Laser printers.
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Moving aside from my recent thread about refillable ink cartridges I'd like to ask about laser printers. What is it that makes a good b/w laser printer? What I'm saying is that you can spend £200 and more from one manufacturer and £50 from another. Are the £200 jobs immeasurably superior to the dumpster-priced £50 printers? I want a decent printer in the sense I'd like sharp text and that can display reasonable images on the occasions I need to. I know DPI is important and you can apparently have too much DPI? Printing speed for example: If I have to wait 20 seconds per page I'm ok with that. A minute per page I'd probably get a bit fed up. Sometimes I like to print multiple page PDFs so double sided printing would be nice. Do modern toner kits "degrade/expire" like some ink cartridges? Are they chipped to expire? Do you pay more for WiFi printers over cable types? So, essentially, I don't print a lot but I'd like reasonable print quality at a price that lines up with my occasional use. There are so many printers to choose from and so many high-fives in one review but which gets a kick in the ass on another. If someone can give me some essential points to look for it would be much appreciated.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
You get what you pay for. Taking your points in order... A £50 printer will work fine, but it will not be fast, will not have a huge storage capacity (both RAM and Paper Reservoir) and will not be as sturdy. For a 'Good' printer you need to start looking at about £100, (I would recommend a Brother 3040cn at about £85 for a minimum in this range) Printing speed: Go for at least 16ppm with a cold start time of about 30 seconds max. Any slower print is annoying, and any longer wait is thumb-twiddlingly boring. Modern toners do not degrade over measurable time (ie several years), they are NOT chipped to expire, but can be chipped to be non-refillable. There is often a 'Window' in the toner that by judicious use of a black marker pen and kinetic agitation can extrend the life by 10-20%. Yes, you certainly do pay more for wifi printers but not much more, it really depends on your set up as to whether or not it is worth it. Best tip I can give is STAY AWAY FROM CANON. They are excellent printers but the toners are pricey and suppliers are not often able to reduce costs on them. Brother or HP are the best for value/running costs. From a technical side Xerox are the Gold Standard but are hideously expensive.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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Moving aside from my recent thread about refillable ink cartridges I'd like to ask about laser printers. What is it that makes a good b/w laser printer? What I'm saying is that you can spend £200 and more from one manufacturer and £50 from another. Are the £200 jobs immeasurably superior to the dumpster-priced £50 printers? I want a decent printer in the sense I'd like sharp text and that can display reasonable images on the occasions I need to. I know DPI is important and you can apparently have too much DPI? Printing speed for example: If I have to wait 20 seconds per page I'm ok with that. A minute per page I'd probably get a bit fed up. Sometimes I like to print multiple page PDFs so double sided printing would be nice. Do modern toner kits "degrade/expire" like some ink cartridges? Are they chipped to expire? Do you pay more for WiFi printers over cable types? So, essentially, I don't print a lot but I'd like reasonable print quality at a price that lines up with my occasional use. There are so many printers to choose from and so many high-fives in one review but which gets a kick in the ass on another. If someone can give me some essential points to look for it would be much appreciated.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
If you print more documents then go for laser, if you print more images go for inkjet (since inkjets are better at printing pictures). Checkout this list from PCMag[^].
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You get what you pay for. Taking your points in order... A £50 printer will work fine, but it will not be fast, will not have a huge storage capacity (both RAM and Paper Reservoir) and will not be as sturdy. For a 'Good' printer you need to start looking at about £100, (I would recommend a Brother 3040cn at about £85 for a minimum in this range) Printing speed: Go for at least 16ppm with a cold start time of about 30 seconds max. Any slower print is annoying, and any longer wait is thumb-twiddlingly boring. Modern toners do not degrade over measurable time (ie several years), they are NOT chipped to expire, but can be chipped to be non-refillable. There is often a 'Window' in the toner that by judicious use of a black marker pen and kinetic agitation can extrend the life by 10-20%. Yes, you certainly do pay more for wifi printers but not much more, it really depends on your set up as to whether or not it is worth it. Best tip I can give is STAY AWAY FROM CANON. They are excellent printers but the toners are pricey and suppliers are not often able to reduce costs on them. Brother or HP are the best for value/running costs. From a technical side Xerox are the Gold Standard but are hideously expensive.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
Dalek Dave wrote:
Best tip I can give is STAY AWAY FROM CANON.
What, you haven't uploaded them yet?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Dalek Dave wrote:
Best tip I can give is STAY AWAY FROM CANON.
What, you haven't uploaded them yet?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Yes, all fully loaded on Cartridges and Toners. It is just that they are pricey. No need to be cynical, I am just giving fair advice :) If I was going to be his supplier I would say "Epson inkjets all the way".
