Best Inkjet Printers for Greeting Cards

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What Inkjet Printers are best for greeting card printing?

With so many inkjet printers available, your choices for a good greeting card printer are better than ever. But, for the serious amateur or pro photographer with print production in mind, the field of good printers narrows considerably. From our experience, a number of key factors come together to make a reliable, high quality greeting card printer. Most manufacturers have at least one printer that fits the bill. The printers in this article have been selected based on hours of printing experience in the Red River print labs.

What are the important features of a greeting card inkjet printer?

Speed - you don't want to wait around all day for a run of 100 cards
Color and detail - most greeting cards feature photos or artwork that need true color reproduction
Product quality - how long will the printer run before you have to buy another?
Ink economy - you need to keep overall costs down to maximize profit and minimize overhead.
Robust paper transport mechanism - many greeting card stocks (especially from Red River) are thick and heavy and require a printer that will feed each sheet consistently

Below are the top inkjet printers Red River recommends for greeting card printing.

Canon ip4920

Street Price: $89

A note about Canon printers - Many of the current Canon printer models use the same basic inkjet printing technology (print heads and inks). The CLI-226 ink system is what you will find in most iP, MG, MP, and iX printer models.

If you find a Canon printer that has extra features you need, check if it is a cousin of the iP4920. It will have five ink tanks (two blacks) and use CLI-226 ink. If so, that printer will also work well as a greeting card machine.

Pros

Cons

Speed - Like all of the "i series" printers, you can expect remarkable print speed
Good color quality - recommended that you use ICC profiles for the best possible output
Ink economy meets Red River's expectations
Great paper feed system
ChromaLife 100+ ink system

Thermal print head can burn out with heavy use.
4 color system - Canon has discontinued low cost six color printers.

Epson Artisan 50

Street Price: $149

The Artisan 50 replaces the R280 and is basically the same printer. This printer uses six individual tanks featuring Claria dye ink. Speed is has been improved over previous models. The Artisan 50's feed system seems better able to handle card stocks - a big plus. We like dye inks because they outstanding color and compatibility with basically any inkjet card stock you can find. The Epson Artisan 50 is compatible with all Red River greeting card stocks. Buy It Now (powered by Amazon.com)

Pros

Cons

Dye inks - great color
Six Color 8.5" Wide - Small desktops with six colors are becoming more rare. This printer meets our color saturation requirements easily.
Good Price
Ink economy - meets or exceeds Red River's expectations for ink cost per card

Speed - a little slower than the competition in price class
Feed mechanism - could be a little more robust for heavy cards

Canon Pro9000 MkII

Street Price: $499

Great color reproduction, robust paper transport mechanism, and compatibility with all Red River inkjet papers make these printers good for greeting card production. An excellent choice if you want to expand into larger print sizes.

Pros

Cons

Speed - outstanding speed even at top quality level
8 color cye inks - outstanding color
Compatibility - works with almost all Red River inkjet papers
Paper feed - consistent feeding of all Red River stocks

Thermal print head can burn out with heavy use

Why not include an HP in the list?

HP makes a fine inkjet printer. The problem that we consistently see regards the HP paper feed system. These printers do not feed thick Red River card stocks on a consistent basis. In addition, we have reports that making and using custom paper sizes in the HP print driver can be inconsistent. Getting it right on the first or second try is a challenge. If you have an HP and have successfully printed on Red River pre-scored greeting cards, we would love to hear from you here.

Summary

If you want to make great looking greeting cards, and lots of them, you need a printer that will handle the work and make you look good. Fortunately, inkjet technology is amazing and offers many choices for the professional and serious amateur. Remember to think quality, speed and paper compatibility when choosing a printer. Most often, these printers will use dye ink based. If you want your greeting cards to last many years (15 and above) you most definitely should consider a pigment inkjet printer from Canon or Epson.

A big question we often answer is "How much will it cost to print my cards?". After extensive printing and calculations on ink usage, Red River Paper produced a cost per card chart that you can see here. We looked at the average size of a greeting card image and made assumptions for ink usage including ink for text printing. The chart has proved to be a good reference point for customers.

Printing inkjet greeting cards is a big part of what makes inkjet printers especially useful to professional photographers. Red River Paper feels that pros should at the minimum, print thank you cards for clients. Adding custom cards to your packages adds not only profit, but mini marketing pieces with your logo on the back!

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