one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

As others have said you may find an updated driver for your printer. If you want to look for a new printer there a few wants you need to pin down. How large do you want to print, do you plan to print a lot of B&W, do you want to only use OEM ink carts? You certainly can find a photo printer (6 color) for under $200, however options are fewer now under Covid. I have an Epson XP-950 (6 color) that makes excellent photos up to 11"X14" and includes a flatbed scanner. It makes acceptable B&W but printers with more than one black could produce better B&W prints. I bought it because it sits in the footprint of a typical 8.5X11 printer (tight available space). I suggest you stay with Canon or Epson and search photo printers. You might also check out you tube videos by JToolman who can tell you more than you ever wanted to learn about photo printers.

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

I have two Epsons (a P800 and an R3000 I've had many years and still cranking). I use 17x25" paper for my P800 to get 16x24 prints, but, given roll media, can print pretty long panos if desired. I'd say to the OP, no matter what brand you choose, spend some money so you can *really* appreciate your hard work!

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Business printing is a completely different subject than photo printing and will require different printers to be done well. I have an Epson EcoTank printer I use for office purposes and an Epson P800 used for photos. Epson, and others, have many good photo printers. Three colors (plus black) makes terrible photos and ten colors is a major waste of ink for office documents. Best of luck.

Brian S. Loc: Oak Park, MI

Excellent quality and I don't use it every day, so it stays unclogged. Using it daily or weekly is What Keeps It UNCLOGGED. Using it only a couple times a month will guarantee clogging. Clogging is a result of unused ink drying inside the printhead, usage keeps the ink fresh.

I have been printing my color photos for over 15 years on Epson printers. I make sure to print on each one of them at least once a week and that prevents clogs. Call Epson and ask them what is the right thing to do.

JohnR Loc: The Gates of Hell

Hi - here's a cheaper workaround - install Windows 10 onto your new iMac in BootCamp. A bit fiddly to do as Apple don't make it too easy but when completed you'll find you can use your present printer saving your hard earned cash. Do your usual editing in Big Sur then save your results to a Fat32 USB drive, re-boot into Windows 10 and do your printing. I have two iMacs one of which hardly ever goes to OS X - turns on and off in Boot Camp Windows 10. The other has High Sierra and will never go past Mojave even though it could. Cheers

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

To put my 2cents in again. I had a Epson printer for 10 years or son no problem. Went to a photo expo and Canon was giving you a free print, you gave them the photo on a CD or stick. Canon was using a Canon Pro 1000.
I was bokking for an other printer and concluded if Canon uses a Pro 1000 printer to shop what they can do, I wanter that printer. Now have one and love the quality. 12 inks at about $70.00 @ (big) or $700.00 a set. They do have sales on it and the Canon 100 and very cost effective. But ink cost on all printers and that is how people see your work.

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

Frequent use keeps printer nozzles clear and cleaning cycles dump lots of ink into the waste ink tank pads. Q-Image is a photo editing and printing software which has a printer maintenance utility that schedules a customizable test print at whatever interval you define. I have it set to print a 5"x7" test pattern using all nozzles every 5 days. This keeps my nozzles clear and uses significantly less ink than a single cleaning cycle. When I do print the printer doesn't run the automatic cleaning cycle it does if it hasn't been used for a while. The only downside is you have to leave your computer and printer powered on.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Not sure what you just said, or why you felt you needed to say it again.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I tried to make the point that a) a good printer is important as that shows your work. b) the more differnt ink cartridges usually the better the printer (better picture quality) and c) In my case, how I picked my printer and d) look for sales

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Great points. We have an Epson EcoTank and I don’t print photos on it. Since COVID 19, I’ve used mPix lab. My photo printer, a P600 Epson, died early 2020.

The Canon Pro 200 (new replacement for the Pro 100) is worth a look. It’s on my radar...

fstoprookie Loc: Central Valley of California

I have a EPSON 7750 that is my replacement for my old Canon 1000. The Canon did a very nice job - However, the cost of Ink was more than I could afford. So I went out to find a printer I could afford and that had Photo black along with regular black and other colors. I found the 7750. It has the big tanks and I got an extra set of refills FREE when I purchased it. I DO PRINT MY PICTURES on it. It does just fine. I would HIGHLY recommend it.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I had a color printer once. I found that the cost of color printer ink was prohibitive. I had a nice Epson but it even used color ink when I printed black text. I figured it out and I could have my prints made less expensively through outside sources.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Use an inkjet printer long enough and you learn these things:

> Inkjet printing is for IMMEDIACY.

> Inkjet printing maximizes PRINT LONGEVITY, but only when you use the proper printer, inks, and papers.

> Inkjet printing maximizes COLOR GAMUT and COLOR ACCURACY. At the high end of the inkjet printing market are 8-14 ink machines that produce a much wider color gamut than is possible to achieve with conventional silver halide papers. For this reason, advertisers producing product posters for point of purchase displays use inkjet printing (think cars, clothes, and custom color logo reproduction).

> Inkjet printing maximizes QUALITY CONTROL, if you know your way around ICC color management and post-processing. It yields unpredictable and frustrating results, and lots of waste, if you don't have those skills.

> Inkjet printing maximizes the RANGE OF PAPERS and other substrates you can use. Most photo labs use either glossy (F surface) or luster/lustre (E surface) silver halide papers. When they have an order to print canvas, or real metal, or fabric, or archival cotton rag paper, they usually use inkjet printers (and charge a lot more per square inch!).

> Inkjet printing is for PRIVACY. Anything sensitive can be handled without a lab getting in your business.

> The finest portrait photographers, commercial photographers, high-end service bureaus, art museums, and artist reproduction services ALL use inkjet output. They often call it "giclee" printing.

> Inkjet printing DOES NOT SAVE MONEY. Silver Halide processes used by traditional wet process photo labs are much less expensive. But prints last only 20 to 50 years, compared with 100 to 400 years, under the same storage and display conditions (according to Wilhelm Research... Google it). (Always check the assumptions for any such tests. Vendors test their papers to random standards. Wilhelm uses one standard.)

> My take on inkjet is that it is worth it for exhibition prints. For snapshots and photo gifts, I'll use a conventional lab.

In 2004, I printed 15 archival custom photo calendars for holiday gifts. They cost me around $20 each (in 2021 dollars) to make, not including my many after-hours of labor at the lab I worked for. I used an Epson 9600 inkjet photo printer, double-sided THICK matte surface paper, and a $50,000 Bremson HR500+ lab scanner to scan my best Kodachromes from the 1970s and '80s. The calendars were gorgeous, but most of them probably got thrown away... except for the two I kept. I won't do that again! I'll use mpix or Shutterfly. They charge more than $20 for calendars, but I don't have to do all the work!

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

After reading this thread buying a printers is a lot more complicated then going on line to buy one.
In my case any wall hangers I send out, have them mounted, casual prints for family and friends ill home print.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

That happened to me with an Epson printer not working when I upgraded my Mac. I just went to Epson's site and downloaded the latest driver and it works fine now.