Ask Slashdot: Do You Print Too Little?

shanen writes: How many of you don't print much these days? What is the best solution to only printing a few pages every once in a while? Here are some dimensions of the problem...

Inexpensive printers: The cost of new printers is quite low, but how long can the printer sit there without printing before it dies? Lexmark and HP used to offer an expensive solution with integrated ink cartridges that also included new print heads, but... Should I just buy a cheap Canon or Epson and plan to throw it away in a couple of years, probably after printing less than a 100 pages?

Printing services: They're mostly focused on photos, but there are companies where you can take your data for printing. My main concerns here are actually with the costs and the tweaks. Each print is expensive because you are covering their overhead way beyond the cost of the printing itself. Also, most of the time my first print or three isn't exactly what I want. It rarely comes out perfectly on paper the first time.

Social printing: For example, are any of you sharing one printer with your neighbors via Wi-Fi? Do you just sneak a bit of personal printing onto a printer at your office? Do you travel across town to borrow your brother-in-law's printer?

Comments

What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Gaygirlie]

A laser-printer. I mean, the powder doesn't dry, it won't clog the nozzles and it's useable even 10 years later.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[omnichad]

and it's useable even 10 years later.

And that's not even just the hardware if you make sure it speaks an industry-standard language like PCL. No worries of the OS dropping support when it's a 5 years old.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[AvitarX]

This.

A networked, pcl/ps laser printer. A color one can be had for not too much now (don't know the specific, the one I use is black and white and was $200 ten or so years ago).

It should be good for a looooong time with no maintenance (5000 or so prints before toner runs out).

The extra money vs an ink jet will be well worth not needing to worry about drivers (for basic printing no drivers will be needed (or more accurately generic PCL will work)), no worrying about dead cartridges with months of non use. No worry about interface (I suspect Ethernet will remain backwards compatible for a long time).

The only caveat I'd give is that if you want to print photos or on heavier paper, an inkjet is a better solution.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Greyfox]

Very much this. I got a cheap color laser printer for $300 a couple of years ago and it's perfect. I'll let it sit for 6 or 8 months at a time and it'll still quite happily print something the moment I fire it up. Toner's about in the same ballpark as inkjet ink and I get a very reasonable number of pages out of it, even when doing a fairly high volume of pages and photos.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[xfade551]

I went this way a couple years back as I got tired of spending ~$40 on print cartridges (because the old ones were dry) every time I wanted to print something (maybe 3-4 times a year, these days). Also, with a laser print out you can do a toner transfer from paper to other media, which enables you to make masks for hobby projects like custom printed circuit boards or artistic wood burning (pyrography).

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[darkain]

Exactly this. I manage a business that has a whole fleet of HP LaserJet 2100 printers manufactured between 1998 and 1999. There is still 100% fully supported drivers by HP For Windows 10 in both 32bit and 64bit environments. All of the printers were upgraded with the optional JetDirect network card ($10 or less on eBay usually), so they just connect to the network and just WORK. The toner cartridge and print head are one in the same, so replacing toner is basically replacing the majority of the components within the printer.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[AndyKron]

I've got an old B/W laser that works on toner that's close to twenty years old.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[dunkelfalke]

This is what I thought. Unfortunately after five years of sitting around the one of the colours stopped working completely, the other three printed with a lot of specks (HP Laserjet Color PC1515n). Now, after another five years of not using it I can either buy new cartridges (refill won't do because apparently the drums have suffered from all the accumulated dust) or I can buy a new printer.

So while a laser printer is certainly better than a inkjet for this use case, it is not nearly as perfect as you think it is. It should print at least a couple of times a year.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Sarten-X]

I was going to say all the same things, but I guess just "me too" will suffice.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[sevenisloud]

I bought a HP laser printer in 2004, but I rarely used it. Last year I donated it (sold it for a nominal fee) to my workplace to go in some silly photo booth machine that runs Windows 98. That printer's still working now.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[mspohr]

I have an HP LJ 4L printer which I bought new in 1992. I put a new cartridge in it ($10) every year or two and it just keeps printing as good as the day it was new.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Provocateur]

Agreed; and he said LASER Printer. Not Laserjet nor inkjet wannabes.

We're talking laser here, newbies. As in

Bond: Do you expect me to talk?

Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!

*THAT* kind of "up-his-crown jewels" death ray laser.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[gweihir]

Same here. Laser (or rather usually LED these days) is the solution. Reliable, fast and does not mind sitting idle or off for long periods of time.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Miamicanes]

I'm surprised nobody in China (or even the US, since we're STILL pretty competitive for low-volume manufacturing) has started cranking out laser printers with copies of the 1990s-era LaserJet print engine. The patents have all expired, printing technology has gone basically nowhere in 20 years, and old LaserJet consumables are basically commodities by now. The HOME market for printers like this might be small, but small & medium-sized businesses (especially those who print a LOT) and schools would LOVE printers that cost a few hundred bucks, but had almost zero consumables cost.

Worst-case, they'd have to get ISO to codify the consumables for the print engine & give a non-Trademarked name to PCL or PostScript, so they could advertise their standard-compliance without risking a lawsuit for Trademark-infringement.

They could probably even start by giving the printer a "dumb" framebuffer, then do all the rendering/rasterization logic & printserver in a RasPi. So you'd buy the USB-interfaced dumb-framebuffer printer, and pair it with your own Pi-based printserver running GhostScript.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[godel_56]

Yes, if you must have a printer, its laser printer FTW.

One of the alleged features of my old Epson inkjet printers was 6 individual ink cartridges. In theory, you only replace the colors you need. In reality, even if you never print anything other than plain black text, your color cartridges will still go empty because, guess what, all colors mixed together equals black.

Usually you can go into the printer driver and tick "B&W Only" and the printer will just use the black cartridge. However I'm also a proud B&W laser printer owner.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[harrkev]

The toner cartridge and print head are one in the same

Wait. When did laser printers start using a print head?

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[networkBoy]

that last bit is a total non-starter.
No one is going to make a RasPi science fair project into a shipping product.

That said, the rest of your post is spot on.
reuse the older print tech for the LJ2100 or even the LJ4000 (I *think* that one is out of patent, not sure). Produce the printer for $200-$300 and make the consumables en masse. I think that HPGL is open, and likely a PS implementation would be pretty dang cheap.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[networkBoy]

My recent AIO Samsung color laser was $700 on sale (normally $1k).
Full CMYK toner refresh was $450. I print 20mm dungeon tiles often and get pretty decent output counts per toner refill.

