Printers Suck... Period.

[88keys]

We have been using the same standarized paper for a very very very long time at this point and I'd say that it's near perfection. So why the fuck can't I set margins on a word document or a spreadsheet and have it actually stay within the page when I print it? I wonder if paper companies paid some guy a long time ago to make it so every printer would always waste the last page just to print one line of text even though there was plenty of room on the previous page for it. It's 2015 and I can't believe that nobody has managed to figure this shit out yet? How is it even possible that printers are just as shitty today as they were 20 years ago. Then there's the drivers. 100MB? Is that really necessary? There exist OSes that are smaller than this. And then there's the ink. There must about as many varieties of ink cartridges as there are heavy metal genres. And that's just for the color black! You know it really says alot when there is an entire chain of stores called 'Cartridge World' and it is apparently a thriving business. I'm surprised that they aren't using a brinks truck with a fleet of mercenaries to make their deliveries. How the fuck does an ink cartridge cost as much as a full tank of gas? Yes the remains of liquefied dinosaurs is cheaper than printer ink. And not only that, but they have to rip people off yet again because ink cartridges are designed to quit even though they have 25% or more of it's ink still remaining. They would rather you throw away unused printer ink rather than simply give you less and charge the same price. It is truly a fucked up and corrupted system and I'm pretty sure Hitler invented the inkjet printer and founded Lexmark.

 

[lxskllr]

A+ I support this rant 100%

 

[Blanky]

When you stop using home-grade ink jets and move to home grade laser jets your life will be about 4X as good as it is now. The ink jet business is a cartel. Just say no. Never buy another ink jet printer again, they are a massive scam.

 

[lxskllr]

When you stop using home-grade ink jets and move to home grade laser jets your life will be about 4X as good as it is now. The ink jet business is a cartel. Just say no. Never buy another ink jet printer again, they are a massive scam.

I don't have much need for a printer anymore, but if the need arises, I'll definitely get a laser. As it is, I print my sheet or two per month at work.

 

[88keys]

When you stop using home-grade ink jets and move to home grade laser jets your life will be about 4X as good as it is now. The ink jet business is a cartel. Just say no. Never buy another ink jet printer again, they are a massive scam.

I have a black and white laser printer and I use the color printer at work in the rare occasion that I need color.

But they do some of the similar tactics with the toner drums as they do with inkjet cartridges.

Everybody, everywhere at my job uses the living shit out of the printer in the QA dept, and last month, it's toner light came on. So they stick a piece of electrical tape over this hole and it's still printing away on that same drum over a month later.

 

[mikeymikec]

Margins - I don't think I've experienced this problem in a long time, in my experience the reason used to be that the word processor was set up to print on 'US Letter' paper by default (a slightly shorter and squarer paper than A4), and the printer had A4 paper.

However, I do have a vague memory of a particular customer's printer that had the left margin hard-coded to be a certain value, so when attempting to print things that were margin-sensitive (e.g. labels), it was a pain. I normally stick to Epson inkjets (which in my experience don't have this problem)

OP obviously hasn't encountered HP's "full feature driver" (all-in-one inkjet printer) downloads, even ten years ago they were about 300MB in size I think Epson's "full feature" download is about 36MB for an all-in-one inkjet. HP also do a "basic driver" which provides scan/print and networking functionality and is usually about the same size as Epson's "full feature" driver.

Ink - As I understand it, it comes down to being able to produce the tiniest droplet of ink in order to produce the highest detail prints. If the ink is purified enough, this is possible. If it's not purified enough, gunky ink clogs the print heads. The two most likely things to kill an inkjet printer is cheap ink or not being used often enough IME.

 

[sdifox]

Lulz inkjet. It's 2015 op.

 

[michal1980]

good modern inkjets can be as cheap to run as lasers now.

 

[Eug]

I ended up buying a monochrome business laser all-in-one for my house. I'm much, much happier now.

It's a small business / mid-size business type laser with all sorts of features I don't need (like multi-user login account support and that sort of thing), but I just waited until it was on sale during the holidays and it ended up being about the same price as a home office inkjet all-in-one.

