Pardon the cross-posting... I'd like to compare notes with any other MI Pro, Manifold, ESRI users out there printing with a Kodak 3000 series Plotter. I would also like to welcome any of your comments on experiences with other plotters as well. As plotter/paper/ink consumers, our efforts to communicate and compare notes, can result in lower prices, and better service for all. Your expert contribution is greatly appreciated.
In February, 2002 we paid $7,500.00 for a new Kodak 3062 60" Large Format Printer. Since then, it has been running 6-14 hours a day for one year now, without hardly a hitch. After nearly 6000 feet of 60" paper (30,000 sqft) and 190 220ml ink cartridges printing exclusively aerial photography in stunning detail, we have found our 3062 to be both reliable and low maintenance. Through a local distributor we are paying $160.50 per roll of Kodak 60" 180g Premium Glossy paper and $76.50 per ink cartridge. In the course of a year we have gone through the following amounts of ink (broken down by color): Cyan: 6 cartridges, 3% Yellow: 33 cartridges, 17% Magenta: 9 cartridges, 5% Black: 21 cartridges, 11% Light Cyan: 54 cartridges, 28% Light Magenta: 67 cartridges, 35% The following service / maintenance has been preformed: In June, 2002 a technician came out to replace a defective drive motor. In October, 2002 Kodak sent a software update which was installed in the plotter via PCMCIA card. In February, 2003 a technician came out to clean and replace the "maintenance station," or head cleaner. All services were completely covered under warranty. We did not purchase rip software, like Onyx PosterShop because the plotter came with a basic, proprietary rip called Kodak Easy Print. In fact, we looked into Onyx, but at that time they did not support the plotter because (and I'm not making this up) the plotter HAS NO DRIVER and can only print image formats like .jpg, .tif, .bmp, etc. That's right, there is no traditional driver for the plotter, so printing directly from MapInfo in the traditional sense is impossible because there isn't a printer installed that one can choose from. Instead, we use Adobe Distiller to create a .pdf, and then rasterize the .pdf in Photoshop, which gives us greater, and faster control over color, size, etc. than a rip can. A Pentium 4 with 1.5 GB of RAM, creating a 45"X45" layout using .ecw photography and various vector GIS data layers takes about 10 minutes to create a 600dpi .pdf. The same computer then takes about 40 minutes to rasterize the .pdf at 300dpi, 30 minutes at 250dpi. Color enhancements (if needed) are made, the image can be enlarged to any appropriate size above 45"X45", cut into tiles if a boundary is to exceed 59", and saved as a .tif image(s). Here's the good part, once Easy Print is pointed to the file and told to print, the plotter begins printing immediately, and batch processes the image to the plotter as printing continues. This allows us to print from any workstation, AND allows the user of that workstation to continue running other processes on their machine at the same time. We do not have a dedicated computer running the plotter (unless you consider my own to be dedicated, which is running the plotter as I type this.) The prints are absolutely stellar, they look like they came out of a darkroom with none of that funky compression some manufacturers' drivers produce. What you see in the .tif is exactly what you get on the print (only better.) I have heard Kodak has discontinued this series, and also that they acquired ENCAD and so I am wondering if it is possible to buy essentially the same machine under the ENCAD name? Admittedly, at 14 sqft per hour (slow when compared to the HP 5000 series @ 100) I would love to get another one. How about you, do you have a Kodak 3000 series? What are your paper/ink costs? What kinds of problems have you run into? What about other brands, has anyone found the perfect plotter? Plotter Economist for a day, Ryan Morgan Aerials Express www.AerialsExpress.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 5500