Bit steep for a home user to be sure, but it is also a scanner (which I use way more often than I print) and a fax (a what now?)
For a SOHO it's a slam dunk.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[networkBoy]

My first laser was a xerox. I finally tossed it when I couldn't get it to play nice with a USB to parallel port converter. Bought it in 96? Never had a single issue, no matter how much or little I printed, nor how long between prints.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[networkBoy]

if it's not going to be used for that long between prints then a dust cover is a must.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[reboot246]

Ditto.

I used to print photos at home years ago, but for the past several years I just upload everything to smugmug.com at FULL resolution and when I want a print I just order whatever size I need from them. The prints are much better quality than you'd find at a local store.

I still have an inkjet printer and I use it sometimes to print things for work, but 99.9% of my printing at home is on an old b/w laser printer.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Dayze!Confused]

I picked up my Brothers Laser printer for just over $100 brand new for school. I've printed over 200 pages on the original toner and it looks to still be going strong. It does copies, scans, and has WiFi and LAN support. Unlike HP it's always just worked for printing and never required a coin flip over whether or not I'll have to reinstall the drivers (granted that was their OfficeJet ink printers). What are you adding to it that costs another $100-$200?

My friend has the previous generation of the same printer which he has used through two XL cartridges and is still going strong. The internal drum is rated for 10,000 sheets, which he might need to replace with his next thing of toner.

The model I got: DCP-L2540DW

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[ottothecow]

200 pages?

That's like a day in the life of an office LJ4000. GP poster did say the home market would be limited, but there's still a strong market for workgroup printers.

And those old laserjets don't really have any driver issues like other posters have mentioned. They aren't some crappy $79 special home inkjet printers.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[tlhIngan]

I'm surprised nobody in China (or even the US, since we're STILL pretty competitive for low-volume manufacturing) has started cranking out laser printers with copies of the 1990s-era LaserJet print engine. The patents have all expired, printing technology has gone basically nowhere in 20 years, and old LaserJet consumables are basically commodities by now.

The problem is a print engine consists of two pieces - there's the mechanical bits that handle the paper and the drum and the other little things involved with printing, and more importantly, there's all the software behind it. And that's the tricky part - the software behind the print engine controls when the motors turn on and off, the sequencing of the motors, the laser itself, and all sorts of other real-time tasks. And each engine is slightly different enough that it always needs to be tweaked for each engine design. Now, they used to run on microcontrollers, but modern ones run some sort of real-time OS, and the timing is generally done by busy waiting.

And all that stuff is either copyrighted, for for a processor no on e makes anymore and then has to be reverse-engineered.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[QRDeNameland]

Yep, my dad still uses his 4L with no issues. For any piece of computer technology to still be fully useful after 25 years is quite astonishing.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[JohnFen]

Depends on how often you print. Personally, I print so little that it's not worth even dedicating storage space to personally owning one.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Megane]

I have a LaserWriter IIg of which the only problem is that even though it has an Ethernet port, it only supports Appletalk printing protocols. My main printer is an Oki C5150 color laser which I use every few months and recently got the rest of the toner refills it should need for a while. I also have an old monster HP color laser that IIRC can print on tabloid size, for which one day I found a bunch of toner bottles cheap that I have never even had a chance to use.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Megane]

Not Laserjet nor inkjet wannabes.

"Laserjet" is HP's brand name for laser printers. I don't know where you got the idea it was otherwise. And any one of those with mostly square corners in its case ought to be a workhorse.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[MightyYar]

The "drum" if that makes you happy - the part that touches the paper and wears out or gets fouled.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no need. There are still millions of functional HP laser printers out there. There is a huge market for replacement toner cartridges, so that is what everyone makes.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Muros]

I have an HP LJ 4L printer which I bought new in 1992. I put a new cartridge in it ($10) every year or two and it just keeps printing as good as the day it was new.

The entire range of Laserjet 4 printers from HP was awesome. I used to "repair" them back in the day when printers weren't considered to be below my paygrade, and that pretty much consisted of fuser and pickup roller replacements.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[GrandCow]

I've been using the same printer, and even the same cartridge, since 2008. I print very little. I would have gone through 10 sets of inkjet cartridges or more due to them drying out by now.

Spend the extra few bucks on a laser.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[belg4mit]

Note that if it sits too long without printing (years), the drum in the toner cartridge exposed to the toner will change and you can end up with faint horizontal banding as well as darker vertical streaks. This has happened to my Xerox XP12, but would be solved by purchasing a new cartridge, rather than sticking with the one I have/using toner refill kits on such a low-use device.

Frankly though, walking to the UPS store is less of a hassle.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[ElizabethGreene]

Mod parent up. I've had an HP LaserJet 6p for a decade now, and it was used for who knows how long when I got it. I've put one toner cartridge for it in that time and it just works.

I would have paid for the full retail cost of this printer at three times over in ink cartridges in that same time period.

If you don't use an inkjet a lot the cartridges rot. Laser printer master race.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[ElizabethGreene]

Both HP and Brother make decent <$200 laser printers with cheap consumables that don't suck.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Bert64]

Same too, i print occasionally and use a laserjet 4100 bought on ebay with a full toner cartridge for less than what a single new toner costs.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Applehu Akbar]

Laser printers, even color ones, are cheap enough these days for anyone who needs good professional output without having to go through the inkjet cycle of cursing/running the Clean utility/cursing/running the Deep Clean utility every time you want a few pages.

If your needs are more plebeian and monochrome only and you don't mind Snapfishing all your photos, there's the HP 1102W. It even supports Apple AirPrint. The only downside for this application is that occasional pages randomly take fifteen minutes of formatting time before they print.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[gsilver0]

I can attest to a good laser printer lasting 10+ years with light use. I bought a Brother brand laser printer back in collage a good decade ago (I feel old now...) and it's still kicking. Neatly tucked away in a closet but hooked up to the network, so it's both out of sight, as well as still able to print a few pages when the need arises.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[eth1]

I'm surprised nobody in China (or even the US, since we're STILL pretty competitive for low-volume manufacturing) has started cranking out laser printers with copies of the 1990s-era LaserJet print engine.

