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Which All-in-One Inkjet Printer is Cheapest to Use?
Ray asks: "A year or so ago, I got my dad a new computer system that included a Canon PX-160 printer/scanner/copier to replace his aging Lexmark with similar capabilities. On my next visit, I asked him how the new printer was working and he said the ink was killing him. The cartridges are expensive, they don't have much ink in them and there are no third party or refilled carts for it or (apparently) any other Canon. It looks like HP and Lexmark are the most likely to have (relatively) inexpensive supplies but what has your experience been with inkjet All-in-Ones as far as TCO goes?"
Cheap Inkjets? "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." Has never been so appropriate!
Which is cheapest? My neighbors, naturally.
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Get a b&w printer for regular crap. For photos, let somebody else handle the headache at a cheap price: Wal-mart (or whatever floats your boat.)
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
absolutely any LASER all-in-one printer.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
What on earth could your dad possibly be printing?
Last time I was in the market for a new printer, I got a laser all in one (HP 3052). That was 6 months ago, and I'm still on the toner cartridge that came with it. Of course, the woman and I are relatively light on the printer (only a few hundred pages since we got it)
It cost me about $300 to buy, so there's a significant initial investment. But it's very fast, reliable, and toner is very cheap compared to ink, and lasts a long time.
My previous laser lasted me 10 years. I expect this one to do the same.
I have a Canon MP600 Printer/Scanner and I can purchase refill kits for it or refilled ink. (web search will find plenty for sale. Also there is a Cartridge World close tome that sells the refilled inks) I think the Canon ink is not that expensive. I have had my printer for about 6 months and just replaced the black cartridge. I printed a couple hundred pages (almost no color) on one cartridge. The new Canon branded cartridge cost me ~$18. I have only printed a couple of pictures with the printer so the color is still almost full. I think that photo printing is going to eat the ink of any printer.
Linux support for the MP 600 is a bit spotty. Canon has a binary (x86 or amd64 with emulation) driver that can be made to work under Linux. I currently just use the Turboprint drivers (commercial ~$40 or free for the 300 DPI version). The Turboprint driver had worked quite well for me. The scanner works with cvs sane drivers.
Cheers,the_crowbar
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Go to alotofthings.com. They have some good info on refilling Canon carts, and sell aftermarket ones (for my model at least).
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
You get nailed for trying to do an inkjet AIO. I got a Brother 7820N (refurb) for about $179 which is a laser AIO and then I have an Epson R220 (about $79 at Sam's Club) for printing photos, brochures, business cards, and CD's. I use InkjetMadness cartridges when they're on special ($28 for 12 single-color carts or so) and Taiyo-Yuden inkjet-printable CD's and DVD's (supermediastore or others). I think I'm still on the starter toner with the Brother, as I try to not print anything for in-house use.
Another upside is my B&W communications (letters, whitepapers, invoices) look more professional as laser-prints.
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For photos, let somebody else handle the headache at a cheap price: Wal-mart (or whatever floats your boat.
That works out well, actually. There are very few pictures most people actually want to print, but then you get good quality for a fraction of what ink costs, let alone the printer. Add in a few gimp edits and you have nice holiday cards.
For regular stuff, there's the printer at work. Who else wants print anymore anyway? The digital copy is more portable and durable.
We are all on one big curve where the ratio of material we read and use, paper/electronic, goes from infinity to zero. Paper, though cheap, is the fifth largest consumer of electricity in the US. It's demise is welcome.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Your local college computer lab?
I have an HP PSC 1350 all-in-one inkjet printer, scanner, and copier...with built-in card readers.
Put me in the minority, but I love it. I have had it for years and just this week replaced my first B&W cartridge. I am still on the original color cartridge. Yes, I don't print every single day, but I do print fairly regularly.
