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What to look for in a home printer?
Flay
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm currently in the market for a printer to be used at home, and am in need of some advice as to what to look for. These are some of the features we're keeping an eye out for...
- Not too expensive (but by no means the cheapest printer available).
- Individual cartridges for different in colours, which can be refilled separately.
- A flat top, to prevent dust building up inside.
- (optional) A built in - and decent quality - scanner.
Flay on
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I also like HPs, I just got an OfficeJet L7780 and it's pretty nice. All the bells on whistles on it. A couple features are overkill even though I do use it in a home office, and it's rather large, but this model was discounted enough that the cost difference from lesser models was minimal. HP seems to have slimmed down their software a lot; there are basic driver and full software-suite installation sets available, and the full install lets you skip any pieces you don't want. The printer and others in the line also has separate CMYK ink cartridges, and also separates out the printheads. That reduces the cost of the ink (slightly -- it's still a racket), but also means that replacing both printheads cost half as much as a new printer. But they supposedly last 40k pages, which is like 50 cycles of ink replacement and more than I've probably printed, ever.
Canons also rate pretty highly from what I've read.
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
Failing that, I'd advise sticking with HP or Epson. Stay the hell away from Lexmark's inkjets especially. The prices on inkjet cartridges are downright ridiculous, of course, and the printers are cheap shit because they need to sell them below cost to sell cartridges. It's the business model.
Get ink, in a bottle, and refill the carts yourself. I've got an HP inkjet (because I can't afford laser) and it's really not hard; the fill holes on the carts are right under the label.
Your #1 criteria should be cheap ink. Probably any printer these days will produce good quality prints, but ink racks expense up higher and faster than elliot spitzer's dick.
For color printing I use Canon printers based on BCI-24B/C cartridges. There are no new models using that ink, but when cartridges can be had for $1.15 each, I'd happily buy a used printer.