I'm conflicted.
I've had several HP all-in-one ink jets. Not a big fan of HP since this particular product seems to die rapidly, customer service is mediocre, and in general, the ink dries out if not used and the ink does smudge - even after it's fully dry.
Laser cartridges are pricey to replace.
Big box retailer customer service says more and more people are going to ink jets.
Besides general print and scan functions, I want to be able to print pretty pictures for framing (like the dimby pony). ;)
What are the pros and cons & general opinions of ink v laser? Gracias, oh wise ones of the DMF. [thumbsup]
Laser is cheaper if you do a lot of volume printing.
HP printers suck.
Quote from: Stellepic on January 04, 2012, 08:26:08 AM
Laser cartridges are pricey to replace.
Quote from: ducpainter on January 04, 2012, 08:29:16 AMLaser is cheaper if you do a lot of volume printing.
yup... toner carts seem more expensive, but you need to be comparing cost per page.
What are you printing?
If you are printing a lot of photos, buy a photo printer and use the manufacturer's own paper.
if you just want general printing your world is open.
usually the problem with ink smudging I've found is that people use cheap paper. use a heavier bond of paper.
if you print a photo onto regular paper it will smudge due to the volume of the ink being sprayed.
we have a canon photo printer and it works beautifully. 90% of the printing I do with my HP officejet is "draft" quality text, so no smudging ever and I use 98lb bond paper. never had much of a problem with it, it's 6 years old.
I don't currently print significant quantities of anything - partially due to a failing HP but would like to, and will, print more. "More" estimated at being still very low quantities - 50 sheets/month max - all personal use.
With a background that includes print ad work, I understand paper.
Just looking for who has what type of printer, likes, dislikes, etc.
Is it true that the ink jet trend is getting stronger?
Quote from: Stellepic on January 04, 2012, 09:21:24 AM
I don't currently print significant quantities of anything - partially due to a failing HP but would like to, and will, print more. "More" estimated at being still very low quantities - 50 sheets/month max - all personal use.
With a background that includes print ad work, I understand paper.
Just looking for who has what type of printer, likes, dislikes, etc.
Is it true that the ink jet trend is getting stronger?
Its definitely true, just look up the term "giclee" ... Artists are selling prints using "giclee"... what is it? a high quality ink jet. They just don't want to call it "ink jet" so they made up a word for it.
as someone who also prints infrequently at home...the ink drying up from not being used is a PITA
laser always works, always ready...no head-cleaning, etc
the big box retailer probably suggests inkjet because they make a lot of money selling ink cartridges.
Quote from: JEFF_H on January 04, 2012, 09:29:34 AM
as someone who also prints infrequently at home...the ink drying up from not being used is a PITA
laser always works, always ready...no head-cleaning, etc
the big box retailer probably suggests inkjet because they make a lot of money selling ink cartridges.
What brand do you have? Is it multi or single function?
Thnx!
HP laser jet 1022 here. several years old at this point.
bomb proof! hands down the best B/W printer i have ever paid for myself.
for anything larger than 4x6, i have always preferred the Epson products for printing pictures.
Xerox Phaser 6130 Net work ready color laser printer. I would like to have a multi function but other than that this printer is the Bomb compared to all the other inkjets I've had over the years. Ive had it about 3 years now. About 9 months ago I finally changed the black toner (with an extra one that came with the printer)
(http://www.office.xerox.com/catalog_photos/6130_FAMILY_RESERVED_land_277x195.jpg)
It can be a little fussy getting the IP address set up for it but after that it just sits back there in the back room and prints for me when I ask it to. The color prints are passable photo quality.
The 6130 has been replaced with the 6500 (http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/color-printers/phaser-6500/enus.html) and goes for about $350.
if you want to be truly cost effective...go dot matrix!!!
The cost savings on a nearly free (or even somebody paying you to take it away) dot matrix printer is offset by the high cost of rare and expensive USB to Parallel printer cables. ;D
Im going laser next, the amount of dried ink cartridges is riduculous. you spend so much on repalcing it and getting no use out of it.
