Printer for proofing

albertomalossi · March 2020

Hi everyone, I'm a type design student that's looking into buying his first printer for proofs.
At school we print on a quite sharp Xerox Phaser 5550, but since I'll be working from home for the foreseeable future I would like to be able to make quick tests here as well.
What should I look for in a printer for this specific job? What tech specs are more important than others?
Cheers

Chris Lozos · March 2020

there is a thread on this here somewhere, try a search?

Michael Jarboe · April 2020

Check this thread if you haven't already.

https://typedrawers.com/discussion/314/printer-recommendations-for-proofing/p1

Paul Hanslow · April 2020

The above thread is outdated in some regards. I was scoping for a good printer myself and found some of the models listed in that thread no longer available or being superseded. Therefore it may be worth some users listing their printers if they were purchased more recently.

James Puckett · April 2020

I’m currently using a Lexmakr MS510dn. The printing is great but for some reason it often defaults to printing on both sides using the duplexer and there’s no way to stop it. What’s really annoying is that it happens with some Indesign files and not others. So I would not recommend buying one.

André Simard · April 2020

The most important thing to consider is the resolution of the printer (highest resolution as possible comparing the price). Second one is choosing a laser printer to be able to test the smallest sizes. Third one is pick a B/W printer, IMHO you don't need a color printer to test typfaces. Finally you can buy a tabloïd paper size if you can afford it, but that's not obligatory the 8,5 x 11 size it's good enough. Hope this will help you. My laserprinter is a HPlaserjetP2055dn