Certain printers can be used for edible images for food art--you just buy the food coloring cartridges for the ink instead of regular ink.

The last one I had was a Canon I560 and it bit the dust so I'm needing another. Usually the low end versions are good enough.

If anyone can lead me to a good deal, I'd be grateful!

Well, this is interesting. I've never seen a printer advertised as having this capability, but I knew that cake stores used something like this.

I think we're going to need some help from you before we're able to help you. How do you know if a printer is capable of doing this? I looked up some companies selling the Canon I560, and I don't see any mention of "food" in the product description.

Are there any particular brands or models that you can give us?

Oh, duh, yeah on my part.

For Canon Printers Series 3000, 6000, and ...
any printer that uses the Canon BCI-3 individual color cartridges.
Compatible with BJC-3000 BJC-3010 BJC-6000 i550 i560 i850 i860 MultiPASS C755 MultiPASS F30 MultiPASS F50 MultiPASS F50 MultiPASS F60 MultiPASS F80 MultiPASS MP700 MultiPASS MP730 S400 S450 S500 S520 S530D S600 S630 S630 Network S750

More Canons: BJC: 2000, 2100, 4200, 4300, 4400, 3000, 6000, S400, S450, 5000, 5100, i320, S400, S450, S600, S520, S750, BJCI-21, S9000-(newest & recommended)

Also, this link gives some choices.

Compatible printers for food color cartridges

Thanks!

Hmmmm...

Current Canon Photo Inkjet Printers
It doesn't look like any of these models are on your list.
Do they only make these cartridges for older models?

amazon still seems to sell some of these printers. Not sure how this is in terms of price......
Canon PIXMA iP4200 Photo Printer $62.00

Also, I would check if the office stores have clearance on some of those canons

Since a cartridge is a sealed unit, than where can one buy them never filled. Than can one purchase edible inks in a pint or quart size bottles? In the past, I purchased a plastic needle down at a local feed store and use it to refill Canon cartridges. Note,the bladder can rupture at anytime and the cartridge is useless. Do those cleaner cartridges really work? I'm cheap and just get out the Q-Tips and bottle of alcohol.

I've never refilled them myself--some of the other cake decorators I know have attempted it with success with food coloring and a hypodermic needle. As far as the cleaner, I don't know...they make you feel like you need to buy it because it's edible stuff you're dealing with.

I've got a Canon i320 Photo Printer which I've used maybe a half-dozen times as a backup when my normal printer would run out of ink (and when I would be OOS of replacement cartridges for my normal printer). I keep the i320 in its original retail box w/ all of its packaging, and for the most part it just sits there doing nothing.

Because it serves as a backup, it has saved my hide a few times. I don't NEED an i320 as a backup though (i.e. I can use another printer); however, I was given a bunch of spare cartridges for it so it would last me a long time.

That said, given that my i320 has been used with regular ink (i.e. TOXIC/non-edible ink), would you even be interseted in this printer? In other words, do you know of a safe way to clean the printhead such that it removes virtually all traces of the non-edible ink which has passed through it?

If interested in this printer, let me know so I can PM you my contact info.

Diggler

Based on the link above, the compatible Epson C88 is available @ RadioShack (in-store only) @ $49.97.

Click here to check store availability. If you have an Entertainment book, there's a pair of RadioShack $10 off $40 cpns in there, in which case you can get the printer for $39.97. You may want to purchase 2 of these so you have a spare printer the next time you're in this situation.

Either price ($49.97 or $39.97) seems to be much cheaper than elsewhere (so much so that I should post it in IRD)!

Diggler

*EDIT* I'll hold off on posting this in IRD for at least a day so that you stand a reasonable chance of getting yourself a C88 before all the dealhunting vultures clean (i.e. yours truly) clean out store-stock!

Thanks so much! I am heading to Radio Shack! (and unfortunately, once regular ink has run through the printer it cannot be used for the edible images.) I am going to take your suggestion I think and buy 2! GREATLY APPRECIATED! (we even have Radio Shack in our little hick town-an extension of our local hardware store-or they are an authorized dealer so I HOPE they have it available because we are in small times here!)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

You can check availability online.

Click on the product link first.
On that page, click on the "may be available near you" link.
Enter your zip code.

If you're planning on buying two printers, and you don't yet have an Entertainment book, you may just want to purchase a book. The two coupons would probably cover the cost of the book, and then you'd have all of the other coupons & discounts available for the remainder of the year.

http://www.entertainment.com

For example, the Pittsburgh entertainment book is currently $22. I would guess it would be even cheaper for a "little hick town", but it would probably concentrate on the closest city.

