, but cardstock 110 lb prints fine.
-I haven't printed on anything else.
-I have printed a few digi stamps on 110 lb paper and they printed fine. I'm not very accustomed to using digis, so I am just learning!
-I like Neenah paper.
-It is simple to use but really just does the basics, as far as I know! My husband doesn't like it and preferred the one we had previously. This one does not print photos well, and our old one did.
-No, once this one croaks, we will buy another model but probably the same brand.
-Ours is used primarily for office use and not stamp or art related projects. I'd like to find one that offers more possibilities, like printing on heavier cardstock. I really think this one would jam if I tried!


Valerija said...

- I have Epson Stylus SX425W,
- I usually print up to about 220g, I've tried a bit thicker shiny paper and it printed very well,
- I have never tried to print on anything else but card and paper,
- I mostly print digital stamps and time to time, I also print digital papers,
- I don't have favourite paper for printing
- It makes really nice and clean prints, but the cartidge is very expensive and the printer uses a large amount of ink,
- I would definitely buy exactly the same one, but it's a shame, it's not possible to buy them anymore. I would probably look for something very similar and same brand.

Jane Willis said...


- My printer is a Canon MG 3150 which I didn't really buy for craft purposes, I got it when I was running a small business. It is a scanner and copier too. If I'd discovered CD and digi crafting at the time I might have chosen differently but it's serviceable
- the heaviest I've tried is 220gsm, and it sometimes jams when I use that so I won't try anything thicker
- Originally one of the main things I used it for was printing labels, but now I don't have the business any more my labels are gathering dust. Maybe I should try to introduce them into my crafting. I have occasionally used printable acetate but it's awfully flimsy stuff and you can only print on the matte side. I have two sheets of printable shrink plastic which I WILL use one day!
- I use my printer for both digis and papers. I use 160gsm paper for both as it's what the printer seems to handle best.
- For backgrounds and digis that need to be coloured, I use Xerox Premier Plus TCF and for toppers and pre-coloured digis I use a matt photo paper from the Surrey Inkjet Company.
- I like that the cartridges are easy to change, and that it's a cloud-wifi one so all our gadgets can talk to it. I don't like the palaver involved in sorting out a paper jam.
- I'd be prepared to consider it, but I think I would look for one that took heavier card and that had separate cartridges for each colour of ink rather than a single colour cartridge.

KT Fit Kitty said...

Hi, Kath! This is a great topic this month and I will be checking back to read everyone's answers. I have a love/hate relationship with printers! Here are my answers:

What make and model printer do you have?
I have an old Dell V313 which still works great, and my newer printer is an HP Desk Jet 3630.

What thickness card is your printer able to print?
My old Dell can print on anything, watercolour paper, vellum, photo paper, even thick cardstock, no problem. Not sure what I'll do when this printer dies, hope it never dies. I only use it for printing in black because the colour isn't that great. My HP is good on lightweight cardstock, 60-lb, sorry I don't know the grams, but not on 80-lb or higher. I've had problems with this printer feeding the paper almost from Day 1. I've had it replaced once already and I need to call again before the warranty runs out. I would not recommend this printer but I *would* recommend HP as a brand - excellent customer service and I like the Instant Ink program, very economical.

Do you print anything else other than card and paper? If so, what do you print on?
I've printed on glossy and matte photo paper on the HP, great quality. My old Dell will print on anything.

Do you use your printer for printing digital stamps and/or papers? If so, what weight paper/card do you use?
Yes, I use the HP for all my colour digitals and digi papers because I have Instant Ink - 15 pages free per month or 50 pages for $3.99/month and they send me new ink cartridges when the ink starts to get low. Love this program! For digi papers I mainly use Inkit Presentation Inkjet Photo Paper, 48-lb, 180g, I got it on Amazon. For colour digi images I mainly use Darice 65-lb premium smooth, also got it on Amazon. For uncoloured digis, I use my old Dell as I know the ink will work with my marker colouring; haven't tried the HP yet as I only use it for colour.

