Tabloid or Ledger refers to 11" x 17" size paper. A tabloid color laser printer is capable, at minimum, of printing on paper of those dimensions or larger. Some support 12" x 18" format, as well as, 12" x 48" banners. The Alumnae Assoication had a four year old HP Laserjet 8550dtn printer that was capable of printing on 11x17 until recently.
It was housed in a large storage closet on the 3rd floor of Mary Woolley Hall because it was large and noisy. No one liked it in their office. Unfortunately, a printer size chunk of thick plaster ceiling fell on it a few months ago and it has not worked right since then. We have nursed it along until it finally refused to feed any paper and chronically complained of a phantom paper jam. Due to the high cost of repairs, it was deemed not worth investing any more moeny into it and I started researching a replacement.
I guess that due to the size and cost of such printers, current reviews and comparisons are difficult to find online. I search Google extensively and could not fins much in the way of a recent comparison of tabloid color laser printers. An excellent place to start is ConsumerSearch.com . I have written about the site before. They compile and compare reviews from other publications like PC Magazine, Consumer Reports and MacWorld magazine. They combine and summarize the results for you. THe site has an excelent on what to look for in a color printer and compares the pros and cons of inkjets and color lasers.
Why would the Association need such as large expensive printer? To save money and time in the long run. By printing posters, postcards, banners, signs and such in-house we do not have to pay an outside printer to do the same. It is also great for those last minute projects and tight deadlines. Our graphic designer estimates that within a year the printer should pay for itself. Why not an inkjet? Costs per page is higher with an inkjet than with a Laser printer as those of you who have an inkjet printer know. Plus, injet printers are not designed to handle large print quantities, whereas the laser printers I reviewed can handle over 100,000 pages per month.
I compared comparable models from HP, Lexmark, Okidata, Xerox and Ricoh - all major laser printer manufacturers. Going with a lesser known brand may result in expensive and hard to find parts and supplies. The Okidata 9600hdn and the Xerox Phaser 7400n come out on top in features and performance. For the full details, please refer to the comparison chart which is available in Excel (CLPrinterComparison.xls) and PDF (CLPrinterComparison.pdf) file formats. I highlighted in red the top numbers in each category and made bold the runner up numbers. Some categories were very close. Maximum paper weight was an important category for us because of the different types of card stock we want to print on. Dor an indepth look at paper weights and the difference between bond, card and index check out paper.com.
I included current prices of toners and drums where I could from Staples which offers free next day delivery and is where we get our office supplies from.
We are leaning toward the Okidata printer because there is no local service representative for Xerox in the Massachusetts Pioneer Valley area which is surprising since it is such a large company and is based out of Stamford, CT. The nearest dealers where in Connecticut. A local repairman will save time and money if the printer ever needs serious service.
UPDATE as of March 2007: We ended up purchasing the Xerox Phaser 7400 from CDW. The price was lower than the Okidata and CDW had a two year extended on-site service warranty for only $184 more. In addition to the price, I was impressed with the Xerox software. It is more polished and feature rich than the Okidata software, meaning the printer drivers and printer web server interface which is very thorough and detailed. The printer driver is very easy to install and the auto discovery feature is a nice touch. The printer is considerably faster and quieter than the HP 8550dtn that it replaces. The print outs are very nice. The color is brillant and even. I am very happy with it.
26 February 2007, 15:21
You might check the Konica Minolta Magicolor 7450 color laser printer that costs $2,999. I've been shopping for a color laser printer, which is how I discovered it, but have not owned one yet. The Magicolors get very good review. Hope this helps. Enjoy the Pioneer Valley!
05 February 2008, 20:21
Great recomendation. I bought one 8 months ago, and it's still running like a charm.
21 August 2008, 19:58
Great article.
Maicolor 5550 Toner
04 September 2008, 17:27
I hope you have better luck w/ the 7400 than we've had with the 7300. We have very frequent paper jams (about 20% of all print jobs) and it's very slow to print (sometimes 5 minutes to print one page...spits it out quickly but takes a long time to start printing). The flip side is that the prints, when they finally occur, look great. Still, we're so jaded on this thing that I have a hard time imagining buying another Xerox model.
28 July 2009, 15:54
I am always concerned with HP toner pricing in comparison to xerox toner pricing.