-
Welcome to the new forums! Please read this first. For known issues we are working to resolve, click here.
Tektronix/Xerox Phaser 850 Solid Ink Printer for Photos?
- Thread starter John Lee
- Start date
J
james george
Guest
We just put in a Phaser 850 on our network, primarily to handle our inhouse color printing at (hopefully) a savings on consumables. Xerox gives you the printer(free shipping, duplexing tray and network card) if you buy your supplies from them. Currently, the ink sticks are about $35 each (free black ink) and you have to buy a maintenance kit every 10000 prints ($81). Your company or organization must agree to print a minimum of 2000 pages per month and you have to submit a monthly usage report. If you are interested in receiving information from Xerox, send me your email address (to [email protected]) and I will forward it to them. (We get a $50 gift certificate if you decide to participate in the program).
Now, as to the printer: it uses a solid ink system. The ink sticks (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) are sort of like big crayon blocks. The printer melts the sticks and sprays the ink onto the medium. It is absolutely the fastest color printer I have seen. We have two HP Color Laserjet 5Ms and numerous Epson 600s in our building. By printing most of our transparencies, brochures, presentations,etc. on the Phaser we anticipate cutting our ink costs in half.
Quality is better than the printers we use now, but no where near the quality of the Epson 1270 that I use at home for photos. But beware...THESE ARE NOT DURABLE PRINTS. The image is created by depositing wax on top of the paper surface. It can be scratched with a fingernail.
For office use I think the printer is great. The documents we produce are VERY vibrant, color is great, speed is fantastic and longevity is fine for our purposes.
Now, as to the printer: it uses a solid ink system. The ink sticks (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) are sort of like big crayon blocks. The printer melts the sticks and sprays the ink onto the medium. It is absolutely the fastest color printer I have seen. We have two HP Color Laserjet 5Ms and numerous Epson 600s in our building. By printing most of our transparencies, brochures, presentations,etc. on the Phaser we anticipate cutting our ink costs in half.
Quality is better than the printers we use now, but no where near the quality of the Epson 1270 that I use at home for photos. But beware...THESE ARE NOT DURABLE PRINTS. The image is created by depositing wax on top of the paper surface. It can be scratched with a fingernail.
For office use I think the printer is great. The documents we produce are VERY vibrant, color is great, speed is fantastic and longevity is fine for our purposes.
D
Darla Ellickson
Guest
I'm looking at this printer or the 860 for short-run brochures for a product I make.
Would the ink be durable enough for brochures to hand out to customers? You say it tends to scratch off. I currently just print them out on my monochrome laserwriter and I'm receiving requests to see the products in color. I only hand out about 3000 to 5000 brochures a year. I'm also looking to print out rack brochures - again short-run so I can keep it fresh and change the products often.
Also short-run postcards..... Any cost per piece numbers?
Is the quality good enough to handle gradations and flesh-tones?
Do the textronix 850 or 860 handle 110 lb. card stock OK? With a pass-through printing?
Any info is greatly appreciated.
Would the ink be durable enough for brochures to hand out to customers? You say it tends to scratch off. I currently just print them out on my monochrome laserwriter and I'm receiving requests to see the products in color. I only hand out about 3000 to 5000 brochures a year. I'm also looking to print out rack brochures - again short-run so I can keep it fresh and change the products often.
Also short-run postcards..... Any cost per piece numbers?
Is the quality good enough to handle gradations and flesh-tones?
Do the textronix 850 or 860 handle 110 lb. card stock OK? With a pass-through printing?
Any info is greatly appreciated.
J
james george
Guest
Hi Darla
Ink is durable enough for brochures
Print quality on "Photo" setting handles fleshtones well but slows the printer down considerably
Cost per page varies with the percent of color, but is about half what we were spending with HP color laserjet
Have only tried to print up to 60-70 lb. stock (spec sheet says it will handle 110 lb index stock)
Another drawback is that the printer can only handle letter or legal size paper
Here's a link to the specs http://www.officeprinting.xerox.com/perl-bin/product.pl?product=Z850&page=spec
Hope this helps
Ink is durable enough for brochures
Print quality on "Photo" setting handles fleshtones well but slows the printer down considerably
Cost per page varies with the percent of color, but is about half what we were spending with HP color laserjet
Have only tried to print up to 60-70 lb. stock (spec sheet says it will handle 110 lb index stock)
Another drawback is that the printer can only handle letter or legal size paper
Here's a link to the specs http://www.officeprinting.xerox.com/perl-bin/product.pl?product=Z850&page=spec
Hope this helps
Steven Lott
Leading Member
Just installed ours today and this baby Rocks !!!!!!
fast, and all we did was plug it into our either net router and it is conected to every computer in the studio.