The printer was bargain at $79 (US)...and getting the scanner was a nice benefit, which I have used many times. An OEM HP B&W ink cartridge costs $17 and an OEM color cartridge costs about twice that. Given that I have only spent $17 on the printer since I bought it and that only a fraction of that money goes to HP, I think they are still in the hole on this one...and I probably don't have much to complain about.
Price per page? Who knows, but if he prints that much, then you should consider a laser. Yes, consumables are expensive, but they sell inkjet printers at a loss...and they have to make it up somehow. That is the business model. It benefits people like me and penalizes heavy print users.
If he is bothered that much by the cost, I suggest having him estimate page per month counts for printing, faxing, and copying...and then perform a TCO for various all-in-one inkjets, lasers, and dedicated devices for each task based on their initial cost and cost of consumables. Honestly, if the quality of inkjets is inadequate, I would think that some model will still win out. The consumables on my color laser printer at work aren't exactly a bargain.
Another benefit of the all-in-one inkjet approach - I have one device, which does not take up much room, and it was so inexpensive that I will not even think twice about replacing it when it eventually breaks.
I'm all for pulling on the knowledge of the tech community, but seriously-- this isn't exactly difficult information to find. I've seen some pretty nifty questions asked on Slashdot, about things like cosmic rays, full-house renovation tips, clever telemarketer avoidance techniques, and even which button not to press.
But seriously-- this is about a half-step away from Slashdot's front page being a place to ask "ne1 gt dell cupn codz?"
Forget RTFA-- try STFG (Search The Floving Google)
UTF-8: There and Back Again
The one at work.
I kid. Actually my university forces students to buy 1500 pages of what they call a "print subsidy". If we don't use it by the end of the semester, we lose it (and don't get any money back). This is counter productive to saving resources, because people will print off books like Dante's Inferno rather than leave themselves with 1400 pages of printable paper at the end of the semester. This is the reason why I don't own a printer.
Plus, I print stuff out so rarely that the place I work at doesn't bat an eye when I use work printers to do it. Owning a printer is overrated.
I just picked up new ink (Black and Color) for my Lexmark bubble jet printer. The Lexmark brand combo pack was $59.99. Buying both ink cartridges individually under OfficeMax's label for refurbished units cost ~$55.
Not sure if having alternative's available for ink will really save you that much money.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
If you use them a lot, the ink costs a fortune per page, several times what a laser printer costs per page, so that a more expensive laser printer quickly becomes cheaper to own.
But if you don't use them a lot, the ink evaporates and the inkjet clogs up and stops working, forcing you to buy even more cartridges, so that a more expensive laser printer quickly becomes cheaper to own.
Buy a laser printer based all-in-one.
Test your net with Netalyzr
Kodak came out with a line of printers they were trying to sell by touting the cheap ink. For a lazy person like me (who has also managed to spill ink from a do-it-yourself refill onto my carpet), I'd prefer to go buy a cartridge and not think about it. If you're printing a heap of pages, the Kodak might be the cheapest than the competition due to their cheap ink strategy. Anybody used tried them yet?
If you don't need color, get a laser/toner based all-in-one.
If you need color, get an Epson because they have the cheapest generic ink prices (They have the printer heads in the printer, so the ink cartridges are just ink bottles.)
Kind of a silly question for Slashdot
The cheapest way to get photo quality prints of photos is to get them made at the local photo store.
The cheapest way to print anything else is a laser printer. I have a Konica Minolta which can also do magazine-quality photos, is networkable, and under $400.
Also, generally all-in-one devices are crap compared to separate ones.
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I need one of these for my wife. She is all set for an ink-jet and I just don't want to maintain one. It doesn't have to be backpackable, just not huge. It needs to move, by car, at least 6 times a year.
Thanks!
That's an extremely strange question... A bit like asking "Which Hummer Has The Best Gas Mileage?"
Getting an inkjet guarantees high prices, lots of maintenance (eg. cleaning) etc. Then, getting an all-in-one printer ensures operating costs will be more expensive still, with a low-end printer, low-end scanner, etc., all in one.
