imagePROGRAF PRO-4600

Nobody is using laser for photos. It’s just not the right tech for that. And it’s vastly superior for documents. My ET8550 has VERY good photo quality for being a 6-color printer, and one of the channels is pigment black… so it’s basically a 4-color printer + photo grey. That said, put it next to the prints from my PRO-4600 with 11 ink channels and you’ll see what you get for twice the colors.

I do a fair bit of canvass printing. Less so nowadays because the profit margins have sunk and I just don't want to, but I still do. I actually sold my Porgraf, though, because I want to focus on latex ink. I have to ask, is this for your own prints that you are already selling? Or are you trying to get people to come to you? I ask because online you can have a canvas printed, mounted, and finished for less than the cost of the wood to build a frame. It's pretty much impossible to be in that space. To answer your questions - 1. I don't know what you mean by frame. You mean the stand? The printer is 250 pounds already, the 30 pound stand doesn't really make a difference. 2. I got mine from B&H. I had no issues. 3. Yes, you need special canvas to print using pigment inks. To print on untreated canvas you need a different printer, something that uses ecosolvent, UV, or latex inks. You can get the canvas rolls in many places, like B&H, Grimco, Sign Warehouse, USCutter, etc. 4. The largest canvas I ever made was 4ft by 6ft. The Prograf 4600 has a maximum width of 44", so it could not have done that since you also need 2+ inches margin for the wrap. I rarely did anything more than 3ft by 4ft on the Canon. Most of the time it's more like 2ft by 3ft. I always made my own frames. The cost to get pre-built or snap together stretchers is really high compared to buying a bunch of wood. I own a planer, a shaper, a table saw, and a chop saw, so making my own stretchers was pretty easy for me. That being said, if you can order in bulk or work with a local carpenter, you can still get a lot of value. Learning to stretch the canvas is the hardest part and the easiest part to screw up. There's no fixing a destroyed corner - if you destroy a corner, you will be re-printing the piece. It's not hard - it just takes practice. Watch youtube vids, that's how I learned.

I can't speak to the 8550 but for my photography business I used Epson since 2010 and every iteration of the 'new upgraded' printer actually got worse on many fronts.  All 17" printers ... First one was the 3800, pretty great reliability until it just suddenly died (mainboard related) so i got the 3880. For such a small iterative upgrade it seemed to have a lot more issues with clogged nozzles and just general pain in the ass printing issues.  Then came the P900... Amazingly they decided to remove the firmware functionality that let you print ink usage reports AND the printer status software stopped showing actual percentages of ink remaining and instead just showed a small bar for the level so when it was running low you never had a clue how many more prints you could do. Also, they removed the physical buttons for navigating menus on the printer itself and replaced it with a touch screen... Totally unnecessary. All that said, it does still work, though i have flashed the firmware and installed inks i can refill myself because i got tired of the cost of Epson inks. Oh yeah, earlier last year they had supply chain issues with their light magenta ink and as you can expect, if you are out of one ink cartridge you can't print at all, so for people using the printer for business you either have to put business on hold or go buy a new printer that you can actually get ink for. Last October i bought the Canon 4600 44" printer and i absolutely love it. It's just so much more end user friendly, both in use and cost.

Look into the Canon Image Prograf 4000 series. They are aqueous, about 5 grand, the quality is amazing.

Indeed, I missed the casual use bit, I use one professionally with hahnemuhle archival Paper its superb and i suck up the cost of the odd auto cleaning cycles

I had a similar canon. Just make sure you print regularly. The print heads dry out fairly fast if you don’t. I sold mine cause replacing the heads got really annoying.

Canon imagePROGRAF or Epson Sure Color photo printers are the best you can get for home use. They are expensive but will be noticeably better than any normal 4-5 color printer.