Steven Lott
http://www.LottsPhoto.com/ProTips.htm
Steven Lott
http://www.LottsPhoto.com/ProTips.htm
fast, and all we did was plug it into our either net router and it is conected to every computer in the studio.
Steven Lott
http://www.LottsPhoto.com/ProTips.htm
--
Steven Lott
http://www.LottsPhoto.com/ProTips.htm
bruce komusin
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,127
- Reaction score
- 0
One other drawback to wax technology -- it takes a long time after you turn on the printer before you can make your first print.
-bruce
-bruce
Dr_ML
Leading Member
You guys that are interested in this printer should check out the Xerox website. They just introduced a new printer in this category that should have higher print quality, faster speeds, and, the kicker, IS CHEAPER 
Good luck all,
Mark
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
Henrik Tikkanen
Good luck all,
Mark
--
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
Henrik Tikkanen
Dr_ML
Leading Member
Here is the URL
http://www.officeprinting.xerox.com/perl-bin/product.pl?product=8200
Mark
--
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
Henrik Tikkanen
http://www.officeprinting.xerox.com/perl-bin/product.pl?product=8200
Mark
--
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
Henrik Tikkanen
D
Donald Cooper
Guest
I had a Tek solid ink printer before Xerox acquired the division. It was an earlier version than the 850, and Xerox has a new one out, so I can't comment directly on the quality you could expect to get. Xerox is very good about sending samples though.
I've always thought the solid ink technology is pretty neat, a cross between a press and an ink jet. My issues with it would be:
1. It's a four color printer so quality might be an issue.
2. The print on mine had a tendency to flak.
3. The output has a different glossy look and feel. The lasers do as well, but the output from the solid ink printers is different again. You'd have to decide whether this was acceptable to you.
4. Mine was particular about the paper sizes, which I didn't like.
As an alternative, you might look at the new Canon N-1000 and N-2000 printers. These are the new office inkjets from Canon which are very fast and have quite low running costs. I haven't seen them personally.
I've always thought the solid ink technology is pretty neat, a cross between a press and an ink jet. My issues with it would be:
1. It's a four color printer so quality might be an issue.
2. The print on mine had a tendency to flak.
3. The output has a different glossy look and feel. The lasers do as well, but the output from the solid ink printers is different again. You'd have to decide whether this was acceptable to you.
4. Mine was particular about the paper sizes, which I didn't like.
As an alternative, you might look at the new Canon N-1000 and N-2000 printers. These are the new office inkjets from Canon which are very fast and have quite low running costs. I haven't seen them personally.
D
Donald Cooper
Guest
One other thing. On the version I had he wax had a bit of a smell as it was melted. I didn't find this offensive, though hardly pleasant, but a couple of people really hated it. If you have a sensitive nose this might be an issue for you.
But to put the smell in perspective, I'd personally take the smell any day over the noise of a color laser printer. No question for me.
But to put the smell in perspective, I'd personally take the smell any day over the noise of a color laser printer. No question for me.
Robert Longhitano
Forum Enthusiast
Steven,
I have the Phase 860 and yes it does rock! I got it for free from Xerox's Free Color Printer promotion.
I love it's built in web server, I can check it's status anywhere using it's ip address. I don't use it for photo's but I did print a few using there photo paper. IMHO my Epson 1280 prints a better photograph.
rob
I have the Phase 860 and yes it does rock! I got it for free from Xerox's Free Color Printer promotion.
I love it's built in web server, I can check it's status anywhere using it's ip address. I don't use it for photo's but I did print a few using there photo paper. IMHO my Epson 1280 prints a better photograph.
rob
I've read that you should avoid turning it off, because it spits out all the wax, basically cleaning up for shutdown, they should always stay on, otherwise your consumables will cost too much!
Keyboard shortcuts
- f
- Forum