I have a hard time imagining any scenario where space could possibly be that limited, so I have to believe you're just unaware of those problems, or have been sucked-in by the advertising.
IMHO, a B&W laser printer is the best way to go... Cheap purchase price, cheap consumables, far better looking text, and 10X faster than any inkjet printer. Color is unnecessary for the vast majority of people, the vast majority of time, but if you really want it, consumables for a color laser printer aren't much more expensive.
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Bought it a few years ago. It was only on the market for a few months it seems, replaced by the 1600. The 1600 uses cartridges that are like $15-20; the 1500 cartridges consistently cost $8 or less. So I see why they discontinued the 1500. If you can find one, snag one!
It even survived a printing on silly putty experiment by the kids.
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i'll have to agree with others on this list. i used to run inkjets... epson, canon, lexmark... but they drink thsoe carts like crazy..AND if you dont use them in a while they become painful with nozzle cleaning etc etc. I got an HP 2600n a while back and though the initial outlay was higher, the printing is quicker cleaner and the running costs are lower. for really fancy printing (eg glossy 8x6 photos) i prefer to just head to local supermarket and use their 10p per picture printing service.
I did too, and found that Canon deservedly has the best reputation of all the inkjet vendors for having refillable/individual cartriges. I'll likely buy another... --dave
davecb@spamcop.net
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-pa th=10581&pq-locale=en_US
Their new printers have half the ink costs of their closest competitors.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
I bought my Apple Stylewriter II in 1991-93 (somewhere in grad school). It still works great, I can get cheap cartridges and/or refill. For a black and white indestructible printer, the quality is fantastic, and the cost (~$150 in 1991) is VERY cheap per year.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
- the 3rd party inks are about $3 each
- inktanks aren't chiped
- there is a lot of good web articles on maintenece.
- provides a flatbet scanner and inkjet.
- interfaces for USB and Parallel
- The downsidse is is is slow compared to more recent machines
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Does anyone know if the Canon MP830 HAS to use the CLI carts instead of the less expensive BCI carts? Can I use BCI cartridges in it?
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Basically we can't answer this question without having some clue of what and how much he's printing. Is it 5000 B&W text documents? Is he a big photo nut printing 500 full 8x10 photos? Does he only print in red ink? :P
Once you understand what he's trying to do you can attack this from 2 ways.
1) Get a printer that suits his need.
2) make him aware about how he's using so much ink.
This is not an all in one, but I think Canon has ones that use the BCI cartridges. No chip on the cart. Level is detected by optical sensor. I bought a universal refill kit from Costco 2 years ago for $20. 300+ full-colour 8.5x11 pages later and I've almost used up half of the ink. Refill is a breeze, maybe 4 minutes per cartridge and very little mess.
I picked up a Samsung ML-2510 last April for my taxes. (Pay to efile? Are they nuts?)
CompUSA sells them for $130. But last April there were frequent $60 rebates. $70 for a laser printer seems.... Acceptable... That's less than what an ink refill will cost for my InkJet. Besides, the InkJet takes a couple hours of fussing with to get all its jets unclogged and printing again. (And cleaning up the ink it spills all over the rollers.)
The Samsung ML-2510 is a lot faster (25ppm). More reliable. The jets never clog. Works with USB or Parallel interface. It supports Windows / MacOSX / Linux (SuSE Linux 8.2, Red Hat Linux 9, Red Hat Linux 8.0, Mandrake Linux 9.2, Red Hat Fedora Core 1, Red Hat Fedora Core 2, Mandrake Linux 10.1 Discovery, SuSE Linux 9.2, Red Hat Fedora Core 3) out of the box.
How can anyone justify continuing to use an inkjet for b/w printing, when new laser-printers are cheaper than ink?
I bought a Brother MFC-5460CN this past spring for under $100 after rebate, but it looks like Office Depot may be screwing me out of the rebate which was $40 or $50. They claimed I didn't send in the UPC from the box (which I certainly did) and I haven't heard anything since I called to argue with them and mailed them photocopies of the UPC and the original paperwork.