Yeah... those things never actually die, as far as I can tell. I used to work for a school that had some HP LJ 6MPs in the lab. By the time I got there, they'd already done 17 squillion pages, but were perfectly fine - just slow. The slowness led to them getting replaced (in about 2004), at which time I offered to buy one to take home. They said "just take it." I still have it, and it works perfectly, with the same toner cartridge that was in there when it was retired from the lab at school. It will still be printing come doomsday.

Only problems I've ever had with it are that it only has a parallel port, which is getting really damn inconvenient to deal with, and it's short on memory, which leads to the occasional inability to print something.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Spazmania]

Not really. A $10 raspberry pi zero W runs Ghostscript just fine.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[arglebargle_xiv]

I always buy ex-business/lease printers for the friends&family support network. They're built like tanks, run forever, and a single toner cartridge will run for 5-10,000 pages, a lifetime supply for most people. Since they're ex-business/lease they've been maintained, and you can get them for $20-50 for a formerly $1,000 printer.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[TheRaven64]

I doubt there's a market. I can buy a colour laser printer with an integrated scanner and photocopier mode for around £100 (I did a few years ago, but then I stored it at my mother's house when I moved and she decided she wanted to keep it). To consider a black and white one instead, it would have to cost under £50 and at that price it's hard to see the manufacturer breaking even.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[TheRaven64]

Only problems I've ever had with it are that it only has a parallel port, which is getting really damn inconvenient to deal with, and it's short on memory, which leads to the occasional inability to print something.

I had a Borther knock-off that had similar issues (combined with a 50MHz MIPS processor, which made page rendering very slow. It was a lot faster if you printed PCL than PostScript (though not always very fast, for complex PCL). I eventually solved both problems by connecting it to an old machine to act as a print server and configuring lpd to turn everything submitted into simple pre-rasterised PCL. These days, a cheap SBC with a USB to parallel adaptor would be able to do the same thing for a much lower power cost.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[TheRaven64]

I bought a Dell-branded all-in-one colour printer for a little over £100 7-8 years ago. The scanner function is a bit hit and miss (it sometimes produces PDFs that crash every PDF viewer I try them in) but it works great for printing. I probably wouldn't trust it for high-volume printing, but for intermittent home use it's great. It will happily sit for a month or two without printing anything and then print a hundred copies of something.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[TheRaven64]

You might want to read the rest of the post. He's implying that a proper laser printer is one that you can use to print a line through your enemies with.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[serviscope_minor]

I'm surprised nobody in China (or even the US, since we're STILL pretty competitive for low-volume manufacturing) has started cranking out laser printers with copies of the 1990s-era LaserJet print engine.

I do't think there'd be any point. The thing is those printers were EXPENSIVE.

You can buy a more expensive printer today and get excellent performance and reliability. I went through several cheap printers and almost abandoned printers in disgust.

No affiliation except for a happy customer: I scoured reviews and found that of all the printers, Brother had the least negative reviews. It didn't get the higest praise but no one ever complaied of it breaking. So I looked into it and was kind of shocked to see it cost more than the others in the class for worse specs (slower speed, etc).

I looked back and forth between the reviews and the price and eventually went with it on the grounds that I wanted a working printer and maybe you had to pay for the reliability.

Can't say it was a bad choice. It's kind of creepy. Every time I tell it to print, paper with stuff on comes out. After years of being trained by bad printers, I still get a sinking feeling every time I try to print, and it actually working every time is unexpected and strange.

In hindsight, I remember there's always been a band of brothers here who strongly advocate for the brand and it appears I've joined their ranks.

ive a non-Trademarked name to PCL or PostScript,

They call it "BrotherScript" or some such.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[jellomizer]

Exactly we just need standard laser printers that support PCL or postscript.
They can be cheap for b&w.

I was able to setup a set of diverse laser printers sets all supported pcl with the hp laserjet 4 driver.

We really don’t need cheap inkjet because they are just too expensive in a low print world.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[mikael]

As long as no first year students try and refill the toner with coffee, a laser printer will last years.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[mikael]

Laser printers use a laser to create an electro-static charge on a metal drum. This drum then attracts the ink which is then heated and applied to the paper.
It replaces the need for having hundreds of people to do the manual type-setting of metal letters onto metal drums, lithography and stripping of the metalwork afterwards.

The UK had the Wapping Street riots because the unions had refused to modernize for years, and literally overnight found themselves replaced by word processors and commercial laser printers.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[thsths]

This.

You can get a decent one with about 1000 pages of toner for very little money. Of course it is only black & white, but given the hassle free nature of it, that is a trade off I am happy to live with.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[thsths]

There are way around that. Sun used to sell a "dumb" laser print, that was connected as a video device. It used the same logic as a monitor, just with a lower refresh rate: scanning the picture pixel by pixel in real time. Of course it was discontinued soon, but there is support for it in Ghostscript.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Distortions]

Yep. I bought a cheap ($150) printer, ($120 if you get a refurb) black and white laser printer/scanner/fax/etc.
Problem solved.

Toner is super cheap ($50) and lasts a very long time(2500 pages).
It connects via WiFi or ethernet and everything is good.

Set it up with a static IP though
(not hard, you can do it on the printer itself).

Mac/Win and drivers still struggle with the IP changing...

Even on this cheap printer, I'm able to print from my iPhone.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[omnichad]

parallel port, which is getting really damn inconvenient to deal with,

Shouldn't be too hard to turn that into a wireless printer with either an OTS print server or a small board computer mounted on the back.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[tbuskey]

I have a brother printer from ~2001 that is still working. I recently got another brother that does color and uses less electricity. The power savings will pay for the new printer and I got a color upgrade.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[jabuzz]

So get on eBay and get a JetDirect card for it. A quick look shows one going for $5. Oh and while your at it some extra RAM and you will be fine for even complex pages. These printers are good for at least one million pages.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[jabuzz]

At which point you just buy a maintenance kit. That's assuming you brought a suitable laser printer in the first place. My old LaserJet 5L is still doing sterling service at the local sailing club some 21 years later. Sure it needed the rollers and pickup replacing but that was about 13 years ago, and at one point fairly early on I did buy the 4MB RAM upgrade and these days it is hooked up via a USB to parallel lead, but every week it reliably prints out a few sheets.

