New Printer At BR Pro Poker (3 Viewers)

[improviseallday]

I heard that BR Pro Poker got a new printer, so I excitedly asked for samples from both printers.

Turns out they have three printers.

Which one do you like best?

Vote, then read the details below.

(Picture was taken indoor with soft, warm overhead lighting. Chips are on white printer paper.)

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More info from BR Pro below (link)

tl;dr (my take, not BR Pro's): Whether you are ordering a stock design or a custom design, it makes sense to get some additional samples comparing different printers.

I ordered the samples from the "Card Wars" design because it was readily available and had vibrant colors and halos that resemble gradients. Yes, it has contrast issues.

Here's Kristil at BR Pro Poker describing the different printer models:

The samples shipped and I was surprised.

I displayed them in chronological order.

A: The original printer model
B: Labeled "2019 printer" (I assume this is the "2018 printer model" from above)
C: Labeled "Newest printer"

I was surprised because like everyone here, I picked "B". Overall, the colors win, by a lightyear. Blue is a good example.

But A prints the inkiest black.

And on some chips the inlay on A is easiest to read.

While on others, the inlay on B is easiest to read.

I'm not really sure what C is supposed to be good at. To be honest, all the gradients look roughly the same to me. Maybe it's that it is a bit more saturated than A.

Where am I going with this? I feel like my order brings more questions rather than answers about which printer is best at what. If I didn't have time to get samples in hand, I would probably order from printer B, unless black is important, in which case I would go with A (or Cards Mold). But if at all possible, I would order samples on all three printers.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

Trick question? B by a country mile.

 

[JMC9389]

B

 

[improviseallday]

Trick question?

Nah, there's no "this is actually Anita or Apache" or "I ultrasonic washed one of these in Kerrigold butter" gotcha.

3 sets, each from a different printer at BR Pro.

 

[tabletalker7]

B. It's brighter. Being brighter makes it easier to see everything in the design.

 

[KingZilla]

Is this a trick question? I apologize if it's not. Colors are notably different between the three choices and it seems there is small text under the denoms: I cannot read any of those words on any option. Perhaps better pictures? Perhaps better artwork? So now if one places an order, is it recommended to request which printer it is done on??

 

[KarateMaster72]

In my humble opinion, I think that."B" has more contrast and is brighter. But I cannot hardly read the writing on any of them. I mean I can read the denomination and the bigger words

 

[warma]

It depends on what the original artwork looks like. B looks better, but if the artwork is different, say, darker like A, then B would be washed out and terrible.

 

[KarateMaster72]

It depends on what the original artwork looks like. B looks better, but if the artwork is different, say, darker like A, then B would be washed out and terrible.

Yes, I didn't think of that. If that were the case then C would be a happy medium

 

[improviseallday]

I wrote the update and added it to the first post, along with a few more comparison photos.

Is this a trick question? I apologize if it's not. Colors are notably different between the three choices and it seems there is small text under the denoms: I cannot read any of those words on any option. Perhaps better pictures? Perhaps better artwork?

It depends on what the original artwork looks like. B looks better, but if the artwork is different, say, darker like A, then B would be washed out and terrible.

Yes, we should probably try this again but with submitted artwork so we can tell how closely the mock matches the print.

So now if one places an order, is it recommended to request which printer it is done on??

Definitely for custom orders, though that's already part of the process. For stock designs, I think it's worth asking to see them done on a different printer to compare as well.

 

[Saoliver]

@BR Pro Poker the people have spoken.

 

[improviseallday]

@BR Pro Poker the people have spoken.

But some consideration before ordering a stock design with different colors- they won't match the existing pool. Not sure how important this is but it's worth considering.

 

[Venturalvn]

Kristil and @BR Pro Poker continue to be the best customer service and communicators in the industry!

This is quite interesting. From the pictures, it clearly "feels" like B is the best. Do they all have printed edges? I've seen inconsistency in edge printing across ceramics (not solely BRPro, just in general) and feel like one of these 3 must be better at getting a consistent, solid, fully saturated rolling edge printing, while one of the 3 is weaker in that area?

 

[improviseallday]

Kristil and @BR Pro Poker continue to be the best customer service and communicators in the industry!