Anyway, I've had it for 3 or 4 months now and the software says the ink cartridges are about half full. I just ordered replacement cartridges, 2 of each color including black, for $42.95 total including shipping which doesn't seem terribly expensive to me.
The Brother replaces a Canon S750 ink jet printer. I hardly ever bought ink for that thing and when I did, I think the cartridges were under 10 bucks even at a retail office store. It lasted me 4 or 5 years and then developed a logic fault. Print quality was still fine, but it would hang with an obscure error message and a flashing light after printing a single page. If I didn't mind power cycling it between every page I could still be using it now.
Seems to me that a laser printer could develop that sort of logic fault just as well as an ink jet so I think I got my money's worth out of that inexpensive printer.
I've got a 19" and a 21" monitor plus an ultraportable laptop, so I don't print much. If you just need the occasional hard copy and the convenience of being able to make photocopies at home I recommend the Brother. If you need to print high volumes get a laser. Oh, and don't count on the rebate, seems to me that a lot of these rebates are pure scams.
If all you are doing is black and white stuff there's no contest -- buy a laser printer. I don't know anything about color laser printers since I don't have one but But I went from taking forever for papers to print out, clogged ink heads, and empty ink cartridges to a laser printer that was fast, never given me a bit of trouble and had a toner cartridge that lasted 3 years.
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Whatever you do, do NOT buy Lexmark. In my experience, it's cheaper to throw out a Lexmark printer and buy a new one than buy a new cartridge for it. I use Canon, and I have no problems. $20 cartridges (with 20% off next purchase if I give back the empty one) - not Canon brand obviously. HP is fairly meh. Brother is ATROCIOUS.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Seriously, does anyone know of any dot matrix fax machines being made anywhere? I loved dot matrix, it was ridiculously reliable, and whether the ribbon is out of ink is highly subjective so you can limp along for ages if you don't care that much (I'm really sick of my OfficeJet 500 cutting me off because it let all my ink evaporate ... again ... since I hardly get any faxes). A 24-pin dot matrix printer might not be quite up to inkjet resolution, but it's still OK, and doesn't have the smudging/streaking and total intolerance to a raindrop or two.
Epson printers (and hence the all-in-one machines based on them) have substantially less intelligence in the cartridge than HP, Lexmark or Canon and are thus generally far cheaper for 3rd party inks.
The only snag is that the printhead isn't built into the cartridge and can (if not used regularly) be prone to clogging.
Though to be honest, I am of the opinion that unless you have a very particular need for an inkjet printer today (and I'm hard pressed to think what that need might be...), you're a fool to buy one.
I work in cartridge world and lexmark are the dearest and a big crap people call them toy printers HP or Canon is a good choice and I guarantee that any franchise of CW can reman or refill 99% of any f-in inkjet or laser supplies on the market there is a few we cannot because of manufacturers and other crap
The one that uses a laser.
HP Laserjet 3052
HP Laserjet 3055
HP Laserjet 3352
HP Laserjet 3390
Avoid these, as HP is saving a few pennies by putting 4 meg roms in, instead of 8's.. to make room they removed PCL5e support.. this makes printing off an AS/400 or with premade forms that rely on PCL5e rather difficult.
As long as you use the right keywords.
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Up front cost or over time? How many ink cartridges would one need to buy and how long would it last (assuming moderate use,) before it exceeds the purchase price of that laser? And by then, would one be inclined to buy a new, more wizbang printer (that's just as cheap thanks to technology advances.)
Kind of like the Mac vs PC debate. Get an "overpriced" Macintosh that'll last years and works great or get a PC at half the price and upgrade the components piecemeal over time? The dozen latest CPU punishing FPS games are unnecessary to the vast majority.
