So, I’m back over here.
It’s been nearly a decade since I stopped working on Printerville. There were number of reasons for that, some personal, some professional, but the reality was that a site that reviewed mid-range to high-end photo printers didn’t make a lot of sense at the time, especially if there weren’t new developments happening on a regular basis. Archival ink sets offered expanded color gamuts that had seemed unimaginable in desktop photo printers a decade before, and the printers from Epson and Canon that used these inks were quite advanced. And HP, which had made a splash with their Z series of large-format printers, largely walked away from the advanced/pro photo market after the crash and burn of the B9180/B8850 desktop printers.
Plus, there was the ‘screen’ thing. Photographers at the time seemed to be more enamored of tablets and phones and online photo services like Instagram, Flickr and 500px than printing. When I’d mention printing, mostly what I heard from many photographers was that printing ‘was hard’ and, more importantly, ‘expensive.’
There’s nothing wrong with photos viewed on screens, but I love printing my own photographs, whether they be snapshots, proofs of work in progress, or finished fine art. To me, printing your work is an essential part of growing as a photographer; it helps inform your shooting and your processing in a way that viewing on screen cannot. It’s another component of the art of photography, an element of practice that can help you become a better photographer.
Finally, what’s also driven the rebirth of Printerville is that, over the past year or so, I’ve witnessed an increase in interest in printing, and I’ve been spending time with photographers who want to learn more about it. I’ve talked about printing in workshops, via email, or on Zoom calls, and I’ve written a few printing-related items over on our sister site at completedigitalphotography.com. There has been enough interest out there that it seemed to make sense of giving Printerville another try. So that’s what I’m going to do.
In the coming days, I’ll move some of the printing pieces from CDP over here to Printerville, since they make more sense here. I am also working on more reviews, an update to our ‘Papers to choose from’ piece (which was a one of our most-read posts), and other items of interest for people who want to think about printing. I have pruned a lot (not all) of the old content from the site, and, as I add more new copy, I’ll probably pull most of that as well.
If you have any thoughts about all this, just want to say hi, or to chat about printing, feel free to send me an email (or leave a comment below).
Thanks!
Rick LePage
Welcome back! Still got my old 3880.
Thanks~ Great news~ Good Luck.
Happy day, to see your site back Rick. (Ricin’s Ford mention)
Print hardware indeed turned boring the last few years, not much new in personal printers so maybe you can shed light on the new.
Just spitballing here because I finally found someone interested in printers….
I see a growing opportunity for artists and photographers to print wall graphics and larger format artwork and wallpapers, on newer super affordable hardware. Print media is key and there exciting and easy to install fabric-like new wall adhesive products like phototex, and some from General Formulations, and others. Best of all, they can be printed with latex or ‘cough’ eco-solvent larger format printers, and can become a moneymaker as well. Someone for around $15K-$25K can get very serious into big prints and graphics. And at salable volume.
Just thought I’d mention that large format printers up to say 64″ wide are pretty cool as some of the smaller inkjets.
Look forward to seeing what crosses your path.