This is quite interesting. From the pictures, it clearly "feels" like B is the best. Do they all have printed edges? I've seen inconsistency in edge printing across ceramics (not solely BRPro, just in general) and feel like one of these 3 must be better at getting a consistent, solid, fully saturated rolling edge printing, while one of the 3 is weaker in that area?

The existing stock for the Card Wars chips is A, so I had to order B and C as custom prints, which don't come with printed edges. Well, they could, but I'd have to order more to meet the minimum quantity.

 

[Venturalvn]

The existing stock for the Card Wars chips is A, so I had to order B and C as custom prints, which don't come with printed edges. Well, they could, but I'd have to order more to meet the minimum quantity.

If you're talking with her about it I'd be curious to know what she says. I am a massive fan of BRPro for many reasons, and I've placed over a half dozen orders from them. With that said, I've had some barrels printed by them on their house blanks that left me less than impressed with the rolling edge without knowing there were even different printers - it's just not something that's ever come up in conversation through all of our dealings.

If one thing is more important than another for certain people or preferences, it definitely helps to know to mention it to them while placing the order.

 

[improviseallday]

If you're talking with her about it I'd be curious to know what she says. I am a massive fan of BRPro for many reasons, and I've placed over a half dozen orders from them. With that said, I've had some barrels printed by them on their house blanks that left me less than impressed with the rolling edge without knowing there were even different printers - it's just not something that's ever come up in conversation through all of our dealings.

If one thing is more important than another for certain people or preferences, it definitely helps to know to mention it to them while placing the order.

That's a good question, if the right time comes up to ask, I'll let you know the response.

I'm pretty happy with the quality of my edge prints.

Top (7) Tiki, unknown printer
Middle (11)- Card Wars, presumably printer A (or maybe they use a different printer altogether for the edges)
Bottom (2)- Card Wars custom, blank

 

[KHarp1]

Which one can print chips that look like these? They've told me that they can't print chips that look like Chipco's because Chipco had different printers. I love the rich colors Chipco had, especially the blues abs good of these Egyptians. Which printer gets us back to the best ceramics of all time?
Photo taken from Knoxymoron's sale ad in classified from a few months back.

 

[improviseallday]

Which one can print chips that look like these? They've told me that they can't print chips that look like Chipco's because Chipco had different printers. I love the rich colors Chipco had, especially the blues abs good of these Egyptians. Which printer gets us back to the best ceramics of all time?
Photo taken from Knoxymoron's sale ad in classified from a few months back.

View attachment 1179180

dibssss wow those colors.

 

[KHarp1]

dibssss wow those colors.

I kick my own ass every few days over letting that set get away. I'm an idiot!

 

[Santa123]

I heard that BR Pro Poker got a new printer, so I excitedly asked for samples from both printers.

Turns out they have three printers.

Which one do you like best?

Vote, then read the details below.

View attachment 1179099

(Picture was taken indoor with soft, warm overhead lighting. Chips are on white printer paper.)

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...
...
...
...
...
...

tl;dr: Whether you are ordering a stock design or a custom design, it makes sense to get some additional samples comparing different printers.

I ordered the samples from the "Card Wars" design because it was readily available and had vibrant colors and halos that resemble gradients. Yes, it has contrast issues.

Here's Kristil at BR Pro Poker describing the different printer models:

View attachment 1179113

The samples shipped and I was surprised.

View attachment 1179115

I displayed them in chronological order.

A: The original printer model
B: Labeled "2019 printer" (I assume this is the "2018 printer model" from above)
C: Labeled "Newest printer"

I was surprised because like everyone here, I picked "B". Overall, the colors win, by a lightyear. Blue is a good example.

View attachment 1179128

But A prints the inkiest black.

View attachment 1179129

And on some chips the inlay on A is easiest to read.

View attachment 1179130

While on others, the inlay on B is easiest to read.

View attachment 1179131

I'm not really sure what C is supposed to be good at. To be honest, all the gradients look roughly the same to me. Maybe it's that it is a bit more saturated than A.

