Plotter Recomendations

[MattG]

I am in the market for a new large format plotter. I am currently using a HP Designjet 1055CM Plus plotter. It has been acting up and I believe it is time to be replaced.

I am leaning toward a HP DesignJet T520 ePrinter and I am interested to know if anyone has any experience with this plotter. I am also considering either a Canon iPF750 or iPF 760.

I am ideally looking for a 36" roll with a decent memory to avoid processing delays. Speed is nice, but not the main determining factor. I found a few things online comparing some HP models to Canon models which brought up the comparison of consumables. Mainly that the ink usage on HP's are typically higher and the cartridges are also significantly smaller compared to the Canon's.

I have only used HP plotters in the past so I might be swayed to stay with them, but I am interested in hearing other's thoughts.

[rowbear97]

Matt,

Did you ever make a decision on this and if so what was and have you been happy with your choice? One of my clients is having similar issue and we are considering change hardware as well.

If you are still out there I would greatly appreciate hearing back from you.

[AHDesign1]

I'm interested as well. Unfortunately, our Canon W6400 is about to be made obsolete by OS upgrades. It's been a great machine for our relatively low volume operation for some time now and I'd be inclined to consider the Canon line again. We used an HP prior to the Canon and found it decent but more finicky. It HP quit supporting the Mac OS on that machine waaaaay too quickly which angered me.

Mac Pro OSX 10.7.5

3.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xenon

14 GB 800 MHz DDR2

[CipesDesign]

FWIW, I was also forced by OSX upgrades to abandon my old reliable HP DesignJet 430 (D Size/B&W). I do a very low volume of plots in house, mostly for me and clients to review and mark up. All other printing gets sent to print shop.

I ended up buying an HP DesignJet T120 (D Size/ Full Color). It's fast, was easy to set up, and has been extremely reliable for the 6-8 months I have owned it. Also, it's very inexpensive as plotters go. So much so that I wouldn't hate replacing it in 2-4 years...

[MattG]

We ended up getting the HP T520. It is nice. It is very fast and compact. Quality is good, but as odd as it sounds I felt you could get better quality out of our previous plotter with some setting adjustments.

We have a few guys on Macs that have been having a few issues plotting. From what we can tell the issues are with font mapping in adobe, but it causes strange text. It might have something to do with adobe/hp, but unsure at this point.

biggest selling point is it is fast, small and inexpensive comparatively. the ink cartridges are inexpensive and small which is good and bad. They don't last as long, but then they won't expire like some previous models. The paper alignment build in is pretty nice as a selling point. the output catch sack thing kind of sucks would be nice it it was better designed.

Matt