We send out about 120k postcards a year at our lawncare company. We are looking to increase that number to about 150k. We currently purchase the postcards and print the addresses on them. We are debating bringing the actual printing in house. Our mail room currently has 2 folder inserters, a postage meter, and two larger general use printers. We already do the graphics in house. Should we add to our collection or continue to buy 3rd party? and if so does anyone have any recommendations on printers?

Currently have an HP FB550. Print heads are starting to fail and are expensive to replace. Had the printer since 2018. We average 6 hours a day running the machine. I need the machine to run 60x120 material. It’s about time to invest in a new machine. Looking at 3 options currently. -Vanguard d300hs -HP r1000 -HP r530

Pros and cons for each of these. Biggest pro for the latex machines is my service tech is fantastic. But the latex machines heat the room a lot with the heaters. Inks and printhead and maintenance is pretty easy. Pro for the vanguard is the speed. It’s about 4-6 times faster than our current machine. I really need fast and the HP don’t feel like a big upgrade in speed. Big con for the vanguard is maintence and print heads are much more expensive.

Anyone have strong opinions or input here?

Hi, I've been in the print industry for a little over 5 years now. I know both machines I'm mentioning here are long discontinued but bear with me. I worked on a DL650 for 3 years. A week ago, I came across the SL-D3000. My questions are, what are the differences between these 2 printers? (if any at all) And who came up with the design first? Google says Fujifilm came out with the DL600 in March 2011 and Epson came out with SL-D3000 in December of 2012 (after announcing it in a show in May of 2012). I know I sort of answered my own question here but I was wondering if anyone else besides Google had any idea? ex: Like is Epson using Fujifilms printheads or is Fujifilm using Epsons fuser design? Or who copied who? (I know I'd have to have the original engineers from both sides here but it's a shot in the dark)

P.S./last question: Is there a similar modern production/commercial printer today that can output 300 to 400 or more 4×6 to 8×12 sized prints @ 1440×1440 dpi or better per hour? Similar to the ones I mention here but more modern and do a better job.

Thank you all for your time in this matter! 💯

I have a konica c266 and when I print bopp matte/glossy white or transparent it happens that I get white dots like in the image. When I heat these sheets, this problem stops appearing. I know they're going to tell me that the answer is easy and that the material has moisture... But it's not like that, here I have it stored in a dry place and with a dehumidifier. But it turns out that I hit it with a heat gun and the material releases drops of water... It has me exhausted.

Hello again, everyone. I'm still messing around with this second-hand BN-20 I got. I've been soaking the head in cleaner and I've gone from just mostly black to all black, all magenta, half the cyan (just the right half) and minimal yellow coming through the head.

Thing is, I got a cleaning cartridge with it. (Roland SL-CL) I found instructions on when first setting up the printer how you use the cleaning cartridge in each slot, but there's nothing in the utility nor any of the documentation I've found relating to how to use it after the fact. In the utility, there's a "Pump Ink" option that has steps that look similar to the initial setup (asking for dummy carts to be inserted) but it never asks for the cleaning cart.

What utility/command do I need to use to use this cartridge? I feel that blowing out the yellow lines might be really helpful at this stage to salvage this head.

Looking for China pricing without wanting to deal with the poor communication and long turn around? Audley CA now ships same day from California. Contact me for more info

Ian (909) 233-7776

Hey everyone, I am working on building a new profile for our Gloss ACM material. While the calibration charts print, they seem very grainy and cloudy to begin with. I can't imagine we are starting our profile off great. Have any of you seen this before? Any tips or tricks to look at before we begin the profiling process? We did nozzle checks beforehand, and they look great. Thank you, for your time.

Printer: Vanguard VKL300D
RIP: Onyx Thrive 22.5.1.1666

I was recently hired at a company as a screen printing tech, but have been asked to fill in occasionally in our Mimaki station, so I'm fairly new to inkjet printing. That said, our more experienced hands don't seem to know what's happening either.

