Printers Suck... Period.

[Eug]

I do consulting work and often get 10-30 page faxes. So, I don't want to futz around with cheap cartridges, esp. since I can write off the cost of the toner cartridges.

 

[ControlD]

do you actually print colour? I have never been impressed by home colour laser.

Get a Brother laserjet printer for $60. The toner is cheap as hell, they last forever, and 90% of everything you print is in B&W anyway.

Needing color is going to vary quite a bit from user to user. I don't really need to print anything in color (I still use my HP 5L) but my daughter has to make color printouts for school on a semi-regular basis. So, I would say for a "family" printer, having color is better than not having it. For a personal printer or something that will get used infrequently a black and white laser is probably the best fit.

 

[sdifox]

Needing color is going to vary quite a bit from user to user. I don't really need to print anything in color (I still use my HP 5L) but my daughter has to make color printouts for school on a semi-regular basis. So, I would say for a "family" printer, having color is better than not having it. For a personal printer or something that will get used infrequently a black and white laser is probably the best fit.

for school work the cheap colour lasers are ok I guess.

 

[Eug]

I used to have 3 printers.

One Samsung monochrome laser printer for text.
One Epson colour inkjet all-in-one for faxes and when I needed colour.
One Canon photo printer when I wanted to do photo prints.

Now I have one Samsung all-in-one monochrome laser, and I just get my photos done at Costco for 10 cents a shot.

I need colour printing maybe once every couple of months so maybe I'll just use my Canon photo printer for now until the ink runs out. Then maybe I'll pick up a colour laser on closeout or something. (I'll continue to do my photos at Costco.)

Strangely enough the Canon photo printer is ancient, but the OEM inks seem to do OK, with clogs happening infrequently. (The 3rd party inks I've tried for it suck though.) OTOH, my Epson AIOs (of which I've had two) would clog all the time even with OEM ink, and I'd have to waste tons of ink for the unclogging process.

 

[Childs]

Needing color is going to vary quite a bit from user to user. I don't really need to print anything in color (I still use my HP 5L) but my daughter has to make color printouts for school on a semi-regular basis. So, I would say for a "family" printer, having color is better than not having it. For a personal printer or something that will get used infrequently a black and white laser is probably the best fit.

They make you print stuff in color for school? This implies kids need access to a computer at home as well.

 

[ControlD]

They make you print stuff in color for school? This implies kids need access to a computer at home as well.

I believe you can print stuff off at school if you need to. It's just more convenient to be able to get your reports printed and organized at home.

I suppose by the time she graduates all of her reports will just be emailed directly to the teacher. I'm sort of surprised they don't do that already come to think of it.

Access to a computer however pretty much is a requirement. There is a decent amount of homework done directly on the computer through the school's web site. I'm not exactly sure how they handle kids without computers at home.

 

[CZroe]

I like to have the option to print color, it's come in handy a few times but again... it's not THAT common. I definitely don't need photo quality stuff when I do. I'd just like to have the option, but because I print so rarely I don't want to worry about it working if I haven't used it in 4 months (a problem I've run into with inkjets).

It's not just bad photo quality. The cheapest color laser printers really aren't even meant to print photos and are meant for colored lines/words (think manuals, schematics, etc). I mean, you can try to print a full color picture and it will print but it won't be anything you can use.

When I had one it was really only useful for printing copies of color coupons and such on gloss paper (I had issues with places rejecting coupons that said "no copies" even though they were supposed to be downloaded/printed coupons!).

 

[mikeymikec]

His printer reformatted his post :awe:

Maybe he prints his responses and posts them to AT?

 

[sdifox]

Maybe he prints his responses and posts them to AT?

Na, letraset :awe:

 

[Chapbass]

I've always said that printer driver software devs are the weird reject stepchildren of the software dev world. Shit never works and always looks to be from the 1980's, or is bloated beyond belief (though I know its usually the companies themselves doing that shit).

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I've always said that printer driver software devs are the weird reject stepchildren of the software dev world. Shit never works and always looks to be from the 1980's, or is bloated beyond belief (though I know its usually the companies themselves doing that shit).

Just wait until you have to deal with production print software such as Fiery. Makes you want to shoot yourself.

 

[sdifox]

Just wait until you have to deal with production print software such as Fiery. Makes you want to shoot yourself.

Fiery for PC is such a pos.

 

[Fritzo]

Needing color is going to vary quite a bit from user to user. I don't really need to print anything in color (I still use my HP 5L) but my daughter has to make color printouts for school on a semi-regular basis. So, I would say for a "family" printer, having color is better than not having it. For a personal printer or something that will get used infrequently a black and white laser is probably the best fit.

For $60, get both. We have a Brother workhorse, and a nice Canon inkjet printer for color. Since they're wireless we can stick them in a closet to keep them out of the way.

 

[Fritzo]

Just wait until you have to deal with production print software such as Fiery. Makes you want to shoot yourself.

Dealt with Fiery, and agree 10000%. It's the most convoluted, unnecessarily complex piece of garbage ever created. You get the feeling they started with a great product, then bought 15 companies for their software. The devs didn't know how to integrate everything together so they just duct-taped it all into an installation CD and said "OK- let the customer figure it out."

 

[ControlD]

For $60, get both. We have a Brother workhorse, and a nice Canon inkjet printer for color. Since they're wireless we can stick them in a closet to keep them out of the way.

We already have a nice wireless inkjet (HP Envy), although it is starting to act up a little bit.

I think if I replace this printer I will probably just go with a cheap wireless color laser. I can always use my 5L for black and white printing if needed, although finding computers around with parallel port headers is becoming more of a challenge these days.

 

[FerrelGeek]

It's called a library, be it school or public.

I believe you can print stuff off at school if you need to. It's just more convenient to be able to get your reports printed and organized at home.

I suppose by the time she graduates all of her reports will just be emailed directly to the teacher. I'm sort of surprised they don't do that already come to think of it.

Access to a computer however pretty much is a requirement. There is a decent amount of homework done directly on the computer through the school's web site. I'm not exactly sure how they handle kids without computers at home.

 

[sdifox]

We already have a nice wireless inkjet (HP Envy), although it is starting to act up a little bit.

I think if I replace this printer I will probably just go with a cheap wireless color laser. I can always use my 5L for black and white printing if needed, although finding computers around with parallel port headers is becoming more of a challenge these days.

Time to retire that thing.

 

[ControlD]

Time to retire that thing.

lol. I can't do it.

 

[sdifox]

lol. I can't do it.

Shotgun, slug.

 

[ultimatebob]

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.

Yeah, the business grade laser printers are way more reliable. They also have universal drivers for most of the HP Laser printers, making maintaining a bunch of them much easier.

Every ink jet printer I ever had eventually developed issues with the print heads clogging up if I set it sit for a few weeks. My new LaserJet Color that I use at home doesn't have that problem... yet.