Wide Format Confusing

If a 16x20 printer would sell for $500 and be a wide version of the
Canon PIXMA IP8500 that sells for $375 you are talking a difference of
about $125.00. Since you will save about $15 per print you are ahead of
the game after 9 prints. I am sure that many people have more than 9
pictures hanging on the walls of their home and might like to change
them every so often.

JC Dill wrote:

On Tue, 01 Feb 2005 21:07:48 GMT, measekite
wrote:



The target audience for a wide format printer are the people that
purchase Nikon D70s, Canon 20D, the Canon DR etc. There are many of
these types. Outside labs charge $40 to $50 apiece for this size or
more. If you need to spend an extra $50 for a 16x20 printer there will
still be a market.



I get 16x24 and 18x24 prints for under $20. Paper and ink costs for
prints that large will run over $5 per print so I'd have to print
quite a number of large prints for it to even begin to pay for me to
purchase a printer that can print that large. Most serious
non-commercial photographers (digital or film) don't print a lot of
large prints, at least not enough to make financial sense to own a
printer that can print this large, thus the market for this type of
printer just isn't there at a low price point, only at a higher price
point (sturdy enough and fast enough for commercial uses).

jc

wrote:

Most of the reasonable price wide format printers like the frontrunning
Canon i9900 print a maximum size of 13x19. Yes the typical frame sizes
that have been around for years are 8x10, 11x14 and 16x20 as well as 16x25.

While the typical wide format printer can accommodate an 8x10 and an
11x14 they stop short of the popular 16x20. They are 3 short on the
width and 1 short on the length.

Why would all of the printer mfg disregard this popular 16x20 size and
limit their printers to 13x19? Maybe they need to hear from their
customers.

Any comments?

Well. It's because of Standard paper sizes, well standard in the rest of the
world but not apparently in North America - the last 'luddite' holdouts.
Engineers have long used the A series of sheets (A0, A1, A2 etc) the
standard sheet for most printers being A4 (21cm x 29.7cm) or A3 (29.7cm x
42cm) A6 is virtually Postcard (14.8cm x 10.5cm). Most A3 printers will
print up to about 32.5cm width (13 inches).
There is also the B series in Japan (B6 - B0) B5 being 17.6cm x 25cm.

See http://home.inter.net/eds/paper/papersize.html for a more fuller
explanation.

These sheets are much better than the original fullscap size and slightly
better than the US 'legal' size. Although they don't conform to the perfect
'golden ratio' 1:1.618, they are more suited to digital photography than the
very long 35mm frame (24x36mm)

As most printers come from Japan and Japan is metric (so is Europe and a lot
of Asia), it should come as no surprise that manufacturers aim at these
markets, leaving North America to go it's own way with their unique paper
sizes as well as their weights and measures.

In article , (stewy)
wrote:

fullscap

Foolscap.

As most printers come from Japan and Japan is metric (so is Europe and
a lot of Asia), it should come as no surprise that manufacturers aim at
these markets, leaving North America to go it's own way with their
unique paper sizes as well as their weights and measures.

The UK is in the odd position of using some imperial and some metric
measures. Most things are now sold in kilos or litres but beer is still
sold in pints and we measure distances in miles. Milk is sold in
multiples, or fractions, of a litre but can also be bought in multiples of
one pint which are labelled in litres. E.g. in my fridge is a container
labelled 2.272 litres (4 pints). Many older people still order things such
as cold meats or cheese in ounces or pounds but the shop assistant will
weigh the amount in grammes. As someone once said: The UK is going metric
inch-by-inch!

Jon.