Most of this is based on US prices and a lot of IMHO but here is what I found when I did the research recently.
Only brands worth looking at: HP, Canon, Epson
Print Quality (Best-Worst): HP - Canon - Epson
None are that bad (differences are not that great). HP has the extra black inks that can make a better print.
On wide format printers the Print quality is: Canon - Epson -HP
HP should make a wide format high quality version soon but not yet (and right now they trail badly on wide format). Canon has a new printer coming (9900 announced at PMA) that will probably be really good. I would expect Epson to soon follow with a new printer. Current generation Epson and Canon are good but about a generation back.
Longest lasting inks (longest - shortest): Epson (100yr) : HP (75 yr): Canon (25 year). All are when exposed to light and a lot of controversy over testing methods. Inks change, paper changes will make this vary and obviously nobody has really tested a print using real time data.
Speed (Fastest - Slowest): Canon - HP - Epson
Canon prints a page about 2x faster than the Epson, HP is a little faster than the Epson.
Base Price (small format) (Lowest to Highest): Canon - Epson - HP
List on HP is the same as the Epson but I have seen more Epsons discounted.
Price on all the wide formats are the same (about $500 list) Canon and Epson get discounted more than the HP.
Price per page (est): Canon $0.30-$0.75, Epson $0.50- $1.00, HP $1.20- $1.75.
Based on what I can get at local outlets (nothing tricky) real cartridges (no fakes or reloads), Good quality paper.
Most of the costs are because of the ink costs.
Canon and Epson use individual tanks, HP uses tanks with 3 color each.
HP requires print head/tank swapping if you want to print text this can increase cost per page due to print head cleaning between prints also if you mess up and print using the wrong cartrige you can mess up a color print or make an expensive text print.
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My conclusions:
For best archiving of prints: Epson
For lowest cost/fastest speed : Canon
HP just misses (cartridge swapping kills it for me) and in wide format they don't really compete.
What did I buy: Canon (950 standard format) and will probably buy the Canon 9900 (wide format) when it hits in May. Mostly this was cost rather than quality I fool around a lot with printing and keeping that cost down helps in other activities.
Epson did announce a cheap ($99) printer that I may pick up also just for it's ability to print CDs.
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By the way if you want to stick to 8x10 and want the absolute best print quality with about the price of the HP. Look at diesub printers like this one
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_rev ... _p440.html.
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