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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If you print more documents then go for laser, if you print more images go for inkjet (since inkjets are better at printing pictures). Checkout this list from PCMag[^].
I would also add that if he was image heavy then the choice of paper is just as important. Cheap copier paper detracts from the quality, whereas a custom photo quality paper makes the colours vibrant and sharp. The only difference is price, and it is significantly more, up from £2 per ream to £7-£10 per ream.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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Yes, all fully loaded on Cartridges and Toners. It is just that they are pricey. No need to be cynical, I am just giving fair advice :) If I was going to be his supplier I would say "Epson inkjets all the way".
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
Hmm. So I accidentally bought the right one.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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You get what you pay for. Taking your points in order... A £50 printer will work fine, but it will not be fast, will not have a huge storage capacity (both RAM and Paper Reservoir) and will not be as sturdy. For a 'Good' printer you need to start looking at about £100, (I would recommend a Brother 3040cn at about £85 for a minimum in this range) Printing speed: Go for at least 16ppm with a cold start time of about 30 seconds max. Any slower print is annoying, and any longer wait is thumb-twiddlingly boring. Modern toners do not degrade over measurable time (ie several years), they are NOT chipped to expire, but can be chipped to be non-refillable. There is often a 'Window' in the toner that by judicious use of a black marker pen and kinetic agitation can extrend the life by 10-20%. Yes, you certainly do pay more for wifi printers but not much more, it really depends on your set up as to whether or not it is worth it. Best tip I can give is STAY AWAY FROM CANON. They are excellent printers but the toners are pricey and suppliers are not often able to reduce costs on them. Brother or HP are the best for value/running costs. From a technical side Xerox are the Gold Standard but are hideously expensive.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
Excellent advice. Thanks. Do you have any thoughts on double-side printing? I don't mind swapping the sheets around myself. I remember one printer I used where the sheet was pulled back in to print on the other side but the alignment was not very good (can't remember which make but not a Brother or HP).
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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I would also add that if he was image heavy then the choice of paper is just as important. Cheap copier paper detracts from the quality, whereas a custom photo quality paper makes the colours vibrant and sharp. The only difference is price, and it is significantly more, up from £2 per ream to £7-£10 per ream.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
I usually buy the run-of-the-mill paper, 80g/ms? The kind of stuff you get anywhere.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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I would also add that if he was image heavy then the choice of paper is just as important. Cheap copier paper detracts from the quality, whereas a custom photo quality paper makes the colours vibrant and sharp. The only difference is price, and it is significantly more, up from £2 per ream to £7-£10 per ream.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
Dalek Dave wrote:
The only difference is price
And drying time. There's more than one reason that you might find glossy pages stuck together.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Dalek Dave wrote:
The only difference is price
And drying time. There's more than one reason that you might find glossy pages stuck together.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Mark, you show your age! I too am old enough to remember the glossy pages. Who the hell buys them nowadays? (Last one I bought was a copy of Fiesta as part of a Stag Do celebration to be put into the Groom's carry on bag at the airport).
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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I usually buy the run-of-the-mill paper, 80g/ms? The kind of stuff you get anywhere.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
Which is absolutely fine for most uses. For internal accounts I use 65gms, but only because it is thinner and therefore I can get more in a file. Anything going out the door is 80gms, and for our special stuff, 90gms.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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Hmm. So I accidentally bought the right one.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Epson inkjets are pretty much the best for running costs: not only are the print heads not part of the ink cartridge (making them considerably cheaper) but they also provide separate cartridges for all colours as standard - so when the cyan runs out you don't have to replace the magenta and yellow at the same time. This also means that the aftermarket cartridges are seriously cheap, and generally very, very good. The only downside is that you need to use them regularly - if you don't, the ink dries in the head and it can be impossible to get all jets firing again. New printer time when that happens, because it's normally cheaper than buying a new head!
This message is manufactured from fully recyclable noughts and ones. To recycle this message, please separate into two tidy piles, and take them to your nearest local recycling centre. Please note that in some areas noughts are always replaced with zeros by law, and many facilities cannot recycle zeroes - in this case, please bury them in your back garden and water frequently.
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Hmm. So I accidentally bought the right one.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Epson are cheap as chips, good quality and ubiquitous. You will never have supply problems. (That said there was a dearth of T1301's recently, but the big boat from China has arrived and so all is well)
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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I would also add that if he was image heavy then the choice of paper is just as important. Cheap copier paper detracts from the quality, whereas a custom photo quality paper makes the colours vibrant and sharp. The only difference is price, and it is significantly more, up from £2 per ream to £7-£10 per ream.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
I would agree - I have found the the cheaper, thinner papers cause more hassle than they are worth as well - they tend not to feed well and that wastes ink or time clearing jams. I use 90gsm internally, and for documents, but go up to 120gsm for "quality" letters, and keep 260gsm glossy/255gsm Matt and 210 Photo for "picture quality" outputs. That's another advantage of the Epson printers - since the paper path is closer to straight, you can use a heavier weight or labels without worrying about jams or unpeeling. Unlike HP with a 1 inch 180 degree bend...stupid designers!
