OT: Printer suggestions

cacheman

Hi all, I respect your input for other items and thought I'd give you a whirl on this too. I have an old Lexmark ink jet printer that has been a dogbiter since day one. It came with the computer so I couldn't complain but the damn ink cartridges cost about as much , if not more, than the printer and it uses so much ink you can almost visually watch the level recede with each page printed.

So, what would you suggest for a printer? Our color needs are limited although they would be used more if we had a decent printer that didn't eat ink. We are running a Windows 2000 OS. Any help would be appreciated.

Darkhorse

Canon makes a nice line of printers. More recent printers have 4 seperate cartridges for each colour used in the printing process (cyan, yellow, magenta and black). This is helpful because if you run out of one colour you don't have to get one big cartridge refilled, you just get one smaller one refilled.

Aethelred

I have a Lexmark Z-53. It is a pretty good printer, text is sharp and crisp and photos come out nice on glossy paper. However, the thing eats ink like a pig and new cartridges are about $38 each.

Don't get an "all-in-one" printer/scanner unit. They are poor quality and are prone to problems.

cacheman

ttt Hey, help me out here!!!!

Avarel

I picked up an Epson C series color printer and I'm quite attached to it after having it run for several months now. Separate ink cartridges, has the durabrite ink that does well on all sorts of paper. Relatively fast in its printing - cost me less then $80. Cartridges run around $30 a unit, but it doesnt seem to be excessively hoggish on the ink. Not sure if they are everywhere, but several of the local malls here have a ink filling kiosk that fills my cartridges and most printers for about 1/2 of the cartridge cost retail shops cost.

Av

1jester

I recently bought a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1000 to replace my older Canon bubble jet printer. The new laser jet is one fantastic machine!!! I love it, but it's only black and white. That's ok for my needs, however, as I never used the color anyway. This printer cost $250 and I'm not sure how much refills cost, but probably not cheap.

laurentyvan

Epson Stylus C-84 was not a bad choice for me. Image quality is good, it also has 4 seperate ink cartridges (absolutely better than the old-fashioned 2), and did not cost an arm and a leg. I didn't look at too many printers as I've always been partial to Epson. The software seems to integrate well with virtually any hardware.

farthing

I also have an Epson and like it alot. Much better printer than my wifes HP.

MacCrimmon

I have an Epson Stylus ProXL which I rescued from the trash heap which is excellent, especially for foto-quality prints.

My company was tossing this printer which I had spec'ed and purchased for another department 6 years earlier. They were too stupid to download drivers and do some minor maintenance, but not I (sometimes, you're in the right place at the right time).

As to the HPs, I've heard that they are much improved, but at the time I researched these color ink-jets, the Epson was ahead of the pack....plus it's a B-size (large format) printer.

SYRACUSIAN

Scott, I know what you're talking about , I have the same problem and although I've never used these new 4-cartridges, I'd say go for a laser printer once and for all. Top brands of course, HP, Epson and Cannon sound all very good. It all comes down on how much you want to spend.

cacheman

I went ahead and purchased an Epson Stylus C84 color printer today from Staples. I took the advise I got here and with what reading I could find on the internet decided on this printer. The price was right, $70 with a $20 rebate. The only unfortunate part of this whole deal was that they were out of stock so they are shipping it to us and we'll probably won't see it until Thursday.

Anyway, thank you all for your input!!!