Where am I going with this? I feel like my order brings more questions rather than answers about which printer is best at what. If I didn't have time to get samples in hand, I would probably order from printer B, unless black is important, in which case I would go with A (or Cards Mold). But if at all possible, I would order samples on all three printers.

Very intressting. Thanks for posting.
My set will be printed soon on the newest printer.
But the first samples were printed on one of the older printer. (I didn't know that there were more than one.)
When Kristil send me pics of the samples of the newer printer I choose the new printer immediately because of the much brighter colors.
How ever I needed to slightly adjust the design because the new printer seems to have flaws in printing black a bit wider than it should be. How ever this was easy to fix by minor adjustments od the grafic.

I would like to add that we should just trust Kristil on choosing the best printer for our custom design as she is the one who is working with these printers on a daily basis ;-)

 

[improviseallday]

Very intressting. Thanks for posting.
My set will be printed soon on the newest printer.
But the first samples were printed on one of the older printer. (I didn't know that there were more than one.)
When Kristil send me pics of the samples of the newer printer I choose the new printer immediately because of the much brighter colors.
How ever I needed to slightly adjust the design because the new printer seems to have flaws in printing black a bit wider than it should be. How ever this was easy to fix by minor adjustments od the grafic.

I would like to add that we should just trust Kristil on choosing the best printer for our custom design as she is the one who is working with these printers on a daily basis ;-)

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My intuition after seeing my samples says that your right chip was printed on the 2018/2019 printer.

But now thinking about it, the newest printer is in fact more vibrant than the oldest.

And I'm sure Kristil has better information than I do. And as long as they are printing on the same printer that your right chip came from, I'm sure you will be happy with the results.

 

[Santa123]

My intuition after seeing my samples says that your right chip was printed on the 2018/2019 printer.

But now thinking about it, the newest printer is in fact more vibrant than the oldest.

And I'm sure Kristil has better information than I do. And as long as they are printing on the same printer that your right chip came from, I'm sure you will be happy with the results.

The left chips were printed on an older model and right chips were printed on the new one

 

[improviseallday]

The left chips were printed on an older model and right chips were printed on the new one

Not sure how far along you are in your order process, but I suspect you'll like the other old printer (B, 2018/2019) even more if my hunch is right.

 

[churlbut18]

This makes me a little nervous to add on to an existing set because of the chance of getting two different shades of colors for the same denomination. I wonder if they keep track of which printer was used for past orders so that same printer can be requested for the add on.

 

[improviseallday]

This makes me a little nervous to add on to an existing set because of the chance of getting two different shades of colors for the same denomination. I wonder if they keep track of which printer was used for past orders so that same printer can be requested for the add on.

I would ask them- they're very responsive, even to my $35 order, and mentioned that they keep the oldest printer around mainly for color consistency.

 

[tabletalker7]

This makes me a little nervous to add on to an existing set because of the chance of getting two different shades of colors for the same denomination. I wonder if they keep track of which printer was used for past orders so that same printer can be requested for the add on.

They do keep track of what work they do. I added on to a semi custom set and chips made 4 months ago look exactly like chips made 4 and half years ago. Literally cannot tell the difference.

 

[BR Pro Poker]

Hi! I just read through these and wanted to address a couple of things that hopefully will help clarify some of your questions/concerns long post incoming...

Very intressting. Thanks for posting.
My set will be printed soon on the newest printer.
But the first samples were printed on one of the older printer. (I didn't know that there were more than one.)
When Kristil send me pics of the samples of the newer printer I choose the new printer immediately because of the much brighter colors.
How ever I needed to slightly adjust the design because the new printer seems to have flaws in printing black a bit wider than it should be. How ever this was easy to fix by minor adjustments od the grafic.

I would like to add that we should just trust Kristil on choosing the best printer for our custom design as she is the one who is working with these printers on a daily basis ;-)

View attachment 1179206
View attachment 1179207
View attachment 1179208

The chips on the left are from printer "B" (2018/2019 model) - sorry I got the years mixed up lol, it was purchased in late 2018 but didn't start getting used until early 2019. Chips on the right are from the newest printer/printer C. This is a great example of what I mentioned about one printer not necessarily being the best for every design.

