OT: All-In-One Color Laser Printer
about OT: Color Laser Printer Recommendation Dave McGuire posts:
Very nearly universally, ink jet printers are garbage.
I concur, conditionally. I'd call them disposable. I buy one every few years, half price when that model is superceeded. I use them to scan 11 X 17 documents. Not for printing, the heads clog up! They die, plastic parts break. I replace it, long after it stops printing. I haven't replaced ANY inkcarts, which cost HALF the sale price of the printer. And the new printer has more features than the old. Thus: disposable printers. I have an Epson WF-7520 to dispose of now; it's busted and clogged of course but still scans. My average inkjet-printer+ink costs as a result: about $50/year. New strategy: print once/twice a week, see if I can stretch out the printing. This will cost me a set of $70 inkcarts to continue; I'm several months in.
my main color printer is an HP Color Laserjet 5550DTN, > Either way, I would not recommend buying one new.
I concur, on practice and brand. Thrift stores or surplus sales or maybe recyclers provide laser printers cheaply, tens of dollars. Maybe Craigslist? Freecycle? HP supplies abound on eBay. HP printers work for DECADES. I've used HP Laserjet II's and III's until the scanner motors die; that's 1990's tech, last used in *2018*. Those, I can fix. Hey: vintage tech! We are back on topic! ;) My daily B&W laser printer (and my wife's) are both HP LJ 4300's. I bought a new old stock toner cart on ebay for $18 *delivered*. My funny story: my winning bid on a cheaper toner-cart was canceled, when the seller realized their shipping cost was more than their selling price.
[story of outrage about high costs of toner carts]
The inkjet-producer strategy used to be referred to as "give away the razor, sell the blades". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_and_blades_model includes a reference to "printers". Re: Advice on All-in-One color Laser Printer I have two color laser AIO's which I never use. Paid several tens of dollars, used, years ago. HP CM2320blahblah, HP CM1312blahblah. Only 8 X 11 flatbed scanner. But nice color. Used color carts abound on eBay. I print in color when needed, not often in 2020. Caution: there's a hundred slightly different brands of HP color laser printers, with dozens of different toner carts. Some carts are quite small, you need four of them for color. And the carts (like the inkjet ink tubs) have smart-chips in them which tell the printer "throw this cartridge out when it's half empty". Solution: buy copied chips that say "I'm full, use me up!". Change the chips, not the toner cart. And I have some refilling supplies too. This is what it takes these days, to keep from throwing money at computer-printer companies. Inkjet ink, they say, is the most expensive liquid in the world. I have to jam microcontrollers *into toner carts* to get full use of them. And use decades-old tech, to save money and get reliability and repairability. Surprisingly, this doesn't bother me much. again: we are back on topic. Regards, Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info
I have had very good luck with my HP 950c printer (could be used with parallel or USB) I find ink cartridges at yard & estate sales for a few dollars each. Yes I know taking a chance on a “new” cartridge that may be 10 or more years old is a “gamble” but usually works out for the best. I do very little printing and always in black-and-white (greyscale) So if the cartridges don’t dry up first they last me for years. The only problem I ever had was with my G45 all in one printer from HP. It worked well for quite a while several years use the same cartridges as my 950c. But recently died was making a hell of a racket. One thing I liked about those old HP is they worked with the current operating system. Of course I installed a brand new Brother all in one that I had new in box for years, “OH BROTHER” what a pain in the .... Mike R. Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.
On Jun 11, 2020, at 5:31 PM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
about OT: Color Laser Printer Recommendation
Dave McGuire posts:
Very nearly universally, ink jet printers are garbage.
I concur, conditionally. I'd call them disposable. I buy one every few years, half price when that model is superceeded. I use them to scan 11 X 17 documents. Not for printing, the heads clog up!
They die, plastic parts break. I replace it, long after it stops printing. I haven't replaced ANY inkcarts, which cost HALF the sale price of the printer. And the new printer has more features than the old. Thus: disposable printers. I have an Epson WF-7520 to dispose of now; it's busted and clogged of course but still scans.
My average inkjet-printer+ink costs as a result: about $50/year. New strategy: print once/twice a week, see if I can stretch out the printing. This will cost me a set of $70 inkcarts to continue; I'm several months in.
my main color printer is an HP Color Laserjet 5550DTN, > Either way, I would not recommend buying one new.
