I want to thank everyone for taking the time to respond to my posting. (Of course, as I write this, I am hoping that you will be back to read this.)

I agree about avoiding the all-in-ones. As I wrote before, that is something that I was initially consideringmainly because of my problem with space. All I have is this old non-functioning bubble jet that came with my first computer (an almost 9 year old but still working, rarely used anymore PC). So, anything that I get will be absolutely glorious.

Regarding printers and with your help, I have now narrowed the possibilities to the Epson Stylus R1900 Photo Printer and the Canon Pixma Pro 9000. Both have eight color tanks and are able to print on paper with a heavier weight. I am still considering the Epson Stylus Photo 1400, but not as much. The more that I think about this, the more I feel that maybe I should do something nice for myself and buy something that I would really enjoy using. I did some looking into low priced lasers such as a Lexmark and a Brother, but I really dont know what to make of them. I do know that the price of toner for color lasers is very high.

My background has been mostly from doing freelance work in various advertising agencies and design studios. Consequently, the printing was really never up to me, so my knowledge of color management, paper types, and printing is limited. I feel that finally getting a good printer would be helpful in my upgrading those skills. Of course, I am without a printer anyway, so I have to buy something. I also want to look into marketing myself. The employment market here in NYC is so saturated that it is ridiculous. I truly wish that I could find somewhere else in the country to go, both for space and peace of mind. But, I digress.

Both Welles and Allen have a strong difference of opinion about the possibility of clogged jets. Im sure that both gentlemen are being honest regarding their experiences so Im a little confused about the possible problem with jets.

One of the things that I like about the Epsons is that they have the capability of printing on CDs. I dont believe the Canon is able to do that. As far as price goes, they seem to be somewhat close (Canon might be about $50 cheaper).

There are a lot of reviews of the Canon 9000 on Amazon and most of the ones that I read (there are 106 reviews!) are glowing, however some complained that even if the product were defective right out of the box, Canon would only send a refurbished replacement. Im not sure as to what to make of that, but it might be something to consider. Also, at least one reviewer did write that Epson is more friendly to Macs regarding color management.

I am even less sure about scanners. Thank you, Lundberg02 for mentioning VueScan. I never heard of it before, but I did find it on the Apple site. However, I really dont understand about avoiding the V500 because of the 6400 x 9600 resolutionI was under the impression that that was fairly good. Also, I dont understand what you wrote about native resolution being 800 spi. Was that supposed to be 8000 dpi (6400 + 9600/2)? My main experiences with scanning are last minute calls to this huge advertising agency where they had me do tons of scanning. I was so busy that I didnt even pay attention to the machine that I was using, but a safe bet is that it was far more expensive than I could afford.

Neil, I have started looking at the Canonscan 9905Fit is comparable in price to the Epson V500at least on Amazon. Yours has a resolution of 4800 x 9600 dpi while the Epson has 6400 x 9600. Does it make much of a difference? Also it was helpful that you mentioned about only having to clean the Epson jets if you havent used the printer after a month. That may be the case with menot constantly using the printer and I wondering about the inks simply drying up. That was definitely the case with the Canon bubble jet that I had.

Again, I guess that I have been too verbose in this posting. But, for me, these purchases are a big decision. Typing is easy for me and words sort of fly.

I respect each and every one of your opinions and I really do thank all of you. Not just for your help regarding the above, but regarding all of your other postings on these Adobe forums. I envy you in that clearly you love what you are doing with your respective careers. Of course more comments are welcome.

Thanks.
James

I envy your knowledge of paper and supplies. It seems like there could be a great deal of confusion as to what might be the proper paper for any particular instance. For someone like myself, it would probably be a lot of expensive trial and error. Do you usually buy your paper online? I would not know what to choose unless I could see and touch.

Also, looking online I found a couple of books that may be helpfulboth from the Real World series from Peachpit press. One is called Real World Print Production (Aug 4, 2006) and the other is Real World Color Management (Sep 18, 2004). I do wonder, though, about the dates of those books and whether a lot has changed since, for instance, 2004.

Does anyone have any comments regarding the specs of the scanner that I listed above? I may just go with that one. A Staples near where I live had a non-functioning one on display. It seemed sort of flimsy, but clearly it had been handled and abused (actually I think that the insides had been taken out). Thankfully, the footprint was not as large as I had expected. It was priced at the full retail of $249.99 but I will be able to get it from Epson for $169 (no tax).

Thanks.
James

Im sitting here waiting for delivery, so I wanted to quickly thank you for the suggestions regarding my lack-of-space, possible laser printer and the dust situation.

Lundberg02, I really cant put the towers on top of anything in that they will have to be under my desk, consequently there is little space for me to raise them off the floor. The proximity of the phone outlet is one of the problems (I have Verizon DSL). I have to be where the phone connection is located. I do have a couple of boards that I could put the towers on, but that would only raise them about 1.5 inches. If nothing else, I may have to dismantle my PC. While I do not use it much anymore, I do have some need for it. It is so old, nobody would want to buy it anywayI doubt that I could give it away.

Also, thank you for the good luck wish Neil. I hope that you and everyone else who has been so nice to me on this forum have continued success with your careers. And as you might have been thinking regarding dust, I am not a good housekeeperone of my problems.

According to the tracking info, the packages are in the truck for delivery. Im not fond of waiting around, but since my building does not have a doorman, I have no choice. Usually, FedEx is here by now, so I wonder if Ill end up getting things today after all.

Thanks again for all of your kind help.
James