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[apoc.famine]

Very much this. I got a cheap color laser printer for $300 a couple of years ago and it's perfect. I'll let it sit for 6 or 8 months at a time and it'll still quite happily print something the moment I fire it up.

Ditto. Got a wireless Brother HL series printer, and while it gets used closer to every month or two, same thing. The deep sleep draws 8 Watts, so 8*24/1000 = 0.2 kWh/day, at $0.11/ kWh means it costs me $0.67/month to have it on standby, ready to warm up and print in 30 seconds when I decide that I need to print something from another room in the house.

Toner's about in the same ballpark as inkjet ink...

And here is where I'll pedantically disagree with you. If you let an inkjet set 6-8 months at a time, it likely costs you $60 in ink every time you want to print. Every two times at the most. This is where the color laser really shines. 3 years later it fires up and prints using that same toner that it had back then, no drying, clogging, or loss of performance.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[Dogers]

What used model was this?

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[pnutjam]

yeah, I have an old Dell 1600n which has been unsupported since Windows XP. It works fine in Linux and I just use a driver for an HP laserjet 4100 or something similar in Windows 10.

Bonus, I can scan from my linux console.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[pnutjam]

Yeah, a cheap $100 brother laser is the way to go for home printers. Don't bother with color, just do that at work or at a photo shop.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[pnutjam]

Grab a jetdirect off ebay. They are dirt cheap. I just threw 2 away since they weren't worth selling.

Here's an example, https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Je...

Re:What is the solution to printing rarely?

[ananamouse]

I am an old fuddy greybeard and I use cursive and preferablly a '30s vintage Parker with a 14k gold nib. Be careful of using Noodlers Ink in your vintage stuff; I learned the hard way.
When I do have to print I generally use Orator font.

My Dad took a writing class and had the most beautiful Palmer runes.

Re: What is the solution to printing rarely?

[TheRaven64]

1355, not sure what the option was. I couldn't make it print from anything not Windows / Mac (apparently it can work with Linux with some futzing), but it could print PDFs from SMB or FTP shares (or a USB stick), so in the worst case you can print to PDF and make the printer print that. The model I got only had wired Ethernet support, but there's a version with WiFi.

B&W Laser

[omnichad]

If you only print once or twice a month, the printhead will dry out. And buying anything with printheads built into the cartridge will still cost almost as much to resolve when dried out as a new printer. Go for a black and white laser. Printing services for anything else.

I print just enough with my inkjet to be OK.

Re:B&W Laser

[Major_Disorder]

I came here to say exactly this.
B&W laser for most printing, and anything that needs to be colour send it out to be printed.

Laser printers can sit a long time

[Slugster]

If you don't get much, get yourself a cheaper black-only laser printer. There's some for ~$100 now if you shop around. The problem with inkjets is that the print heads dry out and clog if you don't use it regularly. And if you do use it regularly, then the ink cartridges cost a lot.

Don't get me wrong, inkjet printers are fantastic for some purposes--but they are rather expensive to maintain.

Re:Laser printers can sit a long time

[Higaran]

You can even get a color one for ~$200, which is not that horrible of a price, I remember when cheap inkjets used to be that much.

Re:Laser printers can sit a long time

[Megane]

The only problem with color laser printers is that they won't give photo-quality prints. Many years ago I tried to get my mom to use a color laser, and she hated it because it didn't have that 600dpi resolution. So she kept using clunky old inkjets that needed new cartridges every 3 or 4 months whether you used them or not, and "cleaning" seemed to use about a quarter tank of ink. Meanwhile, I weaned myself from printing during the 200x decade, and hardly print anything at all now unless it really needs to be a printed document.

Re:Laser printers can sit a long time

[antdude]

What about in colors? ;)

Re:Laser printers can sit a long time

[shanen]

I think this is the best summary I've seen of the overall discussion. Or at least it seems to capture my sense of the reading (halfway so far, but I'm continuing). The main thing I'd add is that I'm still a bit concerned about how a laser printer will handle thicker paper, such as business card stock. (If I ever got a mod point, I'd mod you [Megane (eyeglasses in Japanese?)] up.

I read part of the discussion before leaving this morning, and stopped by an electronics store on my way home. They did have two low-end color laser printers around 200 bucks and black only for half that. I still think I want the pretty colors... I guess I also have some concern about low-end versus the other laser printers, but I tend to think most of that is speed, and I avoid printing in a hurry. (In a real hurry, emailing a PDF or other file is hard to beat.)

Re:Laser printers can sit a long time

[TheRaven64]

Not sure why you think that. The cheap colour laser I bought 6-7 years ago did 1200dpi.

Re:Laser printers can sit a long time

[tbuskey]

If you need photo quality and print often, an inkjet could be worth getting.

If you don't print photos that often, you can use an online service or bring a USB stick to many places that will print on demand. No issues with paying to clear up dried ink and the quality can be quite good.

If you're a photography geek, you can't manipulate the printing as much, but you're probably not letting the ink dry either.

Re:Laser printers can sit a long time

[jabuzz]

Don't know I would recommend taking a USB stick anywhere. If you have a service like that burn a CD/DVD.

Re:Laser printers can sit a long time

[Megane]

Not sure why you think it was that recent. I'm talking about 15 or so years ago.

Re:Laser printers can sit a long time

[TheRaven64]

I assumed you were making a comment about recent printers because you used the present tense when you said 'The only problem with color laser printers is that they won't give photo-quality prints'. If your post had started 'The only problem with color laser printers is that 15 years ago they didn't give photo-quality prints' then I'd have read it very differently, but then it wouldn't have been making much of a point.

Laser, all the way

[Octorian]

Seriously, just get a cheap laser printer, throw it in a corner somewhere, and don't worry about it. They even make small cheap ones.

Ink jets dry out over time, and the ink costs more than the printer itself.
Laser toner basically lasts forever, and can print far more pages. As a bonus, its easier to find laser printers with longer-lived interface protocols.

Social printing

[freddej]

I guesd it depends on where you live; here in Sweden it's fairly common that libraries has printers and copiers where you can print for a few cents per copy. Just bring it o a memory stick or so.

Re:Social printing

[chill]

United States, too. At home I just opted for an old, HP Laserjet 2300n and I expect it to outlive me. Whenever I travel, or am visiting my parents, I just go to the library with a USB drive and print.