 

[JEDIYoda]

We have been using the same standarized paper for a very very very long time at this point and I'd say that it's near perfection. So why the fuck can't I set margins on a word document or a spreadsheet and have it actually stay within the page when I print it? I wonder if paper companies paid some guy a long time ago to make it so every printer would always waste the last page just to print one line of text even though there was plenty of room on the previous page for it. It's 2015 and I can't believe that nobody has managed to figure this shit out yet? How is it even possible that printers are just as shitty today as they were 20 years ago. Then there's the drivers. 100MB? Is that really necessary? There exist OSes that are smaller than this. And then there's the ink. There must about as many varieties of ink cartridges as there are heavy metal genres. And that's just for the color black! You know it really says alot when there is an entire chain of stores called 'Cartridge World' and it is apparently a thriving business. I'm surprised that they aren't using a brinks truck with a fleet of mercenaries to make their deliveries. How the fuck does an ink cartridge cost as much as a full tank of gas? Yes the remains of liquefied dinosaurs is cheaper than printer ink. And not only that, but they have to rip people off yet again because ink cartridges are designed to quit even though they have 25% or more of it's ink still remaining. They would rather you throw away unused printer ink rather than simply give you less and charge the same price. It is truly a fucked up and corrupted system and I'm pretty sure the Hitler invented the inkjet printer and founded Lexmark.

Wall of text! I never read posts like this....please use paragraphs...etc

 

[SSSnail]

So I'd imagine if someone was to produce an OEM and print cartridge agnostic printer, they'd free the people and therefore, make banks? Why hasn't that happened, yet? I agree, fucking print cartridge oligopolies and collusion.

Gofundme time...

 

[HeXen]

The problem I always have with printers is that I have to jack with the settings on everything before I can get it to print, then it'll print that job but the next job it won't and I have to reboot the printer.

 

[sdifox]

The problem I always have with printers is that I have to jack with the settings on everything before I can get it to print, then it'll print that job but the next job it won't and I have to reboot the printer.

What the hell kind of printer do you buy?

 

[sdifox]

Wall of text! I never read posts like this....please use paragraphs...etc

His printer reformatted his post :awe:

 

[twinrider1]

There must about as many varieties of ink cartridges as there are heavy metal genres.

I lol'd. But yea, I hate inkjets.

 

[bradly1101]

When you stop using home-grade ink jets and move to home grade laser jets your life will be about 4X as good as it is now. The ink jet business is a cartel. Just say no. Never buy another ink jet printer again, they are a massive scam.

A very long time ago I made the switch. I picked up the cheapest ($100) Canon laser all-in-one that came with a $50 gift card, so it was just $50. And although it was years ago I still haven't had to replace the cartridge. Some technology just works so well.

 

[brianmanahan]

printer bandit would like to have a word with you

 

[BUTCH1]

Wall of text! I never read posts like this....please use paragraphs...etc

Yea, and maybe post it in the correct forum.

 

[Ichinisan]

I only read the topic title. Obligatory:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers

 

[IronWing]

Read rant. User error. The end.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Most of the issues in the OP can be worked around by using a network laster printer and generic postscript drivers.

Using the manufacturer-provided drivers is usually a headache, even if they do "unlock" all the whiz-bang features you don't really need. (And if you _do_ need 'em, there's usually a way to use them anyway.)

 

[Eug]

A very long time ago I made the switch. I picked up the cheapest ($100) Canon laser all-in-one that came with a $50 gift card, so it was just $50. And although it was years ago I still haven't had to replace the cartridge. Some technology just works so well.

The problem with most low cost lasers is that they charge a lot for the toner too. You're lucky you don't print a lot.

 

[sdifox]

The problem with most low cost lasers is that they charge a lot for the toner too. You're lucky you don't print a lot.

Third party toners are cheap.

 

[gorcorps]

When you stop using home-grade ink jets and move to home grade laser jets your life will be about 4X as good as it is now. The ink jet business is a cartel. Just say no. Never buy another ink jet printer again, they are a massive scam.

Even the lasers pull some shady BS. I can't remember which brand I had but I want to say Samsung. I remember my starter cartridge was still in good order when the printer said I was out of toner. I googled around and found out that the toner level was nothing more than a page count, so after X pages printed it would say you needed a new cartridge. The new cartridges had a fuse in it that would blow when you inserted it, which reset the page counter and let you print again.

If you know this, you can easily change the fuse in the cartridge you have already and reset the page counter. Then you can print until you actually ARE out of toner.

 

[Mixolydian]

I have a serious printer fetish. I fucking love printers. But things have definitely gotten ridiculous.

PostScript ftmfw!