Buy a printer

Diaz · 2009-10-18 00:01:54

I people

Well, i am at university for the second year and i really need to print some stuff. Last year i avoided it, so i stayed without a printer.
This time, my teachers are giving a lot of studying resources, and on computer sciences, it's all about pdf's, ebooks, presentations, etc, you see where i'm going..

Although i understand computer hardware and many gadgets stuff, i'm a little off on the printing technology, so i'd apreciate if you all could help.

So, i need a printer to print many papers, and i don't really know if i need a scanner part or not, but maybe it would be usefull .
I don't really know about the best technollogy, but should it be a laser one?

What are your recommendations? it needs to work with full support on linux since that's the only OS useful to me .

I don't know, but i think i should consider the printer price vs the cartdriges price?

any help, sugestions, etc apreciated

Doehni · 2009-10-18 00:59:16

As you wrote youreslf: You should compare the printer price vs cartdriges price.
Laser cartdriges a a lot cheaper per printed page than inkjet. But there you only get black/white for a reasonable price...

I myself have a Brother printer. Never hab a problem with Brother drivers.

This page shows you how printers behave with linux: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collabor … enprinting

foutrelis · 2009-10-18 01:24:24

Definitely go for a monochrome laser printer. They are fast and offer top notch print quality (especially on text and charts). One thing to be aware of is that buying new toner for your laser printer can cost A LOT. I'm not saying that a laser printer is more expensive in the long run, but if you're going to be printing tons of pages, you may want to look for cheaper compatible toners, or refill kits. Some toner cartridges are easier to refill and some require (much) more work, so do your market research with this in mind. Also, to get a better understanding of how laser printers work, watch this highly educational video (ignore the Lexmark praise ). One more thing to note is that the original toner cartridge that comes with the printer is a "starter" one, meaning it's half-filled.

Personal experience: In the past I've owned two Canon inkjet printers, first was a cheap one and the second was a higher-end Pixma IP3000. I don't quite remember what happened to the former, but my second inkjet printer lasted for more than 3 years, before its print head died last week. So I got a Samsung ML-1640 which was priced at €59 ($88); so far I'm liking it. Replacement toner for it costs €54 ($80.5) and is supposed to last for 1.500 pages with 5% coverage, but I'm hoping that even the "starter" toner cartidge (~700 pages) will last me a long time (I don't print much). When it empties, I can always buy a refill kit from ebay that will be good for 2 refills (says 4.000 pages). I also think that the photoconductor drum, which is part of the cartridge itself in Samsung, HP and probably other brands, will need replacing after 4-6 refills (obviously you can't replace it if it's not separate, you get a new cartridge), but that's too far into the future to worry about.

Last, some general advice:

- Always calculate price per page, and not per ink/toner cartridge or printer price.
- Color is not needed for most documents, so you may as well get a monochrome laser printer.
- Official cartridges are generally quite expensive, so when you're considering a printer, make sure that it's easy to refill or cheaper compatible cartridges exist for it.
- Don't print unnecessarily, especially large number of pages (e.g.: eBooks), and put paper you don't have any use for anymore in the recyble bin.

ozar · 2009-10-18 01:29:16

Doehni wrote:

I myself have a Brother printer. Never hab a problem with Brother drivers.

That's what I use as well and never any issues getting them to work with Linux. The laser print output looks very professional, so when the need arises, I plan to buy another Brother laser printer.

skottish · 2009-10-18 01:35:43

If you go with an ink jet printer, I highly recommend HP supported with HPLIP or any Epson printer supported with gutenprint. You'll get superior print quality along the lines of what you see in Windows.

MadTux · 2009-10-18 15:32:16

If you mainly print black and white, go with a monochrome laser printer. They are much cheaper if you print large quantities and often also faster than ink jets. Be careful to select one that supports not only Windows operating systems. However, that are the cheaper ones. I have a monochrome HP LaserJet 1320 (no longer available), which supports a resolution of 1200x1200 but also has a good draft mode. It understands Postscript and PCL5/PCL6 printer languages and works with every OS i have tried (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX).

vacant · 2009-10-18 16:28:28

I gave up on inkjets and spent under 50UKP on a samsung ml-2010 laser. So far I've run through the initial toner (half full, 1,500 pages), and have used about one bottle of toner (3,000) from a twin-pack I got off eBay for 6UKP. I'll probably get a reconditioned cartridge next as the samsung ones are the same price as a new laser.

I get any colour photos printed from photobox (they arrive next working day).

No doubt your uni library has scanner facilities when you need those.

My daughter has an Epson RX560 (90 UKP?) multi-function but has had trouble with cartridges on several occasions. Latest was she wanted to print black text but the printer didn't allow it because it was out of cyan. She got cyan and was then told the printer didn't recognise two other cartridges! These are all Epson cartridges. She gave up. So I bought 12 no-name cartidges from eBay for 8 UKP and after a couple of print head cleanings it all worked again.

Diaz · 2009-10-18 18:21:08

Ok people, thanks for the input till now.

I searched a little and came to this 2 printers:

*laser color: Samsung CLP-315 - 79,90 € (in promotion rigth now) (official page) (OpenPrinting Database)
cartdriges prices: CLT-K4092S (Black) - 41,90€
CLT-C4092S (Cyan) - 35,33€
CLT-M4092S (Magent) - 35,27€
CLT-Y4092S (Yellow) - 35,27€

*laser mono: Samsung ML-1640 - 39,90 € (official page) (OpenPrinting Database)
cartdrige price: MLT-D1082S (Black) - 47,50 €

So, what do you think? Any other printer suggestions?
I think maybe i'm gonna to the color one, just because colors migth be needed sometimes , and the black cartdrige, the one i think will be needed more, is cheaper.

When the toner is empty what do i have to do? Buy a new one with the above price or is there ways to recharge them or any stuff like that? Like i told before, i'm not really into this stuff .

Thanks for your help

kjon · 2009-10-18 18:50:03

Another HP Laserjet lover over here.

I got a HP Laserjet 1018 which gave me some headaches due the cups 1.4.x upgrade. Once I managed to fix it (always the users' fault), works like a charm.

I've never bought a original toner. It's too expensive. I got toner refill bottles which are far much cheaper. To recharge the cartrigdes you need to gather some practice, but there are hundred of tutorials on youtube.

The printer cost me around $100 (3 years ago). The original toner costs $140, and the refill bottle (lasts 5 recharges) $15 xD.

Diaz · 2009-10-22 02:03:49

Ok, thanks for your input.
Well doind a little more search i ended up just ordering this one: HP page
I'll see how it goes.
Doing some math it seems the cost per page is so much less. Apparently laser printers aren't worth it yet

Last edited by Diaz (2009-10-22 02:04:31)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-18 00:01:54

Buy a printer

#2 2009-10-18 00:59:16

Re: Buy a printer

#3 2009-10-18 01:24:24

Re: Buy a printer

#4 2009-10-18 01:29:16

Re: Buy a printer

#5 2009-10-18 01:35:43

Re: Buy a printer

#6 2009-10-18 15:32:16

Re: Buy a printer

#7 2009-10-18 16:28:28

Re: Buy a printer

#8 2009-10-18 18:21:08

Re: Buy a printer

#9 2009-10-18 18:50:03

Re: Buy a printer

#10 2009-10-22 02:03:49

Re: Buy a printer

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