What printer should I get?

[Mayo]

It really comes down to how much color printing you plan on doing and whether color laser print quality willl meet your expectations/needs.

The Real World cost of replacement toner carts for the HP printer averages $90 per cart or $360 to replace all four carts.

[Paddy]

If you're printing 95% B&W text, by all means get a laser printer. My HP Laserjet 2100 has been a workhorse - and there are other, cheaper brands of toner cartridges that work just fine. Laser printers have become ridiculously cheap in the past few years.

As for the color component - if you do the odd color photo, an inkjet is fine. But if you do a LOT of color prints, you really should investigate one of the online photo printers, who not only will cost you a lot less, but will also be printing on real photo paper - the photos will last just like a real "analog" photo. Of course, you can spend lots of $$ and get an Epson that prints with archival quality inks, but that will cost way more than $150 and so will the replacement ink.

I have a Canon i860 that I've been very happy with - each color is a separate ink tank and there are good 3rd party inks available which cost a heck of a lot less than Canon ink cartridges. There are newer models - the Pixma line for instance. The other thing about the Canon printers which makes them more suitable for both text and photos than some is that each ink color is a separate cartridge. Run out of blue? No problem - you replace the blue one, not the entire color cartridge! Much more economical.

Color laserjets are fine for graphics, but usually they're not particularly good with photos.

http://www.macworld.com/2005/12/reviews/pr...guide/index.php

And after you decide what you want (check the reviews, editorial AND customer, at cnet.com before you buy) buy it online. Staples is usually expensive and some of us won't shop at Wally World.

[Gregg]

Thanks for this thread. I'd been thinking that my next printer should be a B/W Laser. We got the Epson 740 in case the kids needed color for school work. I think it was used for that one time. Now that we have no more secondary schoolers, we don't use color at all.

[Parker]

Cheap Black and White Laser
I've had it since May and have only changed the toner twice in 10,000 pages
Brother HL-5140

Works well with AirPort print server

[weldiger]

And The Winner Is:

WELDIGER!  

Thanks for your help y'all.

Kbeartx
RobW
Jwboyd
Sandbox
Pendragon
Mayo
Chriskleeman
Gailwin
Giantmike
George
Jcarter
Paddy

took one name off the list!

Y’all gave some good information, and each of you had important points to consider.  I am definitely the winner for having the benefit of such good advice, good friends, and Mac savvy folk.
Advice is plentiful everywhere, but good advice is scarce.
Good friends are a treasure, whether you have met or not.
Mac savvy in this, and surrounding counties, is not available.

I bought my first Mac, a Performa 400 from a store. [I wish I had all that money to spend on Mac now!]  Everything since, has either been given to me by folk on this board, or purchased from a picture in a catalogue.  None of my Macs has ever been repaired by a Technician.  
Till I retired, the closest store was an hour away in any direction.

I would like to have more choices of places to shop, but I wanted to see what I was getting.  An All In One was out, because I have had two.  HP history for me has been less than stellar.  I found no laser printers in my price range, and no Epson Ink Jets in the right price range either.
I could have gotten All In Ones, from about $50, and they looked great, but I just bought new scanner, which is super good.
My budget was $150 or less, so I got a Canon iP4300.

Instructions for setting up were less informative than I would have liked, but it is up and running on my wife’s computer, and doing well.
I have gone back to my old HP 3820 which now only prints black, but I refill my own carts cheap.

Thanks again y’all
May the Blue Bird of Happiness ….
 

[Gregg]

Well, you can take my name off that list... I was a recipient of good advice only.

[Highmac]

Thanks for this thread - lots of good info. We're looking to replace our creaky old Epson 740 which turns every fourth or fifth line of type into italics (kind of!).

So this time TeeEss managed to answer my questions before I'd even asked. Is that or what!

[Parker]

WHO DELETED MY POST?
that wasn't cool
it DIDN'T vioate any terms!

[jepinto]

QUOTE(gailwin @ Oct 28 2006, 05:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

WHO DELETED MY POST?
that wasn't cool
it DIDN'T vioate any terms!

Parker-What are you talking about??  There are NO deleted posts in this topic.  In fact, I can't quite remember the last time anything but a duplicate post has had to be deleted on this fine board of mature individuals.  

[RobW]

Parker, just to add to what Jennie said, in those very rare situations where a post is deleted (for reasons other than a "double post") there is always some discussion about it afterwards by the administrators and the person who made the post is informed about it privately. If you didn't receive a PM/email, and I know there was no discussion about it by the administrators, I'm pretty certain that none of your posts were deleted. (At least not to our knowledge. )

[weldiger]

QUOTE

Kbeartx
RobW
Jwboyd
Sandbox
Pendragon
Mayo
Chriskleeman
Gailwin
Giantmike
George
Jcarter
Paddy

took one name off the list! smile.gif

Parker, this may be where you got the idea of a deleted post.
saying I took one name off the list, was my attempt to tease Gregg who said

QUOTE

Well, you can take my name off that list... I was a recipient of good advice only.

My original list of those who helped included Gregg, and I went back and tongue in cheek added the change to my original post.

Since I used Gailwin, and not Parker, you may have gotten the idea that I had taken one of your posts out.  Sorry If I caused any mis-understanding.  Apologies to you Parker- AKA Gailwin, and to others who have been puzzled by the mix up.

Shalom
weldiger - AKA mud
 

[Parker]

my apologies
the illusion of the slowness of the school network led me to believe that my reply was posted
however it was not.

well anyways... what i 'meant' to say:

QUOTE

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-5140-Lase.../dp/B0001JXAG6/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1608015,00.asp

I would still like to point out that regardless of how cheap a printer is, the ink is what is going to cost you a truckload of green.
Even if you refill your cartridges, you still need to replace them every two or three refills, and the amount of times you will refill a cartridge will soon add up to be the price of a laser toner cartridge.

You may have already made your suggestion, but i would still like you to take a look at the printer i linked above.



-Parker

and yes... thank you for clearing up future confusion regarding deleted posts