so heres the deal.. hopefully someone out there can help me.
i'm currently using a one color press with limited equipment. its only a hobbie for now. i'm slowly trying to improve everything.
which brings me to my next point. i'm in the market for a new printer. i've heard from everyone and the printers i've always used have been epsons. i'm not looking for something to expensive but still does a decent job. i know it would be alot smarter to invest in dye ink and waterproof film but hey lets face it this is just a hobbie and i don't want to go broke playing around. seems everyone says the r1800 is the go too printer. is there anything out there that isn't as much in price and doesn't need the dye ink?
i'm just looking for an easy opaque image to just slap on and print. just like everyone else.
please please i beg of you to help. i've been days reseaching.
p.s. SORRY to those who have already read this in the wrong section.
You don't NEED the dye ink. The advantage to dye inks (cost wise) is the ability to use non-waterproof inks. These are less expensive than the waterproof films, which work with both pigment and dye based inks.
Epson no longer makes the R1800, its now the R1900. They are both pigment based printers so if you wanted to use the standard epson ink you HAVE to buy waterproof film. If you buy dye ink (like Fast Ink) you can then use non-waterproof film or you can use waterproof film. Either way.
Also, you can just buy 8.5" x 11" sheets of waterproof film and put it through your regular ink-jet printer. It's just the quality and resolution of the prints will not be as good with a more professional printer (the R1900 as example).
If you're just playing around and your designs aren't too complicated you could just tile positives in 8.5" x 11" and then you don't have to buy a new printer.
I use an Epson 3000 with dye ink and waterproof film. I've used the waterproof film in my HP ink-jet all in one when I was out of ink in the 3000. It worked fine, but obviously my resolution was limited.
But, aside from the Epson 2200 or the 1400 the next step up is the R1900, or if you can find a used or refurbished R1800 get that.
i got an epson 1400 and it works well for me. It was pretty cheap considering there were a ton of rebate offers going on at the time. It was a little expensive to get the films though, but i got the 13 x 19s so that is probably why... I didn't get anything either to modify it. It works fine out of the box for printing on film positives. Just have to mess with the printer settings and your all set.
screen printing 
Re: screen printing 
