Discuss the different brands, makes and models of printers used to print inkjet and laser heat transfers. Also includes information on the inks that can be used to make your own transfers.
Need opinion from experianced users. Trying to decide on printer. The Richoh GX7000 is claimed to be very good, much faster, and at far less cost. Work features appear matched in most cases. The Epson 4880 is widely used, the new Richoh is selling so fast, many suppliers are forced to backorder. What's your thoughts as to reliability, overall cost, quality of end product? Much thanks!! JMF
Last edited by jamarco; August 22nd, 2009 at 03:27 AM.
Reason: spelling
Richoh GX7000 is about 4 times faster than Epson 4880. But GX7000 is not good if you want to print on anything but white. The initial homing cycle on GX7000 is also much shorter than Epson 4880. I do not see much of a difference in terms of print quality. GX7000 uses specialized ink so if you do not intent to use Ricoh inks, it might not be a very good idea.
Need opinion from experianced users. Trying to decide on printer. The Richoh GX7000 is claimed to be very good, much faster, and at far less cost. Work features appear matched in most cases. The Epson 4880 is widely used, the new Richoh is selling so fast, many suppliers are forced to backorder. What's your thoughts as to reliability, overall cost, quality of end product? Much thanks!! JMF
You are not comparing "apples to apples". 4 color tabloid vs 8 color 17 wide.
A better comparison would be the Ricoh GX7000 and the WF1100. 4 color tabloid vs 4 color tabloid.
When you mention "the printer is selling so fast many suppliers are forced to backorder". I can't speak to the sales volume of the suppliers, however that printer is popular with imprinters here in the US and has to be specially imported. No real market for regular paper printing with that printer in the US.
If that printer was mainstream here in the US for it's intended use (paper printing) there would not be a need to backorder.
Also, the Ricoh GX7000 has many reports here of the same issue ... the printer dies.
The suppliers (especially Conde) have been good at taking care of the users and getting replacements and such, but be aware this problem exists.
What is not clear is what is/was the root cause of the problem, at least to the end users reporting these, and if the root cause has had a sufficient corrective action.
Things can fail at random, but when specific single defect patterns emerge it could be due to design, mis-application of the product, or manufacturing defects ... it is not sufficient to just repair the printer, the reason for the failures need to be investigated and resolved. See the posts here on the subject of the GX7000 dying.
I have a 4880, it is not an entry level printer. In my opinion it is overkill for Tshirt printing.
You didn't mention if you are planning to do pigment printing inkjet or sublimation, or both.
When looking to replace I looked at the Ricohs and finally decided to go small with the 3300. The reason finally came down to one bit of small print on the 7000 paperwork-It will not do photo quality printing. If you want to do that level of detail the manufacturer doesn't think you should pick it. That was enough to push me to try the small model that will do that level of detail.
When looking to replace I looked at the Ricohs and finally decided to go small with the 3300. The reason finally came down to one bit of small print on the 7000 paperwork-It will not do photo quality printing. If you want to do that level of detail the manufacturer doesn't think you should pick it. That was enough to push me to try the small model that will do that level of detail.
I have a love hate relationship with my 4880.
One point on the issue of photo quality printing ... it is not possible to achieve photo quality printing on a tshirt.
The weave of the Tshirt has a huge impact on resolution. You need to use special coated papers designed for photo printing and not heat transfer for photo quality. In that respect printing on either Ricoh models shouldn't matter in terms of practical image quality on a Tshirt. Not sure what you read in the fine print though.
Also, 4 color printers don't achieve the color gamut I would consider to be "photo quality", but that is not achievable on tshirt transfers either, that's why I have a 4880 for my art prints and photos. But as they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" ... (or was that "beauty is in the eye of the beer holder")
One point on the issue of photo quality printing ... it is not possible to achieve photo quality printing on a tshirt.
True, I should say I was also looking at sublimation, as I was replacing a hybrid 4880-so need to replace the chroma and sublijet sides. But overall, reading the materials, it left the impression that the level of detail and quality between the two were an issue.
This is on one of the sites selling the printer: This is a business printer and not a photographic printer. This printer will exhibit very find banding in some prints. This banding will press mostly print out when transferring to fabrics, but still might remain visible when transferring on to hard substrates.
Last edited by nappen; May 11th, 2011 at 09:35 PM.
what special coated papers designed for photo printing are needed to transfer photo quality on to t-shirts?
The 4880 does head cleans even when it doesn't need it,
Epson makes that decision for me whether it really needs to clear the nozzles or not. And some times un-invited head cleans cause it to band or miss colors, then I gotta do another head clean until I get clear nozzels.
Turning off all the ink thievery mechanisms Epson "plants" helps, but I still get an un-invited head clean about once a week. PITA
Otherwise it makes drop dead beautiful prints and is very good at paper handling.
When I refer to special coated papers I am referring to paper photo printing, not heat transfer.
You don't do pigments on hard goods ... but when you sublimate you can take 2 images printed on transfer paper exactly the same image and same dpi (i.e "Photo" mode on Epson) and then print one on a tshirt then one on a glossy tiles. Huge difference in image quality on the sublimation tile. Do the same thing printing regular plain paper and glossy photo paper, you will see the same thing.
You can achieve nice looking photos on tshirts, but comes down to what you call "photo quality". Glossy photo papers for paper photo printing are coated to be reflective behind the inks surface to improve gamut (color range) and "gamma" (image pop), and they don't absork ink and allow "dot spread" like transfer papers do.
Once transfers on shirts are washed and the polymer backing has softend, the perceived image resolution is further reduced.
Last edited by mgparrish; May 11th, 2011 at 09:51 PM.
True, I should say I was also looking at sublimation, as I was replacing a hybrid 4880-so need to replace the chroma and sublijet sides. But overall, reading the materials, it left the impression that the level of detail and quality between the two were an issue.
This is on one of the sites selling the printer: This is a business printer and not a photographic printer. This printer will exhibit very find banding in some prints. This banding will press mostly print out when transferring to fabrics, but still might remain visible when transferring on to hard substrates.
Thank Mike, sharing your experience and knowledge is very helpful. The problems lots of people have had with clogging and printer faults has put me off both the ricoh and chromablast (whether used in ricoh or epson). Think I will get the epson 4880 for photography printing and see if a high enough quality can be gained for the t's i want to produced. Otherwise I am happy to out source as it sounds a lot less problematic. Its annoying they cost alot more here in England compared with usa, guess i could import one and just use a transformer
Thank Mike, sharing your experience and knowledge is very helpful. The problems lots of people have had with clogging and printer faults has put me off both the ricoh and chromablast (whether used in ricoh or epson). Think I will get the epson 4880 for photography printing and see if a high enough quality can be gained for the t's i want to produced. Otherwise I am happy to out source as it sounds a lot less problematic. Its annoying they cost alot more here in England compared with usa, guess i could import one and just use a transformer
Be advised that you need to print frequently on the 4880. If you are doing photography glossy roll paper rocks and is fairly cheap buying by the roll. The 4880 can cut those into sheets as well. Roll canvas rocks too.
Your shipping charges will kill you shipping from the US. My 4880 had to be delivered by a frieght courier, could not be handled by UPS, DHL, or Fed Ex. I had to pick up at a freight depot and it came on a wooden palette and was lifted to my truck by a fork lift.
We had both. In all of our 7 shops. And we love the Ricoh with the sawgrass ink. You can use it every day or not for a week without any problem. as it is an ordinary paper printer. We buy the dye paper for 7 cts per sheet and we do not have misprints.
Now we are finishing our T-shirt webshop application after having finished the letterwebshop see www.ips-holland.nl
True, I should say I was also looking at sublimation, as I was replacing a hybrid 4880-so need to replace the chroma and sublijet sides. But overall, reading the materials, it left the impression that the level of detail and quality between the two were an issue.
This is on one of the sites selling the printer: This is a business printer and not a photographic printer. This printer will exhibit very find banding in some prints. This banding will press mostly print out when transferring to fabrics, but still might remain visible when transferring on to hard substrates.
If it worked OK I attached a low resolution photo of two golf towels I sublimated using an Epson 4800. The actual towels look much better than this photo and the T shirts come out better than the towels so while it isn't true photo quality it gets a WOW out of lots of people.
Epson 4880 VS Richoh GX7000 
