Best printer for heavy cardstock (laser or inkjet)

September 13, 2019 4:13 AM

Do you print a lot on cardstock (300gsm/110lb would be the thickest i plant to use)? What printer do you have and love? I do quite a lot of customized direct mailings to my customers. I will usually get promotional mailers professionally printed on one side on cardstock. I then need to be able to run it through my own printer at the office to customize the other side with address/name details, typically only text in black ink. Paper size would be up to A4/letter. B&W only would be ok.

I don't need amazing photo-quality, but speed would be a plus. I sometimes have 200 pieces to print. I have a slight preference for laser in that regard, but inkjet tends to take thick paper better. What do you recommend?
Bonus points for printers that handles envelopes well too.

posted by PardonMyFrench to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Have you considered just printing address labels?
posted by cmdnc0 at 7:44 AM on September 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

In my experience, inkjet works much better than laser for printing on thick stock. It has less to do with the ink, and more to do with the physical design of the printer. In most inkjets, the path the paper takes is much straighter than with laser (especially if there’s a manual feed tray at the top) which seems to make a big difference with card stock. You’ll need to make sure that the mailers are printed on stock with a suitable coating on the reverse, but they likely already are. I don’t have a specific model to recommend as I’m still using a printer that’s at least 5 years old. It’s a cheap Canon Pixma but has held up and performed for a surprisingly long time, although I use it infrequently. My only real recommendation for an inkjet is to make sure you get one with separate cartridges for each color, especially since you’ll be doing mostly black-only printing.
posted by duien at 10:39 AM on September 13, 2019