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I've just recently stumbled into the world of printing from an inkjet printer onto canvas; and I'm loving it!!

For the last couple months I've been using my Brother 210c Printer/Scanner/Fax to print on 8.5x11 canvas. I hung some pictures in my house and a few random friends asked where to get them, I said I made them and now I've sold 4 pictures. I want to delve into the world of printing big (or at least bigger than 8.5x11). I want a printer that has no poorer print quality than my little Brother 4 in 1, and a little better wouldn't hurt.

I'm not sure how old our out of date they are but I am looking at the Epson Stylus 3000. I am willing to spend up to maybe $500.00, but I can get a Stulus 3000 for quite a bit less than that an I really like that it can print so wide (17" if I'm not mistaken).

My question is this: Will the Stylus 3000 do everything I need it to: print onto wide/long canvas (including a roll of canvas) and print at or greater than my Brother printer (I don't understand what DPI is needed to get "good" quality) or should I look at another printer?

I will not be printing black and white and speed is not an issue at all (if those are things to consider).

Thanks for the help and I'm happy to have stumbled on this forum!

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Any color printer which can print at least 1200 dpi will make reasonable photo-quality printouts on coated photo paper, but to get really good photo quality the printer should also be one that uses at least six ink colours to reproduce as many shades as possible (black, cyan, yellow, magenta, light cyan, light magenta). So for an Epson, the 'Stylus Photo' range fits the bill (The 'Stylus' range without the word 'Photo' usually have only three or four ink colours which reduces the color range considerably, especially for skin tones. This can lead to unnatural looking colours. Another thing you need to do (nothing to do with the printer) is make sure the image on screen has a resolution of between 250-300 pixels per inch before you print it. Much less than that and the dots or pixels will become noticeable on the printout at reading distance ---
This is especially true if you are making big enlargements.
it looks similar to the appearance of film-grain when you look at a conventional-film photograph through a magnifying glass. Avoid if you can.

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