Making Quality Home Prints - Possible?

printprobs

Hi, thought this was the most suitable forum for my query.

A few months ago, I made a digital print / poster for a friends birthday, got a few printed up, gave one to her, which she loved, and put the others on ebay.

I was amazed at how well they sold, and I'm interested in printing more, as well as some other designs. I got them printed on 270gsm Hahnemuhle paper, the quality was excellent, but I think they cost about £6 each. Size was 12"x8".

It is just a poster with black text, and a very faint background pattern. I tried printing some up myself on a regular printer with cheap photo paper, and from a distance they look perfect, but up close, the edges of the text aren't sharp, and you can see the horizontal print lines. I used an old Canon office printer, which certainly wasn't designed for making quality prints, and was also low on ink.

I know the Hahnemuhle paper can be bought for about €0.35 per sheet, obviously there would be ink costs, but my designs are mostly black text on a plain background, so they wouldn't be huge compared to photographic prints.

Would it be possible for me to print good quality posters on a home printer, really wouldn't want to pay more then €150 to start off, and does anyone have any recommendations on a printer?

I checked with my local print shops, and none of them seem to use decent quality paper, they mostly make flyers, glossy posters, menus etc

CabanSail

It is the cost of the genuine inks which costs the money.

Non-genuine often have poor quality and fade over time.

Unless you need them on demand, you are better off to negotiate a bulk price with a printer.