It IS the ink that makes the difference, but not because of the price. The best, longest lasting inks for printing on both paper AND fabric are pigment based inks (as opposed to dye based inks). They are water and fade resistant; dye based inks are water soluble.

Epson is the leader in pigment based inks, so any of their printers that use Epson DURABrite Ultra ink cartridges, one of the very few cartridges that uses pigment based inks for both the black AND color inks, would be an excellent choice for fabric printing. I've heard HP also makes some printers that take pigment based ink cartridges, but certainly not all of them do.

There are many threads on this topic if you do a search for them.

How does one know if their ink jet printer will wash out? I just made a label for a quilt, then washed it before gifting it, and the ink washed out of the label. It was an Epson Stylus Photo printer.

I have an HP and really do like it. The ink jets are a bit more expensive but they hold so much more than many of the other brands, so don't have to buy them so often. As Bellabo said about the Kodak printer, ink jets cheaper, quality left a lot to be desired. They did not print many pages and I was always buying more, so in the long run, not cheaper.

I bought an Epson for under $100 because ink cost was low, it uses the durabrite inks and because the Canon cartridges are expensive and I don't like HP!

What ever printer you use, be sure that the cartridges are not combine into one. I have four cartridges one for each color. Expensive does not mean it is the best.

I downloaded a font that uses 50% less ink to print. The type is full of tiny holes that don't get ink. They are too small to be noticeable when printed. It looks great. It's Ecofont vera sans.

I have also wondered about this...wondering which ink holds up the best. I am not very happy now with how my HP is printing photos.

[QUOTE=nyelphaba;6005158]I have an HP printer, no problems.[/

HP for me, too. No problems and the ink cartridges are reasonable.

So many things to think about when purchasing a printer!! At this point I don't have one so found all the hints veryhelpful!

You also have to follow the directions on the fabric package to set the ink. Some say to soak in water. Some say to heat-set with an iron. I don't know if these are all the possible directions. Some fabric packages are for ink-jet printers, some are for laser jet printers. Some packages that look about the same are iron-on transfers.

Then there is the fabric that you prepare yourself and iron onto freezer paper. I haven't tried that.