That is what I have done, as well. The only issue nowadays, is that Canon is putting a custom chip on each cartridge that, once a cartridge has run out, refuses to monitor ink levels. It requires you to tell the print driver to go ahead without monitoring the level, by holding the resume button on the printer for 5 seconds, once for each refilled cartridge, any time you open and close the access lid. If you are willing to refill it yourself (Stores typically don't refill the 'chipped' models) and keep tabs on the levels manually, this will be, at best, a minor annoyance. At least you can force the printer to continue, unlike HP (IIRC), where the cartridge is permanently out of ink, and will not allow an override.
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Just mentioned this on here earlier today, but Kodak has a new line of multifunctions....$10 black $15 for the 5-color cartridge. Definately the cheapest in the long run (black is supposed to last ~300 pages of text).
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Later Canons, notably the Pixma series (like mine) use ink cartridges that are actual cartridges. Unlike traditional "cartridges," where a cheap print head is built into the cart, a better print head is built into the printer. The print heads are in the carts to lower the cost of the printer (E.g. Lexmark $19.99 Wal Mart specials) but jacks up the cost of the ink (30-35 dollars for a color cart for said Lexmark...) when the balance of cost could be put elsewhere.
I dunno from the model the OP is describing, but the "cartridges" in mine are just tanks of ink, and they're drop dead simple to refill with one of those As Seen on TV kits or whatever else you can lay your hands on. I've probably refilled the stock carts that came with my printer about... Oh, seventy times by now. I've had it for about three years, and when the urge strikes me to do graphic design I piss away a lot of ink fast.
Look into it. It's probably about the best you're going to get for consumer inkjet printing...
If you believe the advertising, one good choice might be the HP Officejet Pro L7680, at 1.5c and 6c a page for b/w and color respectively. I just purchased one of these and am quite happy with it.
I haven't seen anyone mention continuous ink solutions yet. I don't have any experience with them myself, but if you are doing any volume they seem to be the way to go. Not all printers are an easy mod so you might need to do some homework. Also they say you need to print at least once or twice a week or else you'll be re-priming the kit, which is a hassle. These kits are definitely worth a look however if you are a high volume printer.
I've gone with a b/w laser myself with an inkjet multifunction (an Epson RX430 because of their Linux support) for when I need colour copy. Looked at colour lasers, and inkjets beat them on cost-per-copy believe it or not(!!!). If I needed to do high volume colour I would have gone with continuous ink. As a side note - check out Xerox... I seem to remember they have some kind of wax(?) print technology which was pretty cheap for toner.
-Mark
Inkjets, all of them, are ripoffs. They're sold at a very low price, then you're overcharged for their cartridges. This is called loss-leader sale in the marketing world and is always a sign of a ripoff. Stay away from them.
Also, avoid all-in-one printers/fax/copiers: if a function breaks and you have to send the product for repair, then you lose all of them until the repair is done.
Get a color laser instead, they're dirt cheap these days, a good scanner and the software to perform the needed tasks. The laser printer will pay itself in much less than one year.
That's my current tactic. I just got a couple of refill kits for the thing that I'll probably try out this weekend. Glad to hear some success stories in that regard.
It depends on how overpriced the inkjet is... Epson and HP trys to sell their high-end (still crappy) inkjets printers for $150, more than what a B&W laser would cost, and only $50 off a color laser. You're saving money as soon as you run out of ink. Canon's high-end models run about $100, so you'll get a couple refills before you could have paid-off a color laser.
But more importantly than that, is that the prints from the cheapest (1200x1200DPI) color lasers printers, even on the cheapest paper, look better than even high-end ink on high-end paper. They don't bleed, they don't come out dark due to the volume of ink, they don't need to dry, they don't have heads that clog-up and spatter ink on the finished print, the prints are as durable as the paper itself, etc.
That actually NEVER happens in printers. You can get a 10 year-old laser printer (600x600 DPI) and it will just as good as brand-new model. The situation is almost entirely the same with inkjet printers... Once the DPI gets up to 1200x1200, there's nothing else to do, except try to save ink (since it costs so much). They add gimmicky color LCD screens and SD card slots on them, but print quality basically doesn't ever improve.