I concur, on practice and brand. Thrift stores or surplus sales or maybe recyclers provide laser printers cheaply, tens of dollars. Maybe Craigslist? Freecycle?
HP supplies abound on eBay. HP printers work for DECADES. I've used HP Laserjet II's and III's until the scanner motors die; that's 1990's tech, last used in *2018*. Those, I can fix. Hey: vintage tech! We are back on topic! ;)
My daily B&W laser printer (and my wife's) are both HP LJ 4300's. I bought a new old stock toner cart on ebay for $18 *delivered*. My funny story: my winning bid on a cheaper toner-cart was canceled, when the seller realized their shipping cost was more than their selling price.
[story of outrage about high costs of toner carts]
The inkjet-producer strategy used to be referred to as "give away the razor, sell the blades".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_and_blades_model
includes a reference to "printers".
Re: Advice on All-in-One color Laser Printer
I have two color laser AIO's which I never use. Paid several tens of dollars, used, years ago. HP CM2320blahblah, HP CM1312blahblah. Only 8 X 11 flatbed scanner. But nice color. Used color carts abound on eBay. I print in color when needed, not often in 2020.
Caution: there's a hundred slightly different brands of HP color laser printers, with dozens of different toner carts. Some carts are quite small, you need four of them for color. And the carts (like the inkjet ink tubs) have smart-chips in them which tell the printer "throw this cartridge out when it's half empty". Solution: buy copied chips that say "I'm full, use me up!". Change the chips, not the toner cart. And I have some refilling supplies too.
This is what it takes these days, to keep from throwing money at computer-printer companies. Inkjet ink, they say, is the most expensive liquid in the world. I have to jam microcontrollers *into toner carts* to get full use of them. And use decades-old tech, to save money and get reliability and repairability.
Surprisingly, this doesn't bother me much. again: we are back on topic.
Regards, Herb Johnson
-- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info
On Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 5:31 PM Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
about OT: Color Laser Printer Recommendation
Dave McGuire posts:
Very nearly universally, ink jet printers are garbage.
I concur, conditionally. I'd call them disposable. I buy one every few years, half price when that model is superceeded. I use them to scan 11 X 17 documents. Not for printing, the heads clog up!
Yes. I have seen that the consensus is that ink jet printers are not good long term. I haven't gotten anyone to say anything positive about them yet.
They die, plastic parts break. I replace it, long after it stops printing. I haven't replaced ANY inkcarts, which cost HALF the sale price of the printer. And the new printer has more features than the old. Thus: disposable printers. I have an Epson WF-7520 to dispose of now; it's busted and clogged of course but still scans.
My average inkjet-printer+ink costs as a result: about $50/year. New strategy: print once/twice a week, see if I can stretch out the printing. This will cost me a set of $70 inkcarts to continue; I'm several months in.
I know someone else that did the same thing. The cost of ink was so much that they would just buy a new printer when the ink ran out and this was about 13 years ago!
my main color printer is an HP Color Laserjet 5550DTN, > Either way, I would not recommend buying one new.
HP supplies abound on eBay. HP printers work for DECADES. I've used HP Laserjet II's and III's until the scanner motors die; that's 1990's tech, last used in *2018*. Those, I can fix. Hey: vintage tech! We are back on topic! ;)
I've gotten a few recommendations for HP, so I'm leaning towards the highest rated HP printer by Consumer Reports: HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw
My daily B&W laser printer (and my wife's) are both HP LJ 4300's. I bought a new old stock toner cart on ebay for $18 *delivered*. My funny story: my winning bid on a cheaper toner-cart was canceled, when the seller realized their shipping cost was more than their selling price.
I originally was going to get just Black and White printer, but we decided that sometimes we want color.
Regards, Herb Johnson
Thanks for your 2 cents Herb! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey@vcfed.org
The only thing good about them is vintage now, they used to be all that was affordable by a normal person who isn't a big company. If you want to be vintage, buy one! If you want a device that is affordable (to operate, not just up front) and reliable, get laser! On Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 6:56 PM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 5:31 PM Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
about OT: Color Laser Printer Recommendation
Dave McGuire posts:
Very nearly universally, ink jet printers are garbage.
I concur, conditionally. I'd call them disposable. I buy one every few years, half price when that model is superceeded. I use them to scan 11 X 17 documents. Not for printing, the heads clog up!
Yes. I have seen that the consensus is that ink jet printers are not good long term. I haven't gotten anyone to say anything positive about them yet.