OK, update here: I called photofrost.com and sweetart.com and they told me that printer won't work (the Epson).

I prefer to get something compatible that I can order the inks from Photo Frost based on customer service so NOW I have a different list of printers I'm on the look for: (good buy of course!)

Any of these models of canon would/should work:

Pixma IP 1500
Pixma 3000
Pixma 4000
Pixma 5000s
Pixma 6000

OR
MP 130
MP 700
MP 750
MP 760
MP 780

I guess the newer models aren't going to work because of some sort of chip in the cartridges so I'm hoping to find a couple of these older models (NEW)

Thanks!

Until last year, the free "AR" printer was very common. Many were immediately sold on Ebay or used until the short life ink cartridges ran out, than gotten rid of. Lately, it take buyng a PC package or notebook to get even a cheapie printer. With that $40 off $199 CC coupon in mind, I looked for those models listed. Too bad that chip is a problem.

All of the edible ink companies are going to have to figure out how to work w/ newer printers or they'll be out of business within a year or two. All the new printers use chips to prevent their cartridges from being refilled. While you aren't refilling cartridges per se, since the printer manufacturers don't mfr edible ink based cartridges, the 3rd party companys who do (i.e. Photo Frost, KopyKake, etc.) must rely on refillable cartridges. The Epson C88 cartridges offered by KopyKake also have chips in them; however, KopyKake sells a Chip Resetter for $15 to get around this limitation. Newer cartridges may have chips which can't be reset in the cartridge.

The Pixma IP 1500 is the most inexpensive model from the list above. I found it at a reasonable price at two rather questionable places and at a hefty premium at Amazon.com (through a 3rd party seller):

• Canon Pixma iP1500 @ HotBuyElectronics.com, $42.98 + S&H
  Note: They currently have a dismal 0.0/10 ResellerRating (yes, ZERO point ZERO out of TEN) and a lifetime 1.22/10. Upon reading the customer reviews @ ResellerRatings (linked earlier in this line), I doubt you'll want to purchase from them as they're rated THE ABSOLUTE WORST.
  
  
• Canon PIXMA All-Purpose Printer [IP1500] @ MEGAcameras.com, $60.59 + S&H
  Note: I've never heard of this company, they're not listed on ResellerRatings.com, and they're located in Brooklyn, NY. There are many crooked/shady companies in Brooklyn selling electronics/computers. One red flag I saw w/ this company is that on their CHECKOUT PAGE, they list "Google Checkout" as an option. When you click on the "GoogleCheckout" icon, the redirect to Google says "Oops! Unfortunately, this merchant no longer accepts payments through Google. We apologize for the inconvenience." Google Checkout hasn't been available for that long. If Google has already rejected them as a merchant, I'm willing to bet there's a good reason for it.
  
  
• Canon PIXMA iP1500 Photo Printer @ Amazon.com (3rd party seller shawn6688), $189.99 + S&H.
  Note: This seller has had a few negative feedbacks in the last 30 days, but since the printer is listed for sale on Amazon.com as NEW, you're protected by the Amazon A-to-Z Safe Buying Guarantee. If the printer you receive is in any other condition or if it doesn't arrive, Amazon will cover you.

The MP7xx above are rather large All-In-One (AIO) printers. The MP130 is a small AIO; however, I didn't have any success finding it new.

Diggler

I'm going to assume that this list should actually be:

Pixma iP1500
Pixma iP3000
Pixma iP4000
Pixma iP5000
Pixma iP6000D

Since these are the closest matches I can find on Canon's support page.

If you want to buy from Amazon, the iP6000D appears to be the cheapest:
Canon PIXMA iP6000D Photo Printer
There are several sellers competing, and the lowest price is currently $146.99

I found the Pixma iP6000D for $99.95 here: link.
I would be very wary about ordering from this company, lekrem.com

• I've never heard of them.
• There is no information about the company available on resellerratings.
• There is no contact information available on the website - no address, no phone number

The domain was registered in January 2007(!) to a Brian Merkel in OH, 937-478-9667.
I'd say the fact that it isn't based out of NY is a good sign. Hopefully it's just some entrepreneur running a one-man business who just got started, but I would definitely send him email and try talking to him first to get a feel for things before placing an order.

Here we go.

Canon Pixma iP6000D @ Adorama camera, $99.95

The have a pretty good reseller rating: 8.73
But:

I seen posts about this Russian who wrote software to get around the Epson chip. Never tried it but the cost = 0 and it just might work.
http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml