Color Printing Without the Inkjet Mess?

Above writes "Many recent /. stories have been about the problems of inkjet Printers. Seems they all want to sell the printer for cheap, and then use the ink to make up the difference. There are also problems where a lack of printing, or printing too much, could make it much more expensive to use your inkjet. So, since mine just died, what are the best options? I'm intersted in two catagories, a 'personal' color printer, probably USB to a machine, and a 'workgroup' color printer, with ethernet, postscript prefered. While Windows is good for my application, something that plays well with FreeBSD and Linux would be a major win as well. I'd consider laser if it's cheap enough (read $500/printer), and I don't think that it is. I'm willing to pay a bit more for the printer if that means bigger ink tanks, better cleaning, and easier to buy replacement supplies, the question is, are there really good options out there or have the low-end 'throwaway' printers taken over the market?" One option is a modded inkjet like the ones here, liberated from tiny ink cartridges. Any recommendations out there for decent color lasers?

Color Laser Printeres

[Scalli0n]

You're looking for a hardcore printer it sounds like. Pay the extra buck and get a color laser printer - it'll do everything you want (sounds like it) and it'll last a while - postscript won't go out of date for a long time! Besides, toner costs are pretty low given how long they last.

HP LaserJet 4600

[Anonymous Coward]

Best color printer I have ever used. Fast and reliable. Tonner should last quite a while, however at $200 a pop (x4), it's probably going to be out of your price range. Most lasers today, and even some high end inkjets support PostScript, so they should be compatible with Linux.

Low Cost Laser

[ThurstonMoore]

Samsung's ML-1650 offers Linux compatability and Postscript level III as an option. All for around $300.

Might depend on where you live / dumb laws.

[veddermatic]

If you live somewhere that accepts 3rd party cartages / refils, then inkjet is probably the way to go... cheap printer, cheap source of toner.

If you live in a backwards nation like the US (not-so-proudly a resident as of late) where the DMCA makes you pay out the ass for toner, then you are in a bind... pony up for a color laser, which, if you can expense out over time, or know you will be printing a lot for the next 4 years, will more than pay for itself, or.... Hmm, I dunno if there is a low up-front cost solution for long term color printing in a country that doesn't allow 3rd party ink carts / refills.

=(

I hopr somebody gives a better answer than this.

Why not one of both?

[petabyte]

Well, consider the technology for a moment. If you're not willing to shell out the ton of money a color laser costs why not get a deskjet and a B&W Laser?

I have an older laser printer that prints reems of black and white (text documents mainly) and I've never replaced the toner. For photos I have a 100 dollar epson that prints out 7200x7200 or something ridiculous. The laser was 70 from ebay and the color printer was 60 dollars on special from best buy. Figure you'll print 2-3 cartridges worth of color and then buy a new printer (specs will have improved and at the cost of color printers a new one isn't much more than new cartridges).

The HP 4L I have is old but its a workhorse. 300dpi but it never complains about the documents I send it. Its outlasted 3 colorprinters now.

Re:Color Laser Printeres

[Anonymous Coward]

Since speed was mentionned, let the record show that the "Pages Per Minute" metric is usually measured for 10-15% "coverage", which is something like a page of plain text. So yes, so and so printer can do 20 PPM, but not of full-page pictures.

Hmmmm.. A quick search for "printer ppm coverage" on Google seems to show a lot of "5% coverage"... If speed is an issue, bring a floppy with a PDF or whatnot to the store and ask that it be printed in front of you.

Re:Canon

[LittleVito]

I used to have a cannon with separate cartridges, a BJC-600, and while it was convenient to replace them one at a time, i noticed that they all usually ran out at about the same time. Also, the printer was plagued with slow, lousy printing and caused frustrations more often than it worked. Slashdot seems to consider the cost of ink as the primary cause of concern with printers, but the quality of printer is also a major concern, I don't want to buy a lousy printer just becuase it has cheap ink.

Oh. My. GOD.

[autopr0n]

If you live in a backwards nation like the US (not-so-proudly a resident as of late) where the DMCA makes you pay out the ass for toner, then you are in a bind...

What does printer ink have do do with the DMCA?! I'll answer that for you. NOTHING!!!

There are good inkjets

[Logger]

I'd venture that a lot of those inkjets people want to get rid of are from the cheaper end of the spectrum. No matter the era, you get what you pay for. In this case, regardless of the price of the cartridge. When looking at inkjets set your minimum price to about $280 for light use consumer printers, or maybe something like $380 for a heavier duty/business higher use unit.

I've had an HP Photosmart 1000 for over 2 years now with no problems. This printer goes through a couple of idle months, followed by couple days of heavy photo printing. Runs like a champ. Of course cartridge prices are a little high, but printers with dedicated black cartidges are a lot more economical to run that ones without. Given the amount of printing I do, it's still more affordable than laser.

I think you'll have a hard time buying a color laser in the price range your looking for. If your willing to pony up the cash, today's color lasers are really nice and the way to go. If you are going to do a lot of printing, the laser will be cheaper in the long run.

Re:Oh. My. GOD.

[keesh]

Actually, it does. Certain manufacturers are sueing people under the DMCA for refilling ink cartridges. The cartridges contain a chip saying whether they're empty, so cracking this chip is arguably circumvention...

SOLID INK

[Anonymous Coward]

It may be out of your price range, but when you consider just how much better a solid ink printer actually is, it becomes worth every extra penny. i have used a Xerox Phaser 850 for years. It has been the best printer i have ever used in just about every regard from print quality and reliability to cost and ease of use.

and it is sort of like printing with crayons :)

Re:Inkjet vs. laser

[j_dot_bomb]

2 or 3 cents for color ??

Try 2 or 3 cents for many $1000k printers at 5 percent coverage. Page coverage of toner is the big issue. Printing photos ? Try 50c to 1 dollar a page.

By the way if you want truly low cost (per page) black and white printing try kyocera. But these printers cost thousands.

http://www.kyoceramita.ca/en/about/ecosys/ecosys .c fm

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_do c/ bpl02416.html

Re:Free Color Printers

[Anonymous Coward]

The place I work at will no longer buy Xerox printers due to the high repair costs. We had a Phaser go a couple years ago and it cost almost as much to fix it as it would have to buy a new one. Before buying any printer make sure you check the average repair costs.

You get what you pay for...

[RESPAWN]

Generally, my experience with color inkjet printers has been that you get what you pay for. My first color inkjet was a Lexmark 5700 that my folks bought for me. I think it was moderately priced back in the day. And that printer performed admirably. It was fairly quick, produced good quality output, and was pretty reliable until it up and quit on me for no real reason one day.

I replaced that one with a Lexmark Z23 because on paper it had similar specs to my old 5700. Yeah, it was cheaper, but I just kind of assumed that the Z23 was a cheaper, updated version of my old 5700. Wrong. I had more problems with that printer than I've ever had with any other printer. It seems like every time I printed out a document to turn in for school, I had to clean the nozzles 2 or 3 times and realign the cartridges. Even then, I would still have some gaps in the print where the printer just didn't seem to cover.

Since then I have bought a used HP Deskjet 895ci. The thing was in practically brand new condition and I have yet to experience any problems with it.

I don't necessarily think that the market has been taken over by the cheap printers. Yes, they are quite common and they sell very well. But, I think that as long as you are willing to spend a little more than the average consumer (I'm guessing above the $150 range) then you will probably get a halfway decent color inkjet printer.

Re:Color Laser Printeres

[Billly Gates]

You must be loaded. 8 out of 10 companies are now outsourcing programmers so the majority of us are now poor.

Whats the return on the laser? Do you run a business? If not then a black/white one may be more ideal and a trip to kinko's for the once in a year thing where you need color.

Its just not worth it unless your printer makes you money.

Continuous Flow Printers - my experience

[FredThompson]

I've seen the guy who modifies the Epson printers at ComputerPro shows in Charlotte. They look nice but we very careful. He's never answered any of my emails asking about the ink. He'll claim he's tested all kinds of inks and is using a custom formula. Riiiight. I sell printing machiens for packaging. This guy's printer business is a hobby. He's got custom small batches of precise ink being made just for him? Uh-huh. Maybe it's a standard ink with a ph modification or something like that. Custom ink is expensive. The point is, if you buy one of these, all indications are you'd be locked into him as your sole source for ink.

Color laser does not look as good at inkjet

[axelbaker]

There is one major drawback every one is neglecting when they suggest a color laser. The quality sucks. Laser is great for black and white text, but color laser prints are flat and have a much smaller color gamut than inkjet. A good quality inkjet will last a long time, and should offer ethernet.
I have always been partial to Epson as they offer lightfast inks, and cater to people looking for photo quality output. I have used a Epson 1280 for a while and had no issues. I don't have any experience using it under linux, but under mac OSX it works beautifully, esp. with colorsync. The major down side that has been mentioned is many inkjets do not have individual ink carts, this is changing, most of Epson's printers now have separate carts. HP's nicer printers do as well.

Good luck on deciding.

Re:Color Laser Printeres

[mobets]

you forgot the bit about wasting half a stick of each of the inks every time it powers up. Igues it's not a problem if you never have power probelms and every on knows not to turn it off at night.

Re:Not the HP 4600!!! (Was: Re:Color Laser Printer

[jannic]

I don't think hp4600 cartridges are so expensive if you see the cost per page. It's still cheaper than inkjet color prints.

But with the hp4600, people start printing nice looking pages with white letters on a dark-blue background and similar toner-wasting things. With an inkjet, they wouldn't have done this because it just takes too long to print.

So the real cost increase is caused by the users, not by the printer.

Does anybody have an idea how to fight this? Perhaps some print filter (we use a linux print server) that measures the amount of toner used for a page and charges the user based on that?

I just use the cheapest inkjet I can buy at home,

[Anonymous Coward]

then throw it away when the ink runs out!
Seriously.
I used to be really concerned about the DPI and speed and color capability, etc, but these days the cheapest printer is far better than the best I had a few years ago. Add to that the fact that new ink cartridges will be more exensive than a bottom-end one on sale and there is no point in replacing the ink cartridges any more. Just pitch the old one and go to Target/Bestbuy/Circuit city/etc and pick up the cheapest inkjet they have on sale.
I know this is probably horribly irresponsible from an environmental standpoint, but it does make good dollars sense.

Re:Not the HP 4600!!! (Was: Re:Color Laser Printer

[GooberToo]

So now you're spending $900 for both, $300 of which comes from your ink jet versus $600 for just the ink jet?