They die, plastic parts break. I replace it, long after it stops printing. I haven't replaced ANY inkcarts, which cost HALF the sale price of the printer. And the new printer has more features than the old. Thus: disposable printers. I have an Epson WF-7520 to dispose of now; it's busted and clogged of course but still scans.
My average inkjet-printer+ink costs as a result: about $50/year. New strategy: print once/twice a week, see if I can stretch out the printing. This will cost me a set of $70 inkcarts to continue; I'm several months in.
I know someone else that did the same thing. The cost of ink was so much that they would just buy a new printer when the ink ran out and this was about 13 years ago!
my main color printer is an HP Color Laserjet 5550DTN, > Either way,
I
would not recommend buying one new.
HP supplies abound on eBay. HP printers work for DECADES. I've used HP Laserjet II's and III's until the scanner motors die; that's 1990's tech, last used in *2018*. Those, I can fix. Hey: vintage tech! We are back on topic! ;)
I've gotten a few recommendations for HP, so I'm leaning towards the highest rated HP printer by Consumer Reports: HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw
My daily B&W laser printer (and my wife's) are both HP LJ 4300's. I bought a new old stock toner cart on ebay for $18 *delivered*. My funny story: my winning bid on a cheaper toner-cart was canceled, when the seller realized their shipping cost was more than their selling price.
I originally was going to get just Black and White printer, but we decided that sometimes we want color.
Regards, Herb Johnson
Thanks for your 2 cents Herb!
-- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey@vcfed.org
On Jun 11, 2020, at 6:55 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Yes. I have seen that the consensus is that ink jet printers are not good long term. I haven't gotten anyone to say anything positive about them yet.
I will say that I've seen some inkjets in the past 15 years or so that are very good for photo printing, if you have the high-quality ink and paper (the paper makes a difference! The photo-quality paper has a coating that keeps the ink from bleeding into the grain like it does with copy paper, so you get much more precise results). But for the amount I print photos, I'm happy to just get it done by a service that I know will do it well like Shutterfly or the Kodak printers at CVS rather than screw around with dried out print heads and the like. That said, I've not seen nice results from color laser printers, though admittedly it's been a long time since I've really looked. My laser printers are exclusively monochrome because short of, say, classroom presentations for my kids or something, I never need to print anything in color (and they've got crayons/markers/colored pencils).
I originally was going to get just Black and White printer, but we decided that sometimes we want color.
Depending on your use case, consider getting a B&W printer for home use and printing color at the copy shop if you don't need it often. Of course, your results may vary based on current pandemic conditions.
On 6/11/20 21:07, David Riley via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On Jun 11, 2020, at 6:55 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Yes. I have seen that the consensus is that ink jet printers are not good long term. I haven't gotten anyone to say anything positive about them yet. I will say that I've seen some inkjets in the past 15 years or so that are very good for photo printing, if you have the high-quality ink and paper (the paper makes a difference! The photo-quality paper has a coating that keeps the ink from bleeding into the grain like it does with copy paper, so you get much more precise results). But for the amount I print photos, I'm happy to just get it done by a service that I know will do it well like Shutterfly or the Kodak printers at CVS rather than screw around with dried out print heads and the like.
That said, I've not seen nice results from color laser printers, though admittedly it's been a long time since I've really looked. My laser printers are exclusively monochrome because short of, say, classroom presentations for my kids or something, I never need to print anything in color (and they've got crayons/markers/colored pencils).
I've had different laser printers and none were good for photos. I have had a Brother MFC-J5410DW inkjet for years now and it works great, but I have to print things every few weeks to make sure I don't have an issue with clogging. If one prints regularly it shouldn't be a problem, but this isn't a cheap disposable inkjet. It can scan and print 11x17. And it can duplex scan which is helpful for multipage 2-sided scanning/copying. It is slow compared to a laser. Photos are actually pretty decent as well on photo paper. And ink carts are reasonably priced. But it is not for heavy printing use. For that I go to the office and use the laser. All depends on what one needs. I print very little at home any more so the inkjet is good enough. Mark
On 6/11/20 9:07 PM, David Riley via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
That said, I've not seen nice results from color laser printers, though admittedly it's been a long time since I've really looked.
A given laser printer model is either continuous-tone-capable or not. Many are not. Ones that are, though, tend to be capable of damn good photographic-quality output. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
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