I currently own a Roland CAMM-1 24" vinyl cutter and I am looking to buy a vinyl printer to expand my business. I am looking for recommendations on what products are good for the price. Are there certain machines to avoid? (A machine that may be reasonably priced, but the ink tapes are extremely expensive?) Also, I currently use SignMate Elite and it has "limitations" on what can be done as far as manipulations. Any recommendations on better software? I hear great things about FlexSign Pro and I wasn't sure if it is worth the investment? Any recommendations that anyone can make would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Christina Winter
Posted by Jon Aston (Member # 1725) on :
Hi Christina!
Welcome to Letterville.
I am totally (and unrepentantly) biased toward the Gerber EDGE (or, even better: Gerber EDGE2 ). Taking printing costs, quality, reliability, print durability, versatility, etc, etc into consideration: NOTHING COMPARES.
Good luck with your decision (Think "Return on investment"!!)
[ March 12, 2002, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: Jon Aston ]
Posted by coop (Member # 504) on :
Some good food for thought there. Also, I would not recommend FS pro. ( or any other scanvec products ) at this time.
Just my .02 worth
Posted by Jonathan Androsky (Member # 2806) on :
Yeah, what Jon said. The Edge is a substantial investment and the foils are a bit pricey, BUT, for short run small to medium formats you can't beat the thing with a stick. The ability to print in spot colors as well as CMYK is another huge bonus. Plus, you don't need to laminate!
There are a bunch of ways to drive an Edge from different software. The bar none simplest way to do it is to drive the printer with Gerber's Omega software. Yeah it's on the expensive side, but the interface is generally seamless and the software has a bunch of Edge specific functions that are absent from other packages. Most Gerber distriubuters will run you a package deal with everything that you'll need.
One last note, I'd avoid the Gerber MAXX like the plague. If you can even find one, there's a good chance it will be posessed by Satan. Posted by Dave Johnson (Member # 2535) on :
I have a Roland Color Camm PC-60. If I had it to do over, knowing what I know now, I'd have gone with the Gerber Edge. The print head on the PC-60 doesn't last very long and is very expensive to replace. The Edge is more than twice the money but if you intend on using it a lot, will hold up much longer eventually offsetting the cost.
Posted by Jon Aston (Member # 1725) on :
Print heads go on EDGEs too (and they aren't cheap, either). Smart to consider purchasing a service contract before the warranty expires.
Dave: I would have guessed that the big reason you would like to "go back" and choose a Gerber EDGE over your Roland is printing costs. Of course, you can never "go back", but you can go forward! See if your local Gerber dealer will cut you a "trade-in" deal and upgrade to an EDGE. Posted by Dave Johnson (Member # 2535) on :
Jon I was involved in a lengthy discussion a while back on the PC-60 Users Forum about print head life. It's a given that print heads are going to go bad. What gives the Edge the 'edge' over Roland is the print head with. To print 1 square foot with the Edge the print head or media has to travel 1 foot per color. The Roland on the other hand with it's 1/2" print head width has to travel 24 feet per color not considering overlap.
What made me decide on the PC-60, other than the great sales pitch, was the 22.5" print width. I am using Cutting Edge ribbons with cuts the print cost down considerably. It still is much higher per sq.in. than the Edge. I'm stuck with it for a while till budget allows for an upgrade. Until then, I'm reading everything I can get my hands on concerning digital printing.
Posted by Dave Johnson (Member # 2535) on :
Christina, Just realized this is your first post. Welcome to Letterville! Great place!
You asked about software. If you don't have it, I'd recommend getting Corel Draw. It is a great software package and will just about do it all. There are quite a few Corel users on here and a lot of other sites for help with using Corel.
I have the expensive dedicated software (AnaGraph DesignArt Pro, Inspire) but find myself doing most of my layout work in Corel and exporting the files to cut in one of the others. There are add on packages you can get to cut from Corel. AnaGraph has a free plot program for download at their Web site. I'm pretty sure you can download a driver from Roland to cut to your plotter from Corel.
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Hi Christina,
Currently, the two most common machines available are the Roland ColorCamm 600 and the Gerber Edge (and Edge-2).
Both machines have their pro's and con's.
I have owned both the ColorCamm and the Edge. Which machine is best for you is going to depend on your needs.
I'm e-mailing you my answer to previous posts asking the same questions. These were written over the course of a few years. The "numbers" may have changed some since the posts were originally written, but the points are still valid.
If you have any specific questions, I'll be glad to help in any way that I can.
Best wishes to you as you make your decisions.
Posted by Bruce Evans (Member # 44) on :
We Started with a PC-60, then moved to a Edge2. Now if I were jumping in, i'd go with the Matan Spark 1612. Same philosophy as the Edge, but has 4 seperate print heads. It also prints upto 16" material. I believe it goes for around 45K. It will let you print with 12" and 16" widths, meaning anything that you print on the 12" width, is able to be die-cut through a Gerber plotter.
Posted by Howard Keiper (Member # 1250) on :
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