Slashdot Mirror
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?
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?
A laser-printer. I mean, the powder doesn't dry, it won't clog the nozzles and it's useable even 10 years later.
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.
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.
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.
That's what the office printer is for.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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?
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