A Buyer's Guide to Inkjet Printers

An anonymous reader writes "CoolTechZone.com has posted a good writeup on how to select an inkjet printer without falling prey to many of the common marketing gimmicks."

Comments

This is an easy one...

[grasshoppa]

You shouldn't. Not unless you want to print your photos out, but even then it's probably cheaper to sign up with some place online.

Inkjet printers are a scam, played on a public that doesn't know any better.

Re:ink...

[SimilarityEngine]

Tell me about it. I work for a printer manufacturing company, and we make virtually nothing on the printers themselves. There is an enormous profit margin on the ink, on the other hand - without it we'd be nowhere. Hence, my company goes to a fair amount of trouble to make sure that third-party stuff won't work properly with our printers (i.e if it works at all you get faded colours).

Re:Just buy new printers

[intermediate_represe]

I bet if enough people started doing this, the manufacturers would relent on ink cartridge prices.

They already know about this. The printers available these days have very little ink in them. It's called a demo ink cartridge.

Not always true, depends on useage pattern.

[brunes69]

The question is, are you someone who prints off a page from Google Maps once/twice a month, and an occasional photo, or are you someone who prints off huge online novels to read later?

Sure, cost-per-page is much lower for a laser - *over the long haul*. Personally, I print less than 100 pages per year. I am lucky if I even go through one color ink cartridge before the ink inside just dries out from non-use.

I don't print enough that I would *ever* be able to recover the much higher initial investment of a laser printer. By the time my cost per page savings would recover the $350 more it would cost me (in say, 10 years), the printer would liekly not even work with the computer anymore.

My all-in-one HP inkjet / scanner / copiter cost only $69 CDN, and has HP supported Linux drivers. I have been using it now for 8 months, and the cartridges are both still 75% full. I am extremely satisfied with my purchase and doubt I would have had any better luck with another printer (although I wish I had splurged and gotten the one with the built in memory card reader, that would be handy).

Re:Here is the easy answer

[discontinuity]

Buy a color laser printer.

But this isn't ideal for everyone (although I grant you it's probably an adequate solution for many people). My GF is a graphics designer who specializes in print media. We compared many printers about a year or so ago and the inkjets blew away color lasers w.r.t. color accuracy. My mother won't notice if the laser printer makes the sky in her picture a few Pantone shades off from ideal, but stuff like that does matter to someone proofing a brochure before sending it off to the print shop.

Basically, I find anyone who is serious about their color tends to prefer inkjets despite the obvious fact that they have turned into a marketing scam.

Re:Gimmicks?

[poot_rootbeer]

I can't afford to blow that much on a color laser.

Color lasers can now be had for under $300. That's the cost of a decent color inkjet plus two or three sets of ink refills. Are you sure you can't afford that?

Laser doesn't do it for some tasks

[arexu]

For all you slashbots who think the only use for color is photos, you need to stop and ponder the possibility of other uses for printed material before you crap all over my inkjet printer. YOU might not use an inkjet for anything beyond that, but there are plenty of us who do. If you do paper (cardstock) modeling the inkjet is far superior, because that expensive laser toner CRACKS and flakes off if you score or bend it too much (two things you tend to do when modeling anything more than a flat panel). Inkjet printers can even print on plastic card and other structural materials (not to be considered with the heated drum of the laser...) I only wish I could get a good continuous ink system for my HP 842C printer.

Re:Gimmicks?

[nelsonal]

I agree, but don't think it is worth trying to compete with professional equipment down at the photo lab. If it cost $0.15 or more per print at home and $0.11 at Costco, I'll keep my black laser printer and let someone else own the good hardware. Personally, if I wanted nice color, I'd get one of those wax based plotters.