This message is manufactured from fully recyclable noughts and ones. To recycle this message, please separate into two tidy piles, and take them to your nearest local recycling centre. Please note that in some areas noughts are always replaced with zeros by law, and many facilities cannot recycle zeroes - in this case, please bury them in your back garden and water frequently.
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Mark, you show your age! I too am old enough to remember the glossy pages. Who the hell buys them nowadays? (Last one I bought was a copy of Fiesta as part of a Stag Do celebration to be put into the Groom's carry on bag at the airport).
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
Dalek Dave wrote:
Who the hell buys them nowadays?
Guys with scanners and torrent clients, apparently.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I would agree - I have found the the cheaper, thinner papers cause more hassle than they are worth as well - they tend not to feed well and that wastes ink or time clearing jams. I use 90gsm internally, and for documents, but go up to 120gsm for "quality" letters, and keep 260gsm glossy/255gsm Matt and 210 Photo for "picture quality" outputs. That's another advantage of the Epson printers - since the paper path is closer to straight, you can use a heavier weight or labels without worrying about jams or unpeeling. Unlike HP with a 1 inch 180 degree bend...stupid designers!
This message is manufactured from fully recyclable noughts and ones. To recycle this message, please separate into two tidy piles, and take them to your nearest local recycling centre. Please note that in some areas noughts are always replaced with zeros by law, and many facilities cannot recycle zeroes - in this case, please bury them in your back garden and water frequently.
We use an HP A3 Printer that feeds from underneath. Every sheet that comes out has a delicate curve to it!
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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You get what you pay for. Taking your points in order... A £50 printer will work fine, but it will not be fast, will not have a huge storage capacity (both RAM and Paper Reservoir) and will not be as sturdy. For a 'Good' printer you need to start looking at about £100, (I would recommend a Brother 3040cn at about £85 for a minimum in this range) Printing speed: Go for at least 16ppm with a cold start time of about 30 seconds max. Any slower print is annoying, and any longer wait is thumb-twiddlingly boring. Modern toners do not degrade over measurable time (ie several years), they are NOT chipped to expire, but can be chipped to be non-refillable. There is often a 'Window' in the toner that by judicious use of a black marker pen and kinetic agitation can extrend the life by 10-20%. Yes, you certainly do pay more for wifi printers but not much more, it really depends on your set up as to whether or not it is worth it. Best tip I can give is STAY AWAY FROM CANON. They are excellent printers but the toners are pricey and suppliers are not often able to reduce costs on them. Brother or HP are the best for value/running costs. From a technical side Xerox are the Gold Standard but are hideously expensive.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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What is the web address of your shop website Dave?
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read." Frank Zappa 1980
sent email
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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I usually buy the run-of-the-mill paper, 80g/ms? The kind of stuff you get anywhere.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
-
You get what you pay for. Taking your points in order... A £50 printer will work fine, but it will not be fast, will not have a huge storage capacity (both RAM and Paper Reservoir) and will not be as sturdy. For a 'Good' printer you need to start looking at about £100, (I would recommend a Brother 3040cn at about £85 for a minimum in this range) Printing speed: Go for at least 16ppm with a cold start time of about 30 seconds max. Any slower print is annoying, and any longer wait is thumb-twiddlingly boring. Modern toners do not degrade over measurable time (ie several years), they are NOT chipped to expire, but can be chipped to be non-refillable. There is often a 'Window' in the toner that by judicious use of a black marker pen and kinetic agitation can extrend the life by 10-20%. Yes, you certainly do pay more for wifi printers but not much more, it really depends on your set up as to whether or not it is worth it. Best tip I can give is STAY AWAY FROM CANON. They are excellent printers but the toners are pricey and suppliers are not often able to reduce costs on them. Brother or HP are the best for value/running costs. From a technical side Xerox are the Gold Standard but are hideously expensive.
--------------------------------- Obscurum per obscurius. Ad astra per alas porci. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
Good points Dave, I have an old Brother HL-1440 that has lasted forever and was relatively inexpensive. I might add the problem with the newer laser printer is that they provide toner cartridges with a lower page print count so you will need to buy a new toner cartridge sooner.
Dalek Dave wrote:
There is often a 'Window' in the toner that by judicious use of a black marker pen and kinetic agitation can extrend the life by 10-20%.
I put a pieve of tape over this window and it extended prints by 1K+ or so.
VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.1 ToDo Manager Extension The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard. -Steven Wright