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Color lasers are not all that cheap, besides the color toner (which is usually double the price of black toner or more) lasers have a bunch more hardware that needs replacement, such as the drum or imager roll, fuser, and fuser roll, then some may also have the charge grid, etc.
Look at the Xerox laser parts list to get an idea, you usually don't see it in the HP list as in the fine print the fuser and other parts fall under service and maintenance (you pay them to replace it).
One that has pretty compelling costs is the Solid Ink printers (which we refer to at work as the "Crayon Jets" which are part wax based inks (look a lot like big chunks of crayon) and full-width inkjet printing. Vibrant color as lasers, very fast printing (even duplexing), though the 'ink' is a lower melting point then toner so you can't heat laminate them with good results.
After a year or so of use page cost is about 7 cents a page (factoring in costs of ink and the maintenance kit, which is the only other replacement part) This is with printing bunches of signs and brochures.
They have a multifunction solid ink all-in-one but that's overkill for us so I can't say much more about it.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Yes, my Stylus Scan 2500 cost me $40 used.
This was a quality business scanner & printer for it's time.
I disassembled one ink cartridge to understand how the ink feed works. (Hacksaw around seam in top cover plate, wash pieces in sink ). Now that I have seen how the cartridge is arranged, I use bulk refill ink in a bottle with a stainless steel needle tip. I leave the cartridge in the printer, lift up a piece of tape, squeeze in 20 ml, run clean heads three times.
The flatbed scanner is pretty good. Scans of 2 1/4" b&w negatives and documents are decent.
How about the low end? Doesn't sound like the original poster is running an office with the printer.
My HP PSC1200 cost me $40 after rebate ($80 at the register,) and in the two years I've had it, only replaced the ink twice (most recent being last month.) While I haven't been able to do any side-by-side comparisons, I'm sure it looks just as good if not better than my old DeskWriter 680c. Plus I get a scanner on top of that.
A typical sales conversation goes like this:
Me: What kind of printer are you looking for?
Customer: Ooooh I want an All-In-One(tm). [Typical positive response to advertising hype.]
M: I can't recommend one of those unless you really need one. We have much nicer scanners separate for a fraction of the price.
C: My home office used to be a closet.
You'd be surprised how many people actually think a 12 square foot area is an acceptable area to use a computer. I am reminded by this when people stop asking about features of the printer and pull out their tape measure to get the physical size of the machine. HP makes it convenient by providing the dimensions of the printer on the box.
The scary part? We actually sell computer desks that small. Want a good desk? Go to costco an pick up one of those 6 foot long white injection-molded plastic folding tables. Optical mice hate them, but that's what a mouse pad is for. I have Two 21" monitors (one's a CRT), a 14"x14" graphics tablet, largish bookshelf speakers, and room to eat on this thing.
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RolandDGA sells their ink for about $130 for a half liter. If he doesnt mind cutting his own paper, thats the cheapest ink ive ever seen. Downside of course is the printers start at $13,000 :p
> what has your experience been with inkjet All-in-Ones as far as TCO goes?"
Three words:
Avoid, avoid, avoid.
If you print more than about a page a day, get a cheap used black and white laser printer on eBay. I got a used LaserJet 6P on eBay over two years ago, and so far I have replaced the toner cartridge one time. Sure, the toner cartridges are like $60 each, but they print and print and print, then print and print and print some more. The cost per page works out WAY lower.
If you must have color, then fine, keep an inkjet printer around, but ONLY use it when you MUST have color. The rest of the time use the laser printer. Using an inkjet printer when black and white will do is just a fancy way to throw money away.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Plug and play, no drilling, no mess, no chip re-setting. About $130 from here:
http://www.echostore.com/coinksy.html
I haven't tried it yet but it looks pretty good.
