Home Printer for Various Sizes of Cardstock & Envelopes

[CoppiaCreativa]

Hi everyone...I'm in a pickle and I might have a coronary....my printer has died! RIGHT in the midst of a huge RUSH wedding order - oye vey!

I LOVED my HP Deskjet because it literally printed on almost anything and in almost ANY size (4 bar envelopes, square envelopes, thick textured card stock).

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good, reliable printer particularly for printing envelopes, as I offer this service to my brides and its a HUGE huge seller! I outsource most of my invite component printing, but do all my envelopes in-house. I do smaller orders in-house on cardstock for the actual invites, so the printer does need to handle thick cardstock as well...

Anyone have any suggestions? Your help is much much MUCH appreciated!

[PopItWhenShePops]

I feel your pain. I recently moved with my family to a log cabin in the woods. Silly, right? In doing so, I had to sacrifice the relationship I had with a lovely print shop in Annapolis, MD. {Free State Press}

I've resorted to 'printables' in the meantime. But, I miss the print aspect of my business. In anticipation of this move, I've been on the search for a decent printer - since May 2012!! I can't tell you the hours I've lost to researching this. I just won't accept that with all advances in technology a {fantastic!} solution doesn't exist...

The forums are endless, however, they all seem to be without resolve.

I'm throwing my hands in the air and buying a printer SOON. When I do, I'll gladly share how it all works out.

So far, I've seen high recommendations for the Epson Artisan.

I wish you the best of luck in the search for a replacement to your printer! I would, of course, love to follow up with you!

Best Regards,
Mae

[Former_Member]

I love the Epson printers, but not all of the Epson Artisan printers accept card stock well. No matter what printer you get, check the reviews on how it handles card stock.

Also, for what you are sending, I would make sure that the printer uses water resistant ink so that it doesn't run or bleed if someone gets it wet.

[TheRubyBelle]

I have an Epson also and LOVE it. It's a Workforce Pro. I researched a lot of printers before buying mine and that's what I found to be best for my needs. I feed all of my cardstock and printable vinyl via the back. Be sure to change the print settings to the high quality setting though.

Good luck!!

[CoppiaCreativa]

Thank you for your comments and suggestions! I just gave up on yet ANOTHER printer yesterday...this is beginning to feel like a lost cause - I wish my little inkjet from 2004 didn't poop out.

Since then, I started with an Epson Artisan 50 - I had really high hopes for that one because I kept reading great reviews about it's ability to feed all sorts of paper types..It fed it all through, but that ink spread on every type of paper I used except the Epson paper samples they give you when you purchase it. But the images were not crisp AT ALL...I tried all the different settings...using less ink, cleaning the print heads...etc. etc., nothing worked.

While that above disaster was taking place that afternoon and I was literally in tears, my sweet husband went out and purchased me an HP OfficeJet Pro 8100. It did the job I needed it to do during that desperate feat to get the job out, but the feeding tray on that puppy will only feed one envelope at a time....so you actually have to physically pull open and close the tray for every single cotton pickin' envelope. Then it just kept jamming...not printing straight....UGH! At least the images were crisp though....

SO on to the HP DeskJet 3510....won't feed more than one envelope before it just jams and jams...and its LOUD when it jams. Forget about it feeding the textured Luxe envelopes - no way. It's going back today :(

What a frustrating disaster! Sandy, I did read about the Workforce Pro....I might give that a shot....I'd love to just suck it up and get a laser printer - I know it'll work great for shimmer stocks and smooth paper types, but the ink doesn't set into textured paper like inkjet does...

You would think being that its almost 2013 there would be a better solution! Blahh!

[Cynefn]

I have an Epson Stylus photo 1400, it's A3 which comes in handy if you ever need to print anything larger. I do all my art prints and cards on it (300gsm folded) and it works great, you have to set it to "thick card/envelopes" in the maintenance options to stop the ink from splattering - it took me a long time to figure that out and it wasn't suggested in any forums or Epson help pages but it prints perfectly now - I'd highly recommend it!

[Former_Member]

I have a Brother TN210 that I love and hate. You have to manually feed each piece of paper (under standard letter paper size) or envelope, and it jams sometimes if I'm not paying attention, but it does print well on the super textured seed paper I use. That said, it's an all in one laser printer, so it may be more than you need. It takes a bit of trial and error messing with settings in order to get a print job perfect sometimes, so I always do at least five samples before I print a job! It's a pain sometimes, but I can't afford to buy anything new at the moment, so it's the best I have:)

[ShopMissElla]

I have an Epson R3000 and it prints archival prints beautifully. I use hahnemuhle and pinnacle heavyweight fine art papers and thick stock which all print beautifully, it also prints up to A3 plus. It's not cheap but I love it? I guess for envelopes etc you don't want such a pricey printer?

[zdesigns0107]

Thank you all for your suggestions.
My printer is not working well at the moment. I need to find a printer that I can feed pre-cut (4-7/8” x 7”) and pre-scored card stock through my back feeder that will bleed and print straight. My printer can’t do this (Canon PIXMA MP990), I can’t get it to bleed even though I have the option and it doesn’t print straight. Can someone recommend a printer that can do all this.

Laura, your Epson Stylus photo 1400 sounds great. Does it bleed and does the pre-cut cover stock stay straight the whole time it goes through the printer?

Thank you so much!
Brenda

[Former_Member]

Hi Brenda

I just bought a pixma mg5420 from best buy and despite not having a back tray it prints 100 lb Bristol perfectly. It has two bottom trays, one is a separate tray for small paper and has printed 7x8 from the main tray perfectly for me.

:)
Karen

[adfabinidaho]

I recently bought a Epson Artisan 1430 "wide-format" printer.

This printer can handle 160 Lb. card stock paper with no problem! It prints beautiful photos too.

My husband didn't like the standard 110 lb. card stock and wanted something thicker for his business cards, but our printer couldn't handle the thicker stock paper, almost broke the machine.

[Former_Member]

Hi Kristy,

Did you end up with a printer you love? I'm in the market for a new printer with similar needs to yours and would love to know if you found a great one.

Thanks so much!
Cara