Epson SureColor P700

Most desktop printers can't handle this thickness of paper, at least that's what the Epson and Canon salespeople said. I'll be printing 8.5x11 award certificates in black and white, 100-200 a week, so it needs to be reliable. The best option I've seen is the Epson P700, $800, which seems kinda overkill for a certificate.

And the new P700's gorgeous, accurate output elevates it into our top-pick position for 13-inch professional-grade photo printers..The Epson SureColor P700 churns out superb photos and artwork on large (up to 13-inch-wide) sheets or paper rolls, making it a superior professional-grade photo printer

* Epson Surecolor SC-P700 A3+ printer with pigmented inks. * Epson Surecolor SC-P900 A2+ printer with pigmented inks.

I can't really find anything decent within this tight a budget that is actually rated to produce long-life prints. The best I can do is the Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000; while print quality is very good on this machine, you're going to need to step up to something higher-end for lower running costs and better print longevity. You might want to consider the Epson SureColor SC-P700 or SC-P900. But if you're actually printing somewhere close to 500 pages per month, most or all of which are large fine-art prints, you need to go further up the product stack and look at something like the SC-P5000.

The canon printer driver interface is a downside, it is needlessly complex. The Epson P700 would be comparable. Both of those printers leave lots of room in the budget for ink, which you will need. The frugal choice would be to spend $5000+ for something like an Epson P9000, which has lower ink cost per ml, but it sounds like that's a matter for another budget year.