Cheap Printing for Photo Booth 4 by 6 inch photo: I have a photo booth and print on site,,, I have an hp printer that sucks ink like a vampire,,,not making a lot of money after I pay...

cony25

I have a photo booth and print on site,,, I have an hp printer that sucks ink like a vampire,,,not making a lot of money after I pay 50 dollars for 4 ink cartridges.

Any recommendations for a printer that can yield many copies with less costly ink and that can be somehow portable?

Appreciate your advice.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

I own two color printer: a 4-cartridge HP OfficeJet Pro 6835 for business printing (product labels, invoicing, small prints, etc.); and an 8-cartridge Canon PIXMA Pro-100 for display prints up to 13x19-inch.

I buy my replacement ink cartridges for both printers from LD Products for about 1/3 the price of comparable manufacturer's cartridges: http://www.ldproducts.com/ink-and-toner.html
I am quite pleased with my printing results, and the functioning of my printers with LD cartridges.

Bill_de Loc: US

An HP model comes out as most efficient and high on photo quality, on this site. I would Google "Efficient Inkjet Printers" for more info.

http://www.inkfarm.com/BestInkSavingPrinters2015

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bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

A reference for an ink cost per print for a variety of photo printers is here:
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cost-of-inkjet-printing.html

Any printer can be set up to be portable with a common "inverter" and any car battery.

jct842

Pretty hard to compete when a real photo print at say walmart is .09 and a 1 hour is .19 cents. And they don't wilt if water gets on them.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

I would go with 3rd party ink. Your not looking for museum quality.. You can save a LOT of money.
My epson 400 . One cart is $12.00
I recently bought 10, asst colors and a few black for $11.95 for all. For printing documents etc and when people say hey print me a copy of that. They work fine. try it.you have nothing to lose ...

CeeJay Loc: Southeast PA

I agree with bdk, 3rd party ink is the way to go if your happy with the printer. Inkfarm generally is one of the good quality and low cost options. I've use their inks in my Canon printer for over 2 years. never had a problem.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

cony25 wrote:

I have a photo booth and print on site,,, I have an hp printer that sucks ink like a vampire,,,not making a lot of money after I pay 50 dollars for 4 ink cartridges.

Any recommendations for a printer that can yield many copies with less costly ink and that can be somehow portable?

Appreciate your advice.

yes. Dye Sub printers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRGaaTz90fA

jct842

I just did some searches on these new printers and I am impressed. It is still looking like an expensive proposition to make good quality color prints on site.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

CeeJay wrote:

I agree with bdk, 3rd party ink is the way to go if your happy with the printer. Inkfarm generally is one of the good quality and low cost options. I've use their inks in my Canon printer for over 2 years. never had a problem.

Ditto on Ink Farm

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

jct842 wrote:

I just did some searches on these new printers and I am impressed. It is still looking like an expensive proposition to make good quality color prints on site.

There is expense up front but the running costs go down.

You can get refurbished ones for $500.00 or less and other than paper, you are in business.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

cony25 wrote:

I have a photo booth and print on site,,, I have an hp printer that sucks ink like a vampire,,,not making a lot of money after I pay 50 dollars for 4 ink cartridges.

Any recommendations for a printer that can yield many copies with less costly ink and that can be somehow portable?

Appreciate your advice.

I don't do this anymore, but when I used to do it, I would rent a dye-sublimation printer. As Rpavich has noted, they are the preferred solution for on location event printing. Fast, efficient, cheap to run, no drying time, and the results are pretty decent.

I used to pay about $100 for a weekend rental of a fast dye sub printer - 15 sec for a 4x6. Today you can own a Canon Selphy, Polaroid or Photo Cube dye sub for under $200, if you don't mind print times from 45 sec to 1 minute. The faster dye subs are still priced higher than $900.

KarenKaptures Loc: New Jersey

DNP-different models.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Bill_de wrote:

An HP model comes out as most efficient and high on photo quality, on this site. I would Google "Efficient Inkjet Printers" for more info.

http://www.inkfarm.com/BestInkSavingPrinters2015

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It's strange that they list the cost using "third party" ink, since that price can vary so much from seller to seller. The comparison chart gives a good idea of ink usage for the printers but not for the actual cost of printing. I would expect that to be about double what they list if the printer is using OEM ink.

jaysnave Loc: Central Ohio

I have discussed this Dye Sub with another UHer who is successfully using this at events printing not just 4x6 but 8x10. I have it on my want list and just noticed it has come down in price.
http://www.amazon.com/DNP-DS80-Sublimation-Professional-Portrait/dp/B0061GJS1Y/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1455279686&sr=8-15&keywords=dye+sublimation+printer