Which Printer for Art Photos

I've dabbled in ink jet photo printing off and on since its inception, but
gave it up a few years ago because of the high cost of materials. I just
recently opened a gift shop in an historic district and I'm selling, among
many other things, prints, paintings, samplers and other types of wall art.
I have a large number of my own negatives and slides that I'd like to scan,
print, frame, and sell. I've been away from photo printing for a while, so
I'd appreciate advice on which printer to get. The Epson Stylus Photo R2400
looks like it would be a good choice because it prints on a wide variety of
media. If you have experience with this printer I'd be grateful for your
review, links to reviews, or suggestions for an alternative. What is the
cost of printing an 11x14" photo? On average, how many 11x14" prints can
you get from a set of ink cartridges?

Thanks,
SW

Summer Wind wrote:
> I've dabbled in ink jet photo printing off and on since its inception, but
> gave it up a few years ago because of the high cost of materials. I just
> recently opened a gift shop in an historic district and I'm selling, among
> many other things, prints, paintings, samplers and other types of wall art.
> I have a large number of my own negatives and slides that I'd like to scan,
> print, frame, and sell. I've been away from photo printing for a while, so
> I'd appreciate advice on which printer to get. The Epson Stylus Photo R2400
> looks like it would be a good choice because it prints on a wide variety of
> media. If you have experience with this printer I'd be grateful for your
> review, links to reviews, or suggestions for an alternative. What is the
> cost of printing an 11x14" photo? On average, how many 11x14" prints can
> you get from a set of ink cartridges?
>
> Thanks,
> SW

Along with the Epaon 2400 is the Epson R1800 which is more for glossy
prints and not quite as good for B&W. HP is bringing out the B9180
which uses their new pigmented inks, it is $100 less than the Epson
2400 and has bigger ink tanks. Epson has made a new 16x20 model the
3800. It looks like a printer between the 2400 and 4800 (which it is),
it has 80ml ink tanks.
Cost per print is difficult because different papers use different
quanities of ink, and cost different prices. Consider $2.00 an 8x10 as
a starting point. All the printers have different size ink tanks too,
from 11ml for the 2400 to 220ml for big tanks in the 4800. Inks get
used at different rates too. The light color inks (cyan magent, black)
get used the fastest. I'm looking at the HPB9180 and one test said buy
a second light black with the printer because it gets used very fast.
When I was large format printing the light colors were used about twice
as fast as the standard. So until you know what your printing, what
paper you are using and what printer you have it is difficult to get a
handle on printing costs.

Good luck
Tom