Just Another Sign Guy
New Member
for the others that will read this post as time goes on and are researching purchasing a printer i am going to add to this.
when i encounter a client who is looking to purchase a printer because they are not happy with the quality of the prints they are receiving from a wholeseller i have yet to encounter a situation where it was the wholeseller's 'fault' in that they were providing a poor product. in every case it has been shops with no digital knowledge unable to prepare proper files, supply print ready art etc...in many instances the wholesellers have even gone to EXTREME lengths to educate their client but they simply are unable or unwilling to grasp the digital print process...they have this strange thought that digital printers work like their plug and play desktop printers and they will simply bring it in house...i have seen MANY of my electrical sign shop customers do this despite my warnings.
i don't know ANYONE who is using a wholesale source who can not tell you what type of prints they are currently buying for their needs. if you don;t know it is obvious to me you aren;t buying anything and that is a different scenario. if you have a current digital printing market we look at what you have bought, what type of work you are doing and we match up your needs with a printer that will fulfill MOST of it...if you are entirely new to the industry and don't know what your needs are in my opinion don't buy a printer, build up a market and then buy a printer if you can justify it and need it.
the other problem that i run into often with electrical sign shops (well established long term companies) is that often they are very set in their ways, introducing new technology is sometimes tough. if they do not have digital capabilities they often have never had to deal with anything other than vector art, introducing raster images, color theory and all of the problems that come with color calibration can be challenging. Often times they just go hire someone with experience with digital printing but then we usually see another problem in that most of the people with experience operating a digital printer have limited electrical sign knowledge.
i am not even going to attempt to recommend a printer for the op because he simply doesnt know what his needs are or is entirely incapable of articulating himself but unless this particular well established super duper electrical sign shop has the interest of running a non illuminated division doing wraps, banners and such depending on the volume of the shop their needs can be quite different.
when i encounter a client who is looking to purchase a printer because they are not happy with the quality of the prints they are receiving from a wholeseller i have yet to encounter a situation where it was the wholeseller's 'fault' in that they were providing a poor product. in every case it has been shops with no digital knowledge unable to prepare proper files, supply print ready art etc...in many instances the wholesellers have even gone to EXTREME lengths to educate their client but they simply are unable or unwilling to grasp the digital print process...they have this strange thought that digital printers work like their plug and play desktop printers and they will simply bring it in house...i have seen MANY of my electrical sign shop customers do this despite my warnings.
i don't know ANYONE who is using a wholesale source who can not tell you what type of prints they are currently buying for their needs. if you don;t know it is obvious to me you aren;t buying anything and that is a different scenario. if you have a current digital printing market we look at what you have bought, what type of work you are doing and we match up your needs with a printer that will fulfill MOST of it...if you are entirely new to the industry and don't know what your needs are in my opinion don't buy a printer, build up a market and then buy a printer if you can justify it and need it.
the other problem that i run into often with electrical sign shops (well established long term companies) is that often they are very set in their ways, introducing new technology is sometimes tough. if they do not have digital capabilities they often have never had to deal with anything other than vector art, introducing raster images, color theory and all of the problems that come with color calibration can be challenging. Often times they just go hire someone with experience with digital printing but then we usually see another problem in that most of the people with experience operating a digital printer have limited electrical sign knowledge.
i am not even going to attempt to recommend a printer for the op because he simply doesnt know what his needs are or is entirely incapable of articulating himself but unless this particular well established super duper electrical sign shop has the interest of running a non illuminated division doing wraps, banners and such depending on the volume of the shop their needs can be quite different.