Do you have a favourite card/paper for printing? If so, what is it?
For my HP - Inkit Presentation Inkjet Photo Paper, 48-lb, 180g, got it on Amazon. For my old Dell, I print my uncoloured digis on Staples 110-lb.

What do you like/dislike about your printer?
The HP has a problem now and won't feed unless I stand there and push on the paper. It's not even a year old. I need to call again as it's still under warranty. That being said, I love the HP Instant Ink program.

If you were going to buy a new printer - would you buy the one you have now?
No, I would not recommend the 3630 model of HP but I will definitely buy HP again and will go for a higher-end model.

And, of course, any other advice you can give about buying a new printer.
I've heard the Epson EcoTank printers are good and will be looking into those next time.

Good luck with buying a new printer - I will be interested to see what you buy and how it works out!

Lynne said...

Hi Kath
I have a Canon Pixma 100S which can take up to a 300 gsm card.
I do use it for printing digital images and the type of paper depends what I'm going to colour with.
I don't have a favourite card for printing and I don't print digital papers because I have an issue in that the colours don't always print the same as they are on the screen. Hubby says it's not necessarily the printer, it could be a bit of both, printer and computer. You can get them right, it just takes a bit of time.
I would buy a Canon again, but as with a lot of printers, the cartridges can be expensive and that is one of the factors to look at when buying a new one. Lynne x

Stamps and Paper said...

HI Kath

I had to buy a new printer earlier this year..always had Epson and have been very happy my last one EPSON 2500 even printed on 250gsm card... My new one Epson ET-2600 (Scanner Printer) doesn't I was told by the salesman it would print up to 200gsm no problem ...but it doesn't. So I rang EPSON and told them what the salesman had told me...Yes it should print up to 200gsm but only usiing EPSON paper/card..
The inks are in tanks which is brilliant for lots of colour printing which I do..so much cheaper than the old cartridges
Prints 0n Vellum
Printed Acetate that has a rougher side
Prints photographs beautifully....and this printer only has 4 colour tanks whereas my old one had 6...which gave me much better colour quality.
I really depends what weight of card you want to print on.

Anne x






Marianne's Craftroom said...

I have a Canon pixma as so many people recommended them. I bought mine direct from Canon as they were cheaper. It takes up to 300gsm card as it has a rear feeder as well as a cassette. I print on paper, stamping card, other card and photo paper. It prints photos really well. I only use genuine inks to get the best colour. I print a lot of digis both for stamping and coloured digis. I would definitely buy another Canon.

Pat said...

Our printer is an all in one HP Envy 5530 and will print, scan and copy and can be used wirelessly too but we do have ours plugged in, not sure why but think hubby had a bit of problem with the wireless function setting it up so we plugged it in. I do think it is a good reliable machine, probably the best one we've had. Like a lot of printers it is not keen on any extremely heavyweight card but I must admit I don't do a lot of craft printing on it as I use a Mac and they are not keen on CD/DVD viewing as it does not display them in quite the same way as a Windows system, and these days papercrafting, i.e. running off of images and papers is not something I really do so I am not up to speed on the different types of paper etc for use in copiers with crafting in mind. I think that I would buy this printer again. It uses two cartridges, one black, one tricolour which works fine for us. If you were doing a large amount of colour printing then it might be better to have a printer that has each of the primary colours in separate cartridges. I think the cartridges are of an average price, none of them are particularly cheap to use these days. Pat x
P.S. Don't put me in the draw this time Kath. x

Tina Z. said...

Hi,
I have a Konica Minolta laser colour printer, it is very old printer, bought for my study purposes.
I've printed up to about 200 gsm, but not tried thicker paper, because I destroyed previous laser printer by pushing too thick paper into my printer.
I sometimes print on vellum.
I've printed lots of digi stamps, but only occasionally papers.
I don't have my favourite paper for printing, mostly I try different papers for watercolouring.
I like my printer because it is reliable - very old and still working and printing clear images.
The dislike about my printer is that occasionally ink smudges down the page and I don't know how to prevent this.
When we will buy a new printer, it will be a colour laser printer because I love to watercolour and laser printers are more suitable, I think. But I will read recommendations and reviews from our crafty world.
Crafy hugs xx