Why buy?

[TechyImmigrant]

That's what the office printer is for.

Re:Why buy?

[Kjella]

That's what the office printer is for.

I agree, if you're the kind of person who really prints so rarely your ink printer is clogged up every time then I'd say any boss that doesn't let you do that is a fool. If you have an absolute zero tolerance policy on using any company equipment for any non-job related duty whatsoever you're probably pissing away tenfold in productivity trying to save a few cents here and there. I mean I have heard rumors of places where office supply theft is rampant, but every time I think like "Your employees are malcontents and thieves who probably shirk as much work as possible, but staplers and paperclips are your biggest problems?"

Re:Why buy?

[AmiMoJo]

Some companies explicitly allow personal printing. It's environmentally responsible, as it means fewer printers and wasted ink/toner.

Re:Why buy?

[cascadingstylesheet]

Some companies explicitly allow personal printing. It's environmentally responsible, as it means fewer printers and wasted ink/toner.

Why not; it's a cheap benefit as long as the employee isn't running a print business on the side.

Stop using inkjets

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a laser printer, they can sit around for years in-between prints and will keep working just fine.

laser is what

[rriven]

Get laser, toner does not have this problem.

i got a b/w laser printer for $30 on sale once.

for about $150 - 250 you can get a color laser.

the ink savings alone are worth it.

No I print just the right amount

[redmid17]

I have a multi-function printer that scans/copies/prints. I rarely use it. Maybe one a month or so. By far the biggest thing I use it for is concert tickets I can't bring up on my phone. In a distance second is printing something out to sign and send back to some entity who doesn't know what digital signatures are.

My solution

[markdavis]

I had this problem, not printing enough. I scan more often than printing. After the last in a series of color HP inkjet printers died, I had enough. Enough of the exorbitant ink prices, "expiring" cartridges, clogged printheads, inability to print in black if some stupid "light cyan" is too low, having to clear error messages all the time about the ink is too old or too low or whatever....

I bought a multifunction Brother MFC-L2740DW and have not looked back. Laser printer, black and white. It just works. The toner lasts forever and never expires. It works with third-party cartridges just fine. The pages print quickly with almost no "warm up" time and the ink doesn't smear and is waterproof. And on top of that, Linux support was excellent, and it has a myriad of useful features (even a color touchscreen and autonomous PDF creation). Double-sided printing, fax (how quaint), TWO SIDED scanning in one pass, ADF, and all for under $300!

So if you can live without color, jump to a networked B&W laser printer and don't look back.

Inactivity ink waste

[Dorianny]

Inexpensive printers: The cost of new printers is quite low, but how long can the printer sit there without printing before it dies? Most every inkjet printer has a function which will flush a little ink to keep the head from clogging when not used regularly. You just must remember to not leave it powered off accidentally. According to tests Lexmark and HP use up quite a bit of ink for this process. Brother printers wasted the least ink during periods of inactivity

papyrus

[Anonymous Coward]

For those rare times I ever need to print anything anymore I hand cut and beat papyrus over a rock until it's nice and flat. Then scroll the desired text using squid ink and feather quills.

Look, this is not that hard and hardly /. worthy. Must be s slow news day...

Forget about cheap inkjet printers. If you only use them occasionally you'll find the print heads dried up and useless every time you have a print emergency. Get a cheap laser printer (they really are cheaper now). Un-plug it when you're not using it to save power. It'll last a life time and pay for itself many times in printing costs over that lifetime.

Re:papyrus

[msauve]

You started out on the right track, but then went to laser printers.

An Epson MX-80 is what he wants - the ribbons take years to dry out.

Re:papyrus

[shanen]

I'd give you the funny mod if I ever got a mod point. However, my first printer beats your Epson MX-80. I can't remember the brand name, but it was a dot-matrix thermal paper printer.

My second or third printer was a Brother with two daisy wheels. One was for the italic font, and I think it was so fancy as to have a red ribbon for two colors, too. Good experience with that one, but my second Brother printer (after a long gap filled with various other printers) was a huge disappointment. This discussion has me reconsidering the brand. The Brother color laser was substantially less expensive and smaller than the Canon offering...

I also remember a TI printer that was a pretty good workhorse. Also several HPs, which were mostly pretty good, except for the ink cartridge problems that caused me to ask the question that way... (These days HP seems to have disappeared locally as far as the stores are concerned, so I'm not even seeing it as an option.)

Yup I print too little...

[Freischutz]

I make very few attempts to print hardcopies of documents these days and when I do the printer usually develops some problem. I am now pondering the hypothesis that printers are malevolent sentient robots who don't like me and pretend to break down every time I try to print a hardcopy of anything at all

Re:Yup I print too little...

[shanen]

My joke along these lines was that there hasn't been a good printer since Benjamin Franklin died. Today's printers are spawn of Satan and only exist to mangle as much paper as you can feed them.

Having said that, there seems to be a strong consensus in the discussion in favor of a laser printer. I didn't mention that I definitely want color, and I should also have mentioned that I print on various kinds and sizes of paper, but the overall discussion has definitely convinced me to take a close look at the current color laser printer options.

Another consensus around inkjets jamming, but the HP printing insurance program was interesting

Kind of surprised there were so few reactions related to photo-printing places. Now I'm wondering why the Slashdot folk don't roll that way...

Also no mention (so far) of out-of-production models? When I used to sell computer stuff, I sure thought that was where the best values lay.

The library idea was another good lead to look into. I'm something of a connoisseur of libraries. Even wrote a blog comparing over 20 library systems with something like 200 branches... But I've never investigated whether they have printers with the copiers.

Out of time, but generalized thanks for all your thoughtful comments, and I'll read more when I get back...

Buy a cheap B&W laser

[seoras]

I bought an HP LaserJet P1102w mid-2014, which sits on my desk and is rarely ever used, for about $150
I just went to see how much it cost today and they've doubled in price. I wonder if it's because sales volume have dropped so much?