Oh man, I *so* agree with you there! I've owned a Lasjerjet 6P ... Ended up reselling it to a dentist who wanted a cheap used laser printer to print out dental x-rays on occasion, and bought myself another one off eBay (this time a 6MP version), for the grand total of about $35 shipped.
Toner cartridges for the 6P/6MP are often available for as little as $35 or so each, and they last me as long as a year each.
Print quality and speed are pretty good, the printer is physically fairly small, and it even has an I.R. port for wireless printing. (Pretty cool for people owning PalmPilots, because they have a little program for them to allow printing via their I.R. port.)
My 6P and 6MP both took standard 30-pin SIMMs as upgrade memory too, so no costly proprietary RAM upgrade board needed to get one up to the 68MB or so of maximum printer memory.
The 6MP has Postscript capabilities built in, by way of a card that fits in one of the 30-pin SIMM sockets, but otherwise, it's identical to a 6P. Either one of these printers worked great for me in Mac OS X, with just about any version of Windows, and with several Linux distros. I use mine with a JetDirect box to make it network capable.
On the low-end, you'll get about half the yield from ink cartridges, and so, around twice as expensive. Just look-up the page counts for the different ink cartridges from the same manufacturer.
First off, the fact that you aren't raving about how much better your new printer looks, speaks volumes.
Also, you're just comparing ink to ink. If you had a laser printer from that era, you'd see a new inkjet as a downgrade.
For one, there is no way to ever improve on text output, even from the oldest laser printers. They download the font to the printer, and print it out absolutely perfect, no pixelation at all, on the finest of details. Not to mention that the oldest laser printers still print far faster than the newest inkjets. With inkjets, they can list 30ppm on the box, but there's no way in hell you're getting anything remotely close to that. With laser printers, it may only say 6ppm, but you'll get 6 pages per minute, every time, on even the most complex printouts.
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The best machine that I know of is a Canon Pixma MP130. It does everything except faxing. But what realyl sets it apart is that it is the last Canon printer to use the older style ink tanks.
http://www.inkdaddy.com/index.php?cPath=2_186_323
Basically you are looking for any used or like new printer/new old stock model that uses the BCI-6 series tanks. These have no chip - they are just a plastic tank with ink in it(heads are separate unit). Yes, you're not seeing wrong. $2.99 for black and $3.99 for color. And that's not in bulk - which can drop the price another 50%! $27.99 for 6 black, 6 color.
It's less expensive to print in color on these machines than black and white on a typical laser printer.
http://www.inkdaddy.com/index.php?cPath=2_186_325
These are a bit more money but also work well.
With a 150-page (black) ink tank for $3, that's 2 cents/page, which is merely on-par with new, brand-name toner and fuser on your average laser printer... You can probably also get quite a deal with refilled toner cartridges and a refurbished fuser, but I haven't actually priced that out (or used laser printers for that matter).
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
The thing to note, though, is that this is less than a half and almost a tenth as expensive for color as the HP models. 3-4 cents a page for color is very frugal.
> the printer is physically fairly small
Well, it's larger than any inkjet printer I've ever seen. Most laser printers are. I consider that a minor thing, compared to the cost per page being so much lower, but nonetheless calling the LJ6P small is perhaps overselling it a bit, in a thread about inkjet printers. At a rough guess from memory I'd say it's something like twelve inches by fifteen inches by maybe nine inches tall. That's not enormous, but it's hardly tiny.
On the other hand, that larger desktop footprint buys you a paper drawer, which is nice. (There is also a page-feed mechanism, of course.) Most inkjets only have an open vertical slot for the paper.
The reason I selected the LaserJet 6P to buy on ebay for my home printing needs is because I'd seen that particular model perform already (we had two of them at work, one of which is still in service) and so had a fair idea how it would probably hold up and how many thousands of pages I could expect out of a toner cartridge.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
so why don't you do us all a favor and run a hot bath, find a razor, and slit your fucking wrists while your fucking wrists are underwater.