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Stop buying HP! Get a Brother laser printer.

TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
I can second this. I bought a $120 laser printer years ago for college. It's been extremely solid, I've only needed to replace toner once and it was cheap. It can sit for months unused without getting clogged or become unusable. If you print sporratically and don't need to print pictures, then it's perfect.
terse_malvolio 6y ago
Get a laser printer, brother https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25014482 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25014482
roflc0ptic 6y ago
Yes. As someone with absolutely no vested interest in anyone buying brother printers, I can confirm that my brother printer has worked for years, the ink lasts apparently forever, and I'm finally beginning to unlearn the feeling of dread and uncertainty I instinctively have whenever I think to myself, "Man, I really need to print this out."
- derefr 6y ago
  Printers are mostly-mechanical devices, with a little bit of electronics. Most consumer printer brands, though, are designed by computer hardware or consumer electronics companies who don’t know all that much about mechanical engineering. Meanwhile, Brother is a typewriter and sewing machine company—mechanical engineers make up the majority of their engineering competence. So, IMHO, it’s no surprise that Brother gets design elements correct like “efficient use of toner” and “self-cleaning” and “optimizing for low wear on the print head” that other printer manufacturers struggle with. (If anything, you’d fear that Brother’s software [e.g. drivers] would suck even worse than everyone else’s; but somehow, it doesn’t. Then again, hardware-headed companies do seem to treat drivers as literal drivers, while software-headed companies seem to treat them as a fat shim that value-adds and makes noise all the time.)
  - nitrogen 6y ago
    HP's historic printers were fantastic though. It's sad to see the company that produced the Laserjet III and battletank of a Deskjet (I think I saw the "plus", black only with two slots for font cartridges) fall so low.
  - beojan 6y ago
    > If anything, you’d fear that Brother’s software [e.g. drivers] would suck even worse than everyone else’s; but somehow, it doesn’t. On Linux it certainly does. For some reason I can use network printing on my Brother laser from Windows and even Android, but not Linux.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - derefr 6y ago
      See https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/436250 https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/436250 and https://wiki.debian.org/CUPSAirPrint https://wiki.debian.org/CUPSAirPrint — apparently the AirPrint universal-fallback file format "URF" is patent-encumbered, such that you can't really have a FOSS encoder for it without licensing the patent (just like the MP3 format, until recently.) So OSes that cost money can pay for licenses and so ship encoders, but FOSS OSes cannot. (I'd nevertheless have expected AirPrint support to exist somewhere in Debian's multiverse repo — but it that doesn't seem to be there. Does nobody have that itch to scratch?)
    - bluGill 6y ago
      Most brother printers just speak PCL or Postscript. You just need to figure out how to make it work. On my printer is means use the right queue as it detects one that doesn't work. Otherwise any PDL will work it seems.
  - mopsi 6y ago
    Indeed, I was very much impressed with the software that came with my Brother label printer. The included P-touch Editor[1] is Windows-98-good, and if that's not enough, they also offer b-PAC SDK[2] to programmatically access the printer and templates made with the Editor. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdU9geyCyac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdU9geyCyac [2] https://www.brother.co.jp/eng/dev/bpac/index.aspx https://www.brother.co.jp/eng/dev/bpac/index.aspx
- ashton314 6y ago
  The cartridge does really last a very long time. I just replaced mine after about a year of intermittent use. I thought that that was fine, but then my wife pointed out that we were replacing the half-capacity cartridge that came with the printer. I expect this cartridge to last a good two or three years. The AirPrint abilities have been a little spotty at times, though that might just be my WiFi. I might hard-wire a raspberry pi to drive it though. Also, I have no incentive for anyone to buy a brother printer. Just another happy user.
- jaypeg25 6y ago
  I bought a printer at the beginning of COVID just to print Amazon return shipping labels, etc. that I used to take advantage of the office printer for. All I really wanted was a wireless printer so I could stick it somewhere out of sight (small apartment) and be able to print easily. I settled on an HP because it was a good combination of cheap/decent reviews. Setting it up was such a pain in the ass, including instructions telling me to install what I later found to be the wrong setup program. Now I have two separate programs (one that I can change printer settings including changing wifi networks, and another to use the scanner). It doesn't seem right and I feel like I should only need one, but whatever it works right now and I don't plan on changing anything until the printer or I die. That feeling of dread and uncertainty is all too real for me.