Anyway with the laser it's a powder not a liquid like inkjet so it doesn't dry out over time if left unused.
I've replace the toner once in the time I've had it (which was roughly 3/4 the cost of the printer itself)

I'm struggling to remember what I use it for. Mostly things my kids want printed out.
Their favourite colouring in picture which I've scanned from it's book - yeah I'm cheap. :)
Oh, I just remembered! I printed my tickets, after booking online, for "The Last Jedi" last week. ;)

Colour Laser

[AirFrame]

Best purchase I've made in a long time is a Brother MFC-9340CDW. Duplex full-colour printing when I need it, with the bonus of double-sided scanning and copying. I've used the sheet feeder on the scanner more times than I can count, and I never pause to think whether to print in black and white or draft mode... I just print. Two years in on the original toner cartridges and haven't got a low toner message yet.

Inkjets are for people who want to line Epson or HP's pockets with money to pay for dried out ink cartridges.

Re:Colour Laser

[serviscope_minor]

High 5 to the brother fanboy!

Best purchase I've made in a long time is a Brother MFC-9340CDW.

HL3170CDW here (color laser double sided).

no

[Tablizer]

No. Next question?

The office

[AuMatar]

I print about 3 or 4 pages a year, in a big year. Not worth owning a printer. In an emergency, I'll go to FedEx.

Linux Supported Laser Models?

[crunchygranola]

I am running Linux Mint 17.2 (i.e. the lastest), anyone know if there are driver problems with these cheap laser printers?

Re:Linux Supported Laser Models?

[sconeu]

Running both Ubuntu 16.04 and Mageia 5. Zero problems with my Brother HL-2270DW

Why not do both?

[R.Mo_Robert]

Get a small mono laser printer for the occasional job at home. I'm not sure why the submitter seems to have forgotten that these exist--the "drying out" problem is unique to inkjets. There are several lasers under $100 USD (e.g., the Brother HL-L2300D) and even the starter toner will probably last years if you print so infrequently. (Though I'd probably opt for an MFD myself so I can get a scanner, too--comes in handy.)

Then, if you do want to print photos or fancy color, etc., use a service. Maybe even test a B&W draft at home first now that you can. This is what I did before I bought a color laser printer (again not too expensive, though if I printed more often the toner would probably get me).

Last printed something

[bobstreo]

About 2 years ago. I went to the library with a memory stick. Cost about $,.50 for all my printing needs.

Back in the day, paper was cheaper than storage, Now I just copy things to my phone or tablet or laptop I don't use paper unless I'm starting a fire...

Re:Last printed something

[michiganbob]

I don't use paper unless I'm starting a fire...

And there's always plenty of junk mail for that...

Brother Laser printer

[enigmatichmachine]

I have the HL-L2300D or whatever the equivalent was from 8 years ago. I've run ~1500 pages of boarding passes, tickets, tax forms and whatnot through it. haul it out of the closet, plug it in to any computer, and it will have drivers, it will print what you want and not bother you.

I suspect it will last forever. Oh, and it was $45 when I bought it. keep an eye out for sales.

Re:Brother Laser printer

[serviscope_minor]

I second the Brother laser printer.

I bought one. It had the lowest specs for the highest price in the class.

It's uncanny, though. Every time I tell it to print, it prints. No problems ever. This is an experience that I find kind of creepy becaue it seems so unusual.

But seriously, get a PS Brother laser printer. And don't cheap out, it's not worth it. The thing that swung me was the lack of negative reviews. No one ever seemed to complain that Brother's break.

Brother laser printers

[Hal_Porter]

I got one of these

https://www.which.co.uk/review...

It's a laser so the it doesn't have the problem of the ink drying out like my old HP multifunction color inkjet. It prints and scans with my Windows 7 machine, my Mac and my Android devices. The toner cartridges are cheap and last 1000 pages.

The only downside is that, unlike my old HP inkjet it doesn't do color. But, realistically, how many times do you need that? And if I did I could get printed somewhere else.

Basically don't buy an inkjet - they cost a fortune in ink cartridges if you only use them infrequently. Buy a cheap mono laser printer or a mono laser multifunction device if you do a lot of scanning.

Dot matrix all the way

[j2.718ff]

My dad has a side business, and he uses a dot matrix printer for the invoices. He's been using the same printer for over 25 years, and I believe he's on his second printer ribbon. The printing isn't very dark, but it's perfectly readable.

Re:Dot matrix all the way

[kschendel]

Oddly enough, the purchase price on a dot-matrix like the classic Okidata 320 is likely to be higher than a cheapo monochrome laser printer. If you keep it long enough, the dot-matrix might be cheaper to run overall. For minimum hassle with connectivity, drivers, etc I'd go with the cheap laser.

For very infrequent usage, inkjets are a non-starter.

UPS Store. Kinkos. Etc.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Your local "print shop" or shipping store will print stuff from one page to hundreds. I use them all the time.

All my prints are too little!

[BobC]

I have a tiny 3D printer (101Hero).

Second this

[rsilvergun]

buy a Brother printer. They're boxy but good. Oh, and you can get the toner carts for $10 bucks if you buy off brand and they work fine. For the once a year I need color I spend $5 bucks getting it printed on the color laser at Kinkos.

Re:Second this

[secPM_MS]

I have been using Brother workgroup printers for years. I will go long times without printing, and then print 60 page double sided docs. The printers are relatively cheap - and fast. And they are cheap to run. My current version eats full reams of paper. Even the Brother cartridges work out to about $.01 per side of print, and the no-name cartridges are far cheaper.

toner

[AndyKron]

I bought a printer with toner that doesn't dry out.

e waste

[Anonymous Coward]

e waste i.e. throw away printers, monitor and the like end up in dumps in Asia where people melt them down for gold and poison themselves. Just create a cron job or calendar event remind you to 'exercise' your printer once a month. I have three and use one on a regular basis. The other two are an office application, scanner, fax copier, and color printer and one that prints well on CD and DVDs. I exercise them also.

$2/page

[kwelch007]

If you're spending $200 on a printer every couple of years, and only printing 100 or so pages during its lifetime, that's $2/page. Kinkos is probably looking like a cheaper alternative.

Re:$2/page

[Anonymous Coward]

While Kinkos sounds like a good option based on that price, if Kinkos is a 10 minute trip away and out of the 100 pages you print, they are all either individual pages or in the series of 'print, look, modify parameters, repeat' where you would have to go there each time, the time savings alone (let alone gas/bus fare) would make owning worth it.

Laser printer

[NeoMorphy]

As others have pointed out, inkjet printers have issues with infrequent use. Laser printer toner doesn't have this problem.

