ChrisFromNY
New Member
Well, I'm a newbie around these here parts 
I own a 42" HP DesignJet 5500 UV printer. Nothing too special, got a REALLY good deal on that that I just couldn't pass up.
I originally purchased it with the full intent of printing a vinyl wrap for my 10' box truck (Just the large flat areas, no contours at all). From what I've read on this forum, the "UV stable" dye isn't really all that UV stable when outdoors, which seems to put a kink in my plans. I've printed out a picture and have it outside in direct sunlight & weather to see how long it will last as an "ongoing experiment" with a portion covered as a control.
I purcahsed a nice roll of 42" photo paper and started running photo prints, posters, and other stuff mostly things for my office at work and around my house. Word traveled fast and I'm getting a whole bunch of requests from individuals at work, friends, and other people to print stuff. I've been asked for large photos, posters, banners and other misc indoor things. I've been sending them all to local sign shops that have this capability, telling them I don't know what my cost of printing would be. I've since decided that I need to put this printer to work for me and make some money as a side job.
Everything I've printed so far has been through Photoshop, using custom paper sizes and creating a photo "canvas" the same size of the print I was going to run (and organizing pictures onto this canvas). Depending on how many prints I'm running at once, this is very time consuming and I have no idea what the cost-of-printing is when doing this. I've done some researching and it seems I need RIP software to make my life easier, and find out the printing cost. Upon researching different types of RIP software, I've noticed there's nothing open-source and it's not exactly cheap either.
So here I am, ready to learn and start making money from what's currently just a big toy.
I own a 42" HP DesignJet 5500 UV printer. Nothing too special, got a REALLY good deal on that that I just couldn't pass up.
I originally purchased it with the full intent of printing a vinyl wrap for my 10' box truck (Just the large flat areas, no contours at all). From what I've read on this forum, the "UV stable" dye isn't really all that UV stable when outdoors, which seems to put a kink in my plans. I've printed out a picture and have it outside in direct sunlight & weather to see how long it will last as an "ongoing experiment" with a portion covered as a control.
I purcahsed a nice roll of 42" photo paper and started running photo prints, posters, and other stuff mostly things for my office at work and around my house. Word traveled fast and I'm getting a whole bunch of requests from individuals at work, friends, and other people to print stuff. I've been asked for large photos, posters, banners and other misc indoor things. I've been sending them all to local sign shops that have this capability, telling them I don't know what my cost of printing would be. I've since decided that I need to put this printer to work for me and make some money as a side job.
Everything I've printed so far has been through Photoshop, using custom paper sizes and creating a photo "canvas" the same size of the print I was going to run (and organizing pictures onto this canvas). Depending on how many prints I'm running at once, this is very time consuming and I have no idea what the cost-of-printing is when doing this. I've done some researching and it seems I need RIP software to make my life easier, and find out the printing cost. Upon researching different types of RIP software, I've noticed there's nothing open-source and it's not exactly cheap either.
So here I am, ready to learn and start making money from what's currently just a big toy.