I have a cheap POS Brother B/W laser in my home office, and it rocks. I've had it at least two years. Pretty sure it's still on the original toner cartridge; when the toner light comes on I pull the cartridge, beat it around on the desktop a little, pop it back in and off we go for a couple more months.
Based on previous experience with inkjets, I'll never buy another one.....
I like laser. Cost per page is cheaper, doesn't smudge (no ink to smudge), they are faster, you can stock pile an extra toner cartridge and it wont go bad...
I have a brother B/W laser printer... connects via my houses wi-fi. Only a power cable, any computer can use it, no fuss no muss. It's not color, and it's not multi-function. But I highly recommend Brother
Been reading good things about the Brother brand, thnx.
What about printing various types of paper with lasers (i.e. craft paper, heavier card stock, etc.)?
I'm reading that ink jets are better suited to print on a variety of papers over lasers.
About to go buy this: Brother HL-2280DW (http://www.brother-usa.com/Printer/modeldetail.aspx?PRODUCTID=HL2280DW#.TwTLJnIXJvM). I'll recycle my toner to save money.
I also have an Epson Photo quality ink jet that's silly expensive to print and the jets get clogged from little use. If I need to print photo, I rather walk 20 mins to CVS uphill in the snow (both ways!) than deal with the inkjet, but that's just me.
I like laser, I work in a computer lab and A LOT of paper goes through my printer. I have an over 10-year old HP LaserJet 4100 that works great and has had ZERO maintenance aside from toner cartridges. I think my cartridges are around $120. They last quite a while, like over an entire box of paper.
JM
I've tried Lexmark, Brother, Hp. etc. Our current HP Laserjet P1006 laser printer was cheap (like $100) and toner is less then $50 and lasts for a long time. I've replaced the toner about once a year (printer is 2.5 years old) and I've been in school the whole time. I think the model is discontinued likely because the like printer is now wireless. Never a problem.
We use a Canon PIXMA iP8500 for photos, bubble jet with 8 different color inks. The closest current model is probably the PIXMA Pro Mark II
http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/printers_multifunction/professional_photo_inkjet_printers/pixma_pro9000_mark_ii (http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/printers_multifunction/professional_photo_inkjet_printers/pixma_pro9000_mark_ii)
Quote from: Stellepic on January 04, 2012, 03:01:18 PM
Been reading good things about the Brother brand, thnx.
I have had great luck with Brother laser printers. I had a basic b/w laser HL-2070N that has only given me a few problems most of which I caused. There have been 5 paper jams in 5000 sheets all from bent paper I put in. When the starter cartridge ran out I bought one of those refill kits. That was a big mistake the printing quality went down hill. So then I bought a new toner through monoprice. $15!! Staples wants $65. She was back and running like a champ.
Now I have a color laser all in one. Brother MFC-9010CN is the one I have. I ordered online at Staples, free delivery to store, online coupon, then turned in an old printer and got it almost half off the regular price. So far it has been great. I do not photo print with it and haven't tried so I can't comment on that. The software isn't bloated like HP software is. I keep all that turned off though until I need it. I have it networked to my router so all our computers can print over my wifi router. This model doesn't have wifi or Fax but other ones do. When I need toner I will get it from monoprice. Staples wants $72 a toner and monoprice just $30.
I have an HP laser printer that is literally 20 years old (I actually get the old "PC LOAD LETTER" error message). Hands down, go with a laser printer. Yeah, toner cartridges are 2-4x as much as an inkjet cartridge, but you will end up getting 20x as many pages out of a laser printer toner cartridge. I had it when I was in college and had a roommate who would routinely print off 1k pages in technical documentation per week (he wasn't one for conservation), and I ended up having to change the cartridge in November... that was 6 years ago, and I haven't had to change the cartridge yet.