Laser printers are also a lot faster. When you are in a hurry, the inkjet printers are way too slow. You don't have to worry about moisture causing your printouts to run. It's great for UPS labels, concert tickets, and boarding passes.

When pricing printers, remember to look at the cost of replacing ink/toner cartridges.

No need for a printer

[Jack9]

Anything I need I can either photo with my phone and send or get printed at FedEx Office from Washington State to New York to Florida to Southern California. A printer is a waste of money and space, unless you are a business.

According to Betteridge, the answer is no.

[sconeu]

n/t

I use Staples

[gurps_npc]

It's within walking distance of my place, costs $0.13 cents a page to print black and white. A printer would be more than $100, so that's about 700 pages before it ceases to be cost effective. I print less than 100 pages a year. If I bought a printer it would take 7 years to recoup my investment. Not including paper and ink costs.

If I ever have to print more than 100 pages at one time, then I would buy a printer. But as long as I am printing on average 20 pages a month, I use staples.

buy an old laser printer

[steak]

I currently have a laserjet 4050 and print 5 or less pages a day. I haven't changed the toner since at least 2010.

Re:Laser

[Myself]

I bought a $200 color laser almost a decade ago. Most of what I do is black-and-white, shipping labels and such (bonus: toner doesn't smear when it gets damp), but it's also great for occasional flyers, reference charts, and other items that benefit from color. I've replaced the black cartridge once, I'm on the original CMY cartridges, and it's just a quiet little box that sits in the corner, unplugged until I need it to reduce standby power consumption.

The drivers situation is a little stupid, given that it's a Samsung instead of an HP, but now Samsung has sold their printer business to HP so who knows what the next update may bring.

None

[nospam007]

Social printing:
Printing services:

I involves getting up from the couch and putting something on other than underwear, so no.

Inexpensive printers:

Get a refurbished iPad (if you haven't one already) and print to a PDF.
This is the 3. millennium after all.

LaserJet 1000

[ruddk]

I bought a LaserJet 1000 many years ago(17?) an I finally cleaned out the closet space this year and got rid of the printer. It still worked, it was still on it's first toner, but the onboard processor was emulated in the software driver and was discontinued after Windows XP so getting it to work seemed impossible(/not worth the time) and it would not just accept PCL because of that.
So I think they answer is, yes I don't print much. :D

Colour laser printer ftw

[viperidaenz]

A few years ago I bought a colour laser network Brother printer.
Prints good
Hasn't broken down
No ink to dry out
Cheap printer
Cheap toner
Full-duplex printing
Builtin network
Drivers for windows, mac, linux. Apparently it works on Android and iPhones too.

Re:An Inkjet with Continuous Ink System is excelle

[viperidaenz]

Except this is an article about people who don't print enough to stop an inkjet printer from drying out.

Toner/wax printer

[guruevi]

These days there are plenty of options. There are "laser" printers (these days it's just LED) and there are a few Xerox wax printers. They run forever, have really cheap toner ($20/5000 pages for off-brand cartridges), often networked and really high quality prints both in text and photos. For the occasion you still want a printed photo, go to your local Walmart or any number of online printing services.

All-in-all though, I don't print very much anymore. I print perhaps some coloring pages for the kids and the odd document that I will need to present for legal reasons. I actually haven't connected my printer for about a year now.

A couple times a year

[JohnFen]

I need to print something a couple of times a year. What I do is email the document to my local copy shop, then pick it up at my convenience.

Re:UPS Store. Kinkos. Etc.

[UnknownSoldier]

Yup, this is the perfect solution for "low volume" I've done this for a "few" books.

Also, _why_ print when I have a 3840 x 2160 monitor in Portrait mode for reading (PDFs) ?

I only do hard-copy for the really important stuff.

Paper-feed rubber rollers fail

[Flu]

I dropped ink-jet printing a couple of years ago when the constant issue of clogged nozzles were superseded by paper jams caused by aging rubber rollers. I replaced it with a B/W laser printer, since I've since long realized online print-shops would produce higher quality (and larger) prints at a reasonable cost overnight. Now I'm switching to a color laser printer, since I routinely print incoming invoices for book-keeping, screendumps for temporary use etc. The cost is ~1:30 SEK/page (14€c/15$c) Since I'm renting it for 3 years, I guess I'll replace it at the end of the rental period.

Lexmark !!

[MiliusXP]

I think Lexmark are the creator of planned obsolescence.... HP still support older models than Lexmark.(Drivers are compatible with Win10 64 bits for HP PSC1315)

I only print

[Oligonicella]

My cursive isn't worth a damn.

University Surplus Later Printers

[nichogenius]

This probably doesn't apply to everyone, but I found an old (ugly beige colored) HP laser jet printer at my University's surplus store for $.25. It took a bit of cleaning on the rollers, but I just hooked it into my LAN via an ethernet cable and it works great! I literally paid 12 times for the paper for what I did for the printer and she works like a champ :)

Re:University Surplus Later Printers

[Scarletdown]

Those HP beasts are real workhorses. Got enough refilled toner cartridges for mine to last the rest of my life (unless I meet my objective of at least 108 so I can say I experienced both the U.S. Bicentennial and Tricentennial)

Print Daily

[Scarletdown]

Since I sell a lot of stuff on Etsy and eBay (2017 has been a great year for sales of various collectibles and other miscellany I deal in), I print stuff daily, except usually on the weekends when I let sales accumulate and then do my packaging and shipping on Monday. I use a networked HP LaserJet 4100 that my little brother gave me (along with enough refilled toner cartridges to last me a lifetime. I think I have only had to replace the cartridge once during the past decade I have had the printer...At least I think it has been that long).

Also have an old Kodak EasyShare photo printer hooked up to an XP box for when I want a framed color print of something. Probably about time to get this Scrooge McDuck piece finally printed out and framed for my workspace: https://cdn-ssl.s7.disneystore...

Definitely laser printer

[xushi]

Definitely laser printer - similar to what everyone else said about the advantages (lasts, doesn't dry, etc).

In addition, you can find cheaper toners, and depending on where you are, refill existing ones at a fraction of a cost.

It used to cost me ~$5 to refill mine that prints up to 4,000 pages. Yes slight less in quality but who cares... It turned out cheaper to do that and print my PDFs than to buy the soft/hardback books.

