What color printer to buy?

[Felix]

Hi there,

I'm thinking of a color printer for my home office. I guess I would use it not so often but if, then I want good results. I don't want dried ink in the printer, but sunlight-safe, waterproof ink if the image is print, if possible. And, since it is for the home office, cost is an issue.

Being aware of the color printer history, I think of an Epson. But which model? Or maybe another brand, however?

For "quick and dirty" b/w prints I have a HP Laserjet 4L for 8 years now. While it has only 300dpi which is a little poor nowadays, I'm very satisfied with the HP4L. Still a good printer for b/w.

In the office I currently have access to an Epson Stylus Color 1160, which gives me good results.

Any suggestions welcome. TIA

Felix

[pmaddock]

I would recommend getting an HP for color printing. What type of color printing complexity are you going to be dealing with? If you want nice photos, I purchased a HP 1315 a few months ago, which is magnificent. It is quiet, fast, and provides beautiful, quick drying, high resolution photos. It even has a slot to insert flash cards or smart media cards (memory sticks, too, I believe). You can work with everything, either on the printer LCD display or on your computer software. Of course, it is very expensive ($300-$400). I believe that the less expensive model (1215) would probably do just as good of a job, for at least $100 less.


PM

[Confused]

I'm partial to HP. Had one of those old 500 series that just wouldn't die so I could get a color one. I finally gave it away to get a color printer. Now my HP 700 series color won't die so I can get a faster one.
Chas

[LawyerRon]

The HP 900 series are a good value.

[Guardian]

I've had a 990CSE for well over a year without one single problem. Prints fast in b/w and in color. Quiet, smooth working. Handles WinXP and WinME equally well.

The ability to front load upto 50 sheets of paper and have the paper return in the front saves a lot of vertical space over the kind where the paper feeds in from the top-back.

[glc]

As I've said before, you cannot beat an Epson for pure color printing quality, but be prepared to deal with quirks, mechanical deficiencies, and ink cost. HP is probably the best compromise between print quality, reliability, and ink cost.

[lpc300]

I have purchased a number of printers for myself, my family, and my company. I, too, have an old HP 4L which still prints wonderfully. For color, I would go with an HP. HP's tend to install very easily and I've seen very few problems with them. The Epson's are good, too. I own an Epson 777, and purchased an HP 1215 for work. The Hp print quality is magnificent.

[buildingit]

Hi Felix & lpc300,

I have an HP Laserjet 4L too! I thought I ruined it a few weeks ago (had it on a mechanical switchbox) but it's fine. Am very happy with it.


Do you think its worth it for me to buy the extra meg of memory for it (HP still sells it for $110) while it's still available? Did either of you add memory and if so, did you notice a difference?

Thanx :)

[Felix]

No I didn't had never any problems with the memory and no I didn't add the extra memory.

Nowadays the bottleneck of that printer is its printing speed (4ppm) and the resolution of 300dpi, which hardly works for printing pictures today. Thus I would stay away from adding more ram, and safe the extra money for a new printer that is faster and has a better resolution.

BUT stay away of low cost laser printer (below $400, european price base), such as Brother HL-1040 series et al. They tend to poor printing quality (white lines in the black). Watch for a printer that has toner AND drum in the module, this will be cheaper in the long run, since with the Brother HL-1040, the drum is very expensive (half of the cost of a new printer), however it is not more durable than any HP printer that has the drum in the module.

As with everything, you get what you pay for.

Felix

[Felix]

regarding the replies to my first question, all voting for HP: Is Epson outpaced today? What's happened??

Felix

[onearmpprhngr]

I've used a lot of different printers in my time and depending on what you'll be using it for, HP makes a sturdy printer. My only gripe (if you wanna call it that) is the ink cartridges are difficult to refill. Presently, I am using a Lexmark. It is a nice printer too but uses ink like its free or something. But the cartridges are a piece of cake to refill and relatively inexpensive to refill.
As far as text printing, I still have an old Okidata 410e (laser printer) that I bought in 1995 that hasn't showed any sign of wear in 7 years. And toner cartridges cost 25 bucks and last me 1-2 years depending on usage.

[lpc300]

Hi buildingit,

Nah, haven't upgraded it at all. It was the main printer at my old job. When the company when under, I was given the printer for nothing and it has worked flawlessly. Yeah it kinda slow and the dpi doesn't match what's out there today, but since it is used exclusively for text printing, it's fine. I agree with Felix, though. Rather than upgrading it, I'll probably wait to buy something new. Picked up an HP 1200 for work about 6 months ago and it hasn't given us a day of trouble.

[glc]

$110 for a meg of memory for a 4L is not cost-effective at all. Keep that little gem the way it is for high quality text printing. If it were to die today and you wanted a laser to replace it, the HP 1200 is a great printer for the money.

Felix: Epson is still going strong, and as I said, you still can't beat one for pure print quality. However, its quirks and lack of durability has steered me away to HP.

[buildingit]

Thank-you Felix, LPC300 & GLC! And I am sorry Felix for hijacking your post. I am fine with the speed but with acrobat etc sometimes it hangs- but maybe its my old computer (am building a new one so I will see on it). Anyway, am glad to hear not to buy more memory. Please don't reply to this- I feel bad for retracting from Felix's post- I'll re-ask when my new computer is built.

Thank you again, I really apppreciate everyone's helpfulness :)

[Felix]

Hi buildingit, don't panic... Let me add one last word abou the HP4L. I recently had problems with printing from some java application. It hanged... Then I was told to get the newest printer driver. I did this, an again no problem since then. Maybe this will help you, too?

Felix