Printer B typically gets us the brightest shades. Most, if not all of our newer stock designs are printed on this printer (Dia de los Muertos, High Roller, King of the River, Golden Dragon), as well as some older ones that we've spent time color matching (Tiki, NJ Skulls). Printer B does not print gradients as smoothly, especially light grays and pastel shades in general. The dots laid down by the printer can be very noticeable and result in grainy prints on certain designs. With this artwork in particular, it resulted in colors looking washed out compared to Printer C. Printer B is still my personal favorite and I agree with you all that the Card Wars came out great on it. But the Card Wars chips have been around for many years and printer B would not match old sets for add-ons. And there are some designs that come out downright awful on Printer B.

Printers A and C print fairly similar in terms of color (though again, this depends on the specific colors and design), but our printer A models are getting old, run very slow (I'm talking..painfully slow) and the clarity isn't as good as the newer models. Inks are harder to find, and we've recently started noticing inconsistencies with ink colors, which is of course a huge problem for reorders. Printer C was purchased with the intention of remedying some of the issues with Printer B, while having faster speed and better clarity, and being able to source inks and parts consistently.

I can pretty easily look at a design and go "yup, I know which printer that will come out best on" after working with these printers for years - ok, I'm not perfect, there have been some where the customer preferred the opposite printer. To some extent, it's also a matter of preference. We'll continue to recommend the best printer for each new custom order, but if you're interested in ordering samples from different printers, you're welcome to do that. I probably wouldn't recommend doing new samples on printer A for the above mentioned issues, but B and C will have significant differences and may be worth a comparison.

This makes me a little nervous to add on to an existing set because of the chance of getting two different shades of colors for the same denomination. I wonder if they keep track of which printer was used for past orders so that same printer can be requested for the add on.

Yes, we keep track of the printer used on every order, so no worries there!

If you're talking with her about it I'd be curious to know what she says. I am a massive fan of BRPro for many reasons, and I've placed over a half dozen orders from them. With that said, I've had some barrels printed by them on their house blanks that left me less than impressed with the rolling edge without knowing there were even different printers - it's just not something that's ever come up in conversation through all of our dealings.

If one thing is more important than another for certain people or preferences, it definitely helps to know to mention it to them while placing the order.

This sounds like an issue with the actual heat pressing of the chips, not the printer. If you'd like to email/PM me with photos of the issues I'd be happy to take a look. And just a quick note to anyone who sees this, please reach out to us right away if you have any concerns with your order. I'm always willing to look into any issues that could've happened, suggest design changes for future orders if something didn't print as expected, etc. The worst we can say is "yes, this is a normal part of the process/chips". We keep detailed files and records of the printers used, and it's usually pretty easy to pinpoint any problems that may have occurred during the process by looking at a photo. Our team knows they should be pulling out any bad chips, but there are still some misprints that slip through occasionally.

Which one can print chips that look like these? They've told me that they can't print chips that look like Chipco's because Chipco had different printers. I love the rich colors Chipco had, especially the blues abs good of these Egyptians. Which printer gets us back to the best ceramics of all time?
Photo taken from Knoxymoron's sale ad in classified from a few months back.

View attachment 1179180

These colors don't look out of the realm of possible to me. I'm not sure if it was me or Gene that you spoke with, but generally we're referring to not being able to specifically match colors/chips when adding to Chipco sets (or any chip not printed by us originally). Color matching is an extremely time consuming process that we unfortunately aren't able to offer. There are so many variables when it comes to designs/printers/inks/heat pressing/etc. that contribute to differences in color. I'm not sure if it was about these particular chips or when the conversation took place, but it also could've been prior to having printer B. Printer A would not get shades this bright, so I could see where that would be the response in that case.

 

[warma]

Amazing insights. They put the PRO in BR Pro Poker. Thanks for sharing!

 

[pkr22]

@BR Pro Poker Where can I buy one of these printers? I've been shopping for one for a while now. Thanks!

 

[ArmandoStacks]

Thx @BR Pro Poker for extensive dedication to customer service. I can definitely tell from your post. Any chance there'll be a blackfriday sale? I might pull the trigger on some ceramics. You can PM me if you'd like.
Thanks!