Printers, Inks and lifespan

[rdjohn]

Hi, I need the collective wisdom of PH to make my next choice.

What does everyone else do? There does not seem a logical low-cost solution for printing.

I guess that I might print 50-colour and 100 B&W copies a year and use my scanner a few times per month. Do I buy an expensive printer and sign up to being sent Ink by the gallon, or just accept that cheap printers last 2-years and are a disposable item once the ink has gone?

Thanks for your thoughts

[WelshRich]

I have similar usage to you and opted for a colour laser printer - Inks are comparatively expensive but they don’t dry out/clog the heads so they’re happy to sit unused for months at a time.

[Mr Pointy]

I'd suggest a laser printer that can take non-OEM toner cartridges. With such a low print count the cost per print isn't a huge factor.

[alscar]

Another vote for going Laser over Inkjet - have been very pleased with my HP 283 fdw although probably been superseded now as 2 years old.

[rdjohn]

Coincidentally, that is what SWIMBO has read somewhere.

Has anyone a suggestion for one that is durable?

[WelshRich]

Mine has been fine but not much help as a recommendation I’m afraid because it’s a Samsung and they’ve stopped making them - They sold their printer business to HP…

[sgrimshaw]

Laser for sure if you're not after high quality photo prints ... for that use an online printer

Lexmark or Brother.

Be aware that colour laser printers are not small, so check dimensions if space is at a premium.

[mcflurry]

rdjohn said:

Hi, I need the collective wisdom of PH to make my next choice.

What does everyone else do? There does not seem a logical low-cost solution for printing.

I guess that I might print 50-colour and 100 B&W copies a year and use my scanner a few times per month. Do I buy an expensive printer and sign up to being sent Ink by the gallon, or just accept that cheap printers last 2-years and are a disposable item once the ink has gone?

Thanks for your thoughts

I am on the HP subscription. £50 for the printer/scanner and 99p for 15 pages a month.
2 years subs is less than the cost of an ink cartridge..

[rdjohn]

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

[somouk]

My dad has similar usage and has gone the route of the HP subscription.

I use an Epson ET-3750 with the eco-tank as I tend to print a lot more but so far it's very efficient.

[steveatesh]

I use a brother mono laser printer, can buy compatible toner really cheap from Amazon. It’s duplex too.

My Oki colour laser stopped working properly a few years ago and I decided that the expense for the colour wasn’t worth it, so stuck with just mono and it’s never been a problem in business or personal use.

[biggiles]

Brother laser + phone app for scanning e.g. Genius Scan.

Very easy, and won't dry up.

[langy]

I went down the HP subscription route well over a year or so ago.

Not a heavy user, but more for the occasional print/copy. Purchased cartridges used to last about a year, the subscription ones seem to be lasting a lot longer.

It works for our requirements

[Murph7355]

Laser is no good for photo quality prints.

Using a bureau is fine... Unless you need them quickly and/or have no need to tweak the photos. Printing nice prints always takes some tweakery IME.

[Bodo]

I bought an inkjet ten years ago. The original cartridges were empty in the first year, as they only had the fraction of the capacity of normal ones. I replaced them with genuine ones that cost half of what the printer cost. Printing less than 50 pages per year made them dry out and clog the print head when it was three years old. Cartridges and printer came in at €450, which produced less than 200 pages.

I'm using copy shops since. Three years ago, the local chemists chain introduced A4 printing as part of their photograph offerings; one b&w print is 10¢ - my total printing cost per year is <€5 and walking 2km.

[C n C]

Murph7355 said:

Laser is no good for photo quality prints.

Using a bureau is fine... Unless you need them quickly and/or have no need to tweak the photos. Printing nice prints always takes some tweakery IME.

Yes, but you can tweak them and then send them off for printing with excellent results (I'd argue in many cases better than one can achieve at home).

Agree re. the delay if you want them very quickly though.


ETA - in response to the OP question, I'd go with a laser printer if you're not worried about photo printing at home.

Personally I now have very little need to print documents, and never instantly, so even these I'll send to a website like UK Postbox who print it for you, then can either send it to you, or if it's a letter you're printing to send to someone, they'll post it to your intended recipient.

With this and getting all my photo prints done via Photobox for normal smaller prints, and Loxley Colour Labs for higher quality larger prints, I haven't had a printer at home for years.

When I did, I continually got sick of having to clean the heads before use, the waste of ink, the high cost of cartridges, and ultimately, due to insufficient use, having to bin a couple of decent inkjet printers (including a pretty high end Epson photo printer) due to the heads getting completely blocked.

Edited by C n C on Thursday 4th August 13:31

[Murph7355]

C n C said:

Yes, but you can tweak them and then send them off for printing with excellent results (I'd argue in many cases better than one can achieve at home).
....

It's colour and saturation etc that I always wrangle with the most... Which you can't do remotely/at a copy shop.

I may give some bureaus a try to see how things have changed as have been looking for a replacement for my Epson px720wd for a while - inks never dried/clogged up, but the paper feed has decided to stop working now and no amount of cleaning is curing it sadly, as it gave excellent results.

[C n C]

Murph7355 said:

C n C said:

Yes, but you can tweak them and then send them off for printing with excellent results (I'd argue in many cases better than one can achieve at home).
....

It's colour and saturation etc that I always wrangle with the most... Which you can't do remotely/at a copy shop.

I may give some bureaus a try to see how things have changed as have been looking for a replacement for my Epson px720wd for a while - inks never dried/clogged up, but the paper feed has decided to stop working now and no amount of cleaning is curing it sadly, as it gave excellent results.

It depends on how much effort you want to put in, but you absolutely can get accurate and repeatable results by getting your prints online.

I have calibrated my monitor (and re-calibrate it from time to time). Then I'll ensure that when working on the photos, they are in the correct colour space that is supported by the photo printing place I'm using (most often sRGB colour space). I'll also optimise the resolution to match the "native" resolution of the printers they are using - sometimes 240dpi, sometimes 300dpi etc..

When you then submit the photos with the embedded colour space, it's also important to request that the printers print the photos "as is" - in other words not to apply any automated corrections to them.

This results in receiving prints back that are exactly matched to what you saw on screen before submitting them.

.
.
.

If you are going to try some online printers and don't want to / can't go through the above (getting calibration tool/calibrating etc..), I'd submit some test shots to your bureau of choice, and definitely instruct them not to carry out auto correction - just print them "as is". Then when you get them back, if they are under saturated, or too bright, send a few more but on your screen increase saturation or reduce the brightness etc.. to compensate. In the future, you should quickly get a good idea how the prints come back in relation to how they look on your screen. The key is in asking the bureau NOT to apply any auto correction.

Good luck.

[eeLee]

I have a 10-year-old+ colour laser printer/scanner that is in our second location, it prints 10 pages per year without fail.

Home sees us with a duplex printing/scanning solution used every day.

Inkjet is not worth it, I realised that in the 90s when I printed so little, a new head was more than a new printer....

[Who me ?]

I'd look at an Epson WF 2O10 PRINTER, with ink from something like Rapid Resolutions . Ive no connection to this firm, but I know the MD and hes a tech savvy bloke, and a genuine bloke seriously bothered about his business image. If any customer gets a cartridge that fails to pass his standards, then he wants to , first replace it( without quibble) and then find out why it failed his standards.
Then on WF2010- ITS A ROLLS on the printer market.