The one function I would recommend that I haven't seen anyone here talk about yet is to have a network print server integrated into the printer... whether via WiFi or wired, it's a great feature to have to enable multiple computers to share a single printer.
Thanks for all the great feedback everyone!
Decision not made yet (too busy w/travel this week) and will revisit next week and hopefully be making a decision then.
[thumbsup]
Output vs cost. Quality vs quantity.
If your intended use is to print high quality colour images, no home office use laser printer will do. Gotta go ink jet for best colour image quality for a home office device.
If what you're after is a general use office printer, printing monochrome and colour documents then a laser printer is likely to be more durable and certainly less costly to operate. You're right, generally laser cartridges are expensive but when costed on a per page basis, they work out much less costly than "cheaper" ink jet cartridges.
There are other considerations: Some ink jet printers have combo cartridges which require you replace all the colours even if you only ran out of... magenta..... << avoid those. Laser printers have costs other than just their toner cartridges. Some have drum units with integrated developer units, other have these as separate items. Fuser units require periodic replacement, some laser printers have transfer belts also requiring periodic replacement. Thing to do is find out the cost of all the consumable items and the expected yield of those items to arrive at your cost per page. Output costs vary significantly and manufacturers are crafty at hiding 'em.
On network connectivity, its very handy to have a printer with integral NIC so that you're not forced to set it up as a "shared" printer on one PC. It just resides on your home N/W as a resource available to any PC user regardless. N/W scanning offers wider options my favourite being scanning to SMB (local folder).
So, you see..... the answer to which you should get is this:
It depends ;D.
+1 on the network/ wireless accessibility. my old printer did not come with this feature, but my new router makes it happen anyway. also, i noticed that the new version of my HP printer is wireless enabled.
Quote from: ungeheuer on January 07, 2012, 12:10:06 AM
So, you see..... the answer to which you should get is this:
It depends ;D
???
Thanks Ung....
[laugh]
I am STILL debating printers. [roll]
While there are a few I would really like, price is a big issue.
So, being the cheap risk taker that I am, I found one locally on Craigslist that I'm going to check out.
It's a big brother.
But a cheap brother.
Kinda like my big brother sibling. [laugh]
(who, for the record, i do love)
The inanimate brother is...... crap. Just double checked and it's NOT color capable. [bang]
It's everything else but that. Arrrggghh.
Nevermind.... >:(
Quote from: zooom on January 04, 2012, 01:43:32 PM
if you want to be truly cost effective...go dot matrix!!!
+1
As others have mentioned, inkjets dry up specifically right before you need them.
I got a free laser printer (old, brother something) that always works. We don't need no stinking color!
My second hp inkjet has been a pita for quite a while. Fed up with them.
Did more research last night & finally sprung for a new Brother color laser all-in-one from office max.
Will set it up tonight and use the old for target practice/stress relief. [thumbsup]
Are you gonna use it with Apple or PC?
Quote from: The Mad King Pepe' on January 04, 2012, 03:03:36 PM
About to go buy this: Brother HL-2280DW (http://www.brother-usa.com/Printer/modeldetail.aspx?PRODUCTID=HL2280DW#.TwTLJnIXJvM). I'll recycle my toner to save money.
Just over 2 weeks with the
Brother HL-2280DW: so far so good. Big pluses (for me): full-duplex printing & network (wired and wireless) connectivity -- I hooked it up to my router and print to it from any comp at home. [thumbsup]
Here's a video review (not by me).
Brother HL2280DW Product Review (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSWVViSDCEo&feature=colike#)
Quote from: red baron on January 20, 2012, 11:18:27 AM
Are you gonna use it with Apple or PC?
Apple.
Wwwwwhhhyyyyyy.......???? <looking at you suspiciously like you're about to deliver bad news>
Nope, was going to send you one i bought recently and can't use it with Apple.
It's a really nice Canon. Too bad.
Whew! Thanks for the thought though!
;D