Perhaps the best family printer solution.

[Lemon law]

Perhaps a defect of this forum when considering printers, is the tendency to think of printer choices as simply a INDIVIDUAL choice based on INDIVIDUAL needs.

And there is some validity in looking at it that way, the individual choice is somewhat based on printing volume, if you need color, are you willing to try refilling, do you want to do color photo printing, and do you have scanning, copy, and printing needs?

But I suggest for many of us, this a a flawed model. Simply because stable families
can combine the best of all worlds by sharing a two printers over a family network.

There is little to be said for network sharing a inkjet color multi functional with other color inkjet without multi functional capabilities, but sharing a multi functional laser with a color inkjet gives all network users the best of all worlds. And since my wife can print to my laser if her printer craps out, I can can print her printer if I need color,
its a synergy where the sum of the parts exceeds each put together.

 

[Griffinhart]

I have always kept my color printer/scanner on my local PC, just because I want to control the ink, but I share it out to other computers on my home network. I have also always had a laser printer. I used to keep that on a wireless print server so everyone in the house could access it. These days I moved it to my Windows Home Server and share it out from there, if only to eliminate one more device from the powerstrip.