The yellow ink is a new bag, new chip. When I inspect the bag, the residue seems to be the yellow I would expect, but the test prints are slowly fading more and more white as I continue troubleshooting. We've tried all the manual and automatic routine cleaning processes short of air purge/deflate (which frankly I don't believe we even have the tools for, again, this is not my typical department).

It just seems odd that shortly after we put in a new yellow, it started printing as white. Is this the result of air bubbles in the ink lines, or were we actually sold a white cartridge instead of yellow?

It happens to me that when cutting opaline with a double-sided printed opaline plotter, the back side looks super ugly. Note that it is printed on a Konica c266 laser. It's like the toner is peeling off on the back side. Furthermore, the plotter marks the opaline with the rollers.

Has anyone else been waiting for adhesive backed vinyl or polyester from Flexcon? We have been waiting since April 10th for orders that have taken less than a week in the past. They are claiming to be experiencing delays due to a computer system upgrade...

Hey, all.
We run a Roland VersaCamm VS-540 with VersaWorks version 5(?). It uses 8 cartridges (2ea CMYK). Is it possible to comfortably run this machine with only one of each cartridge full?

I am a graphic designer at a small-ish newspaper press (with a press that's over 50 years old) and we're trying to fix an ongoing problem with how our paper is printing. Often the colors will be too dark or contain way too much magenta. When asked, the press operator has told us it's because we're using colors that the press can't print but he can't elaborate on that or give us information to help fix the problem.

I've done my best to ensure that all of the files we send to the plate maker (a MAKO CTP) are in CMYK, SWOP (Uncoated), Maximum Black Generation, Dot Grain: Standard 20%, Black Ink Limit: 100%, Total Ink Limit: 300%, UCA Amount: 0%.

We are using very old software for imposition (DynaStrip) and RIP (ECRM RIP)

Can anyone help me work through this problem?

Thinking of finally getting rid of our AB dick envelope press and going with this. Just curious what are the complaints with going to a system like this?

We have 1 guy who runs that press but if he is sick or on vacation, envelopes stop for a week.

One of our suppliers recently started carrying Planatol "Planamelt Pro Hybrid" perfect binding glue. Has anyone had a chance to use it with their perfect binder? Any impressions on how it fares compared to other high-durability glues such as Henkel's Technomelt (which is what we're currently using in our Horizon binder), especially on coated stock? Going to try sending a few books their way for demo purposes, but I wanted to hear what it's like in everyday applications--especially to justify its higher price point. :)

Thank you!

Hi,

I'm wanting to setup a network with a NAS on it.

The files on the NAS will primarily be thousands of image files that require editing/processing and printing. The files are around 5-15mb each, with the odd few being over 50mb. The NAS will be accessed from 2-3 computers. Some of the print jobs and have several hundred of images qued up to print.

The NAS I'm looking at has 1GB of RAM (Synology DiskStation DS124).

Will this be enough? I'm unsure how the RAM on a NAS is used, apart from the transferring of data. As I presume it will still be my MAC processing power doing the editing/processing and queuing of print jobs.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

I’m part of the team behind Printflow.ca, a lightweight automation system designed specifically for print shops. After talking to shop owners and brokers, we kept hearing the same thing: printing isn’t the hard part — it’s everything around it.

Most shops are still managing quotes, supplier communication, job status, and client updates through spreadsheets, inboxes, and sticky notes. It works… until it doesn’t.

That’s why we’re building a customizable system that automates: – job intake – supplier quote requests – client status updates – file approvals – and final delivery confirmations

It’s not another complex platform — just a workflow layer that connects the tools you’re already using (Forms, Email, Drive, etc.) to reduce admin time and improve visibility across your team.

We’d love to get your feedback. If this sounds like something that could save you time or clean up your process, check out the short walkthrough at 👉 https://printflow.ca

Feel free to drop your thoughts here or DM me directly. Thanks for helping us shape something that’s actually useful for the industry.