My advice, search for second hand ones on the trading sites (gumtree, trademe, or whatever).. I managed to get mine for free from someone who donated his on one of those sites.

Alternatively, if you hardly print anything and just need a few pages, just print at a mate's house, or at work..

I am Surprised People Still Print

[WindowsStar]

I am shocked and surprised that people still print. My family and friends and most of the people I have met don't print at all. Anything I have to print and I mean absolutely have to print I print to a folder I called "Virtual Printer" as a PDF. If I need that to go with me somewhere I just send it to my phone. There is no need to have a paper copy of it. If someone needs a copy I email it to them. Again this amazes me, I have been doing this for 6 years now and 3 or 4 years for everyone else. At my work we don't print at all, in fact there are no printers for the last 4 years, anything that needs to be circulated is sent by email. I really assumed printing was a thing of the past.

Ask your friends.

[DarkVader]

I haven't bought a printer in forever, I think the last one I bought was in the early '90s. I have been handed dozens over the years, I've managed to give most of them away, but I've still got quite a few. Ask around, somebody you know probably has a stack of color lasers. I know I do.

Every time I've tried to talk somebody into taking one lately, they've turned down a free printer. And we're not talking junk, the inkjets go straight to recycling, I don't even bother. Brother MFC-9840s, HP 4000s, that sort of thing I keep, but nobody wants one. I only need 4 or 5 printers myself, just so I don't have to walk to another room to pick up a printout if I feel lazy that day.

Seriously, ask around. Somebody you know probably has extras.

I too use a laser printer

[aklinux]

I avoid printing like it's the plague. I just don't want to file and store the damn paper. 98% of the time a PDF works just fine for me. I just print things out for people who insist it's still the 20th century. I have a decent HP laser I bought new about 5 years ago that I use most of the time when I'm forced to print something. I can also use my office's Minolta laser when needed.

That's what the shirt says

[mnemotronic]

I don't just print it, I wear it.

Thanx and a tip of the hat. In conclusion...

[shanen]

Very enlightening discussion. Basically I had ignored the laser printer option because I thought the upfront cost was too high and also wanted the option to print photos.

Wait, I almost never print a photo, but just send the link. Given that the low-end laser printers are so low, now I'm pretty sure I can find a really good value on a laser printer if I keep my eyes open for a few months... No rush that I know of.

Minor concerns do remain. WiFi printing from Windows 10, Mac OS, and Linux was not mentioned much. Also, not sure how much I should worry about the cartridge refill costs and long-term availability.

However, all in all there was a lot of useful information and many interesting testimonials here. My thanks to all the contributors, for what little that's worth. Gratitude and a couple of bucks can still get you a cup of coffee?

Re:Thanx and a tip of the hat. In conclusion...

[hjf]

If you want to print photos in low volumes, you can have them printed for a few cents almost anywhere, or you can buy a dedicated photo printer, such as the Canon SELPHY which uses dye sublimation, which means no liquid ink to dry up. That last bit really depends on your needs. It's a very niche market.

I have a shop, and "on the side" we print A3+ size inkjet copies. Obviously we use a CISS (Continuous Ink Supply System, in other words, external ink tanks with hoses connected to the print head), Maintenance is such a bitch. We do print something at least once a week, but sometimes the head "de-primes" and you have to spend a lot of ink re-priming the head. The amount of ink I spend re-priming a print head is more or less "one cartridge" (or about 10ml)

But then again, 1000ml of each color costs $5.

I use the library

[Titanek]

I've had to print maybe a handful of times the past decade, and in all cases it only cost me around $0.20 equivalent per page in my nations currency when I printed at the library.

Use your workplace printer

[damaki]

Unless your workplace has crazy printing policy, just use their printer for your few pages a year.
I have totally given up printing at home, because it is far too expensive, both ink and hardware, and unless you go for a laser printer, ink and printer both will not last long enough to make use of it And laser printers are not indestructible.

Is your print job really necessary?

[Gonoff]

Very few print jobs are totally recquired nowadays. This is true for work and home.

I don't need a printed memo. If it is important, the first thing I will do is scsan it for future reference, I don't need a printed letter from my bank so they send me emails or SMS, If I am going to send someone a letter, I will write it if it is personal or email it if at all possible for anything official.

Any company that does not deal with email, does not want my business. Any employer that insists on paper instead of electronic and is not CIA or MI5 type is a good one to move on from as they are embracing obsolescence.

I have the occasional difficulty persuading my Mother in Law that she does not need to print every email but that is probably an age thing.

Seriously, it's not hard

[holophrastic]

Learn how to prioritize "systems of components", and this is an easy decision.

If you don't want a printer that prints a lot, don't get one designed to print a lot.

If you want a printer that will last for decades, buy a printer that will last for decades (and remember to amortize the price).

I print about a page a week, on average. Maybe two. So eight years ago, I bought a high-end consumer multi-function. I chose the laser, obviously, and the small toner version, obviously. I went multi-function for the occasional scanner. Network for the not caring about software part. Small paper tray, obviously.

It's been sitting there for eight years now. Once a year I print something stupid -- like wine bottle labels, or car club flyers, or address labels. Otherwise, for work, it's about under ten pages per month.

I configured it to clean itself vigorously. So it's quite slow. When the toner is below 50% on one of the colours, it'll clean itself between each and every page. It's insanely slow. But the toner lasts twice as long. And what do I care if two pages takes two minutes.

It also looks nice, because it's small and consumery. Which is nice in an expensive home office.

The point is, this isn't hard. Spend $100, and you'll throw it out. Buy an inkjet, and you'll throw it out. Buy a black and white printer-only, and you'll eventually need something more. Spend $300 on a scanner and colour and laser and a decent brand, and the most annoying part will be finding a/the box when you want to take it with you three houses later.

Another vote for laser

[ilsaloving]

Ditto with laser. Particularly, multi-function colour lasers have dropped ridiculously in price. While not cheap-cheap per se, you can get a very good quality device that will cover all of your occasional needs (occasional color prints, sometimes a photocopy, etc). Even the crappiest ones are still good enough for basic use, and can be had for well less than 500 dollars. And it will probably be the past printer you ever buy.

I'm still using a black and white brother MFC that I purchased a decade ago. I had to replace the toner way back when cause I had to print a whole bunch of stuff once, but it's still good enough to this day.

Ilsa