If so, I want to know what you have. My Epson Color 850 just bit the dust.

We have two printers:

When Doc was in grad school, we got a Laser Printer to print his dissertation. It lasted 10 years and was a great printer. It bit the dust last fall and we replaced it with an HP laser printer, model 1300. I love that printer because it's FAST and I've been spoiled by having a laser printer.

We also have a color ink jet printer - it's an HP InkJet 930. I like that printer. It's not nearly as fast as the laser printer. My biggest complaint (and this is very specific to how we use our printers, so it may not apply to everyone,) is that we can't get it to work with our home network. So the laser printer I can use with the airport and I don't even have to have my computer connected to it by cables, but if I want to use the inkjet, I have to take my computer into the office and hook it up to the printer. Again, the logistics of this are all very specific to our set-up so it may not be an issue for anyone else.

Adrienne

If so, I want to know what you have. My Epson Color 850 just bit the dust.

It all depends on two big questions; One, what you want to do with the printer? And two, are you more inclined to spend a lot of money up front to get low cost consumables? Or would you rather spend less on the initial printer purchase and more on the supplies to use it every time they run out.

Laser priners are more expensive up front, but very cheap to run. * I have the HP LaserJet 3200 Fax/Printer that does 1200DPI black laser print nicely, about 2000 prints and I'm still on the original cartridge. That particular model is discontinued, but there are many good laser printers out there.

(* - Except for the notable effort by Lexmark to try to monopolize the market on selling their own laser supplies by using devious means to restrict aftermarket cartridges. :eek: Their trick is they have a non-resettable "toner level" chip in the cartridge that stops the printer based on copy count alone, and they are using the DMCA to fight sales of aftermarket chips - No new chips that say "Cartridge Full" to replace the "Empty" chips in the cartridges means no recycled cartridges available. :mad: )

Inkjet printers do color easier, but the consumables can cost a lot more. Get the ones like my Canon BJC-8200 that has seperate ink cartridges, so you can change one color as it runs dry, rather than the whole cartridge.

If you need serious color for business or art, there are other fancier printer methods like dye-sublimation, hot wax, and color laser. The price on all of these is falling drastically, 1200 DPI color lasers have broken through the $1000 barrier (though a duplexer adds a bit more if you want to print both sides without turning the paper by hand). If & when my Canon inkjet dies, they're down to where I'm seriously considering one... ;)

:fez: --<< Bruce >>--

I do love my printer! I just got it on Wednesday, and if you're looking for an affordable photo quality printer, that still prints out text documents fast, I highly recommend the Canon i860.

Our printer is just about to bite the dust. It's an old HP Officejet T45 (printer, scanner, fax, copier). The software it came with isn't even supported under XP (and the XP update on the HP site dosn't work). Right now, I can only get it to print B&W under XP. If I want color, I have to transfer the file to lappie (who runs 98), hook lappie up the printer, then print from there. Erg.

We are thinking about getting a new one. What would be better, though: A cheepo (>$200) laser and a cheepo inkjet (for color), or just a nicer inkjet?

Our printer is just about to bite the dust. It's an old HP Officejet T45 (printer, scanner, fax, copier). The software it came with isn't even supported under XP (and the XP update on the HP site dosn't work). Right now, I can only get it to print B&W under XP. If I want color, I have to transfer the file to lappie (who runs 98), hook lappie up the printer, then print from there. Erg.

We are thinking about getting a new one. What would be better, though: A cheepo (>$200) laser and a cheepo inkjet (for color), or just a nicer inkjet?

Depends on what's impotant to you - Do you need the stand-alone Fax Machine function, or can you make sure the computer is running when you expect a fax? Do you do a lot of Color printing, or a lot of Black? What is the budget? Do you have kids who will try to break things or run you out of supplies if not supervised?

For most people, the vast majority of your printing is black and white - if I want to do color photos, I go have them printed on real photo paper at Costco. Better results and cheaper than the supplies to print it yourself, but it takes two trips and a day's delay.

If the fax and scanner functions are important I would go for a nice (1200 DPI) laser Fax/printer like the HP LaserJet 3020 or 3030 first. $500 but it will last. If you can make the computer handle the occasional fax call, you can get a plain laser printer and save some money.

Then when the color printer dies you can decide how much money to drop on a new one. If you do go for a nicer inkjet, make sure it has seperate ink tanks like most of the Canon line.

:fez: --<< Bruce >>--

For those curious, I ended up getting a hp deskjet 5650. It's quiet and fast. The print quality is astoundingly good.

Now I wish I'd done this sooner!

Both of 'em. I have an HP 2100M (imagesetter-resolution, PostScript, and both parallel and AppleTalk interfaces) and an ALPS MicroDry MD-1300 (both thermal transfer and dye sublimation modes).

I would never under any circumstances accept an inkjet even as a gift. Any inkjet. The pages come out soggy, the ink runs, and if you aren't using it like crazy, you still end up paying through the nose for ink, since the cartridges clog up. Nobody's ever come up with a way to clog a MicroDry (although if you try to print in dyesub mode on the wrong side of the sheet, or on non-dyesub paper, you are going to end up with a shredded dyesub ribbon!)