  - Moru 6y ago
    The first tip I got from an older fellow computer nerd at the first company I worked at was: When customer asks for printer, suggest brother for laser and canon or epson for inkjet. So far I'm very happy I listened. The Brothers just work so never got so far as to try the canons. And I got no support calls about the printers either.
    - ashtonkem 6y ago
      To a first order approximation, nobody actually needs an inkjet printer. The vast majority of consumers don't print enough photos to make inkjets worth it, once you include purchase price and wastage due to dried out ink, most people should get a laser printer for documents and send their photos to Costco or similar.
- loeg 6y ago
  > I can confirm that my brother printer has worked for years, the ink lasts apparently forever I've had to replace my (Brother) toner once in almost a decade. Granted, I do not print a lot.
  - Moru 6y ago
    And before you replace it you just take it out, shake it a bit and put it back in again for another 200 pages. Repeat until it starts giving you missing lines on the pages. This can be going on for many cycles. I just plopped in my spare that been sitting half a year waiting for it's turn when the printer started complaining about low toner.
- RonanTheGrey 6y ago
  Took me a year to print something for my mom the last time she needed it because I simply KNEW that inkjet was going to be impossible when I needed it. And, lo and behold it was.. It was a Canon Pixma G3200, one of the ones with the built-in inkwells. When I finally decided to face the frustration I knew the thing would present me with, it threw an error. It took a fair amount of time to track down the error (a particular pattern of blinking lights) that meant "the ink cartridge is inserted incorrectly." Ok.... I thought to myself, this thing doesn't even have cartridges. At which point I bought the Brother laser printer I currently have that has not failed me even once.
marcinzm 6y ago
My brother has been going strong for 5 years across 4 moves!
0xTJ 6y ago
Those Epson ink tank ones seem pretty cool, though I've never used one.
- jcobnl 6y ago
  I have one, and it is clogged up now :(. The only printing mode that give somewhat readable prints is the “Epson photo” mode (or something named similar), which is really slow. But I hope it will magically fix itself if I keep on printing in that mode for awhile.
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    My Epson has a function in the Tools menu to unclog things. If you haven't looked for it already, that might be something to explore.
  - thescriptkiddie 6y ago
    Try diluting the ink with alcohol (70% isopropanol is fine) and doing a bunch of throw away prints. If that doesn't work you can buy a replacement print head from Epson.
    - avian 6y ago
      I suggest checking the type of ink first. Inks for my printer (type 664) are definitely water based and don't dissolve well in alcohol. A cloth dipped in alcohol hardly touches any dried-on ink, but distilled water will dissolve it nicely.
  - avian 6y ago
    Similar experience. For some reason my Epson clogs more easily than the HP it replaced. I tried cleaning heads manually (there are a few tutorials out there that show how to do it with distilled water and some cloth). It's very dirty work and that didn't really work for me. It very quickly gets clogged again. A trick that I found more useful is to not bother with the print head itself, but instead clean the parking spot and the tools that the printer uses to clean the heads itself (there's a rubber wiper, foam and some other stuff there). I unplug the printer, unlock the head and roll it off to the other side, and then use some cotton swabs and distilled water to clean the rubber and rinse the foam. I also keep the parking spot wet with water (the rubber seal + pad that rests on the head when the printer is turned off). Keeping that part clean + the periodical head cleanings that the printer seems to do automatically works out reasonably well. Although every time I do a nozzle check I still always have a nozzle or two clogged so it's not perfect.
ripcity512 6y ago
This article showed up just as I am looking for a replacement for my HP 1320 which works perfectly except 3 out of 4 users in our household can no longer print to it. I’ll look up the Brother laser printer mentioned here to see if people report having better luck. Thanks
jgalt212 6y ago
I have numerous HP laser printers. Linux wifi set up is a bit tricky, but no ink complaints. I see as an ink jet versus laser printer discussion.
m_eiman 6y ago
What about photos? It's been a few years, but last time I checked laser printers were still way behind ink in terms of photo quality.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  I went with Epson inkjet. I don't know if things have changed, but at the time I bought it, Epson was significantly less evil than that HP I dumped. I'm interested in knowing Canon's level of evil, if anyone has any information about that.
  - strombofulous 6y ago
    n=1 but in my experience it is brother >> canon > hp
- rytis 6y ago
  I usually order good quality photo prints online. It's not immediate feedback, but I never found a need for that. Otherwise so-so quality can be produced by a color laser printer.
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  True, I don't even bother with colour laser, it's no good for photos, just for graphs and coloured text. But really the rare occasion I need photos printed, I just order them. If you're a pro or hobby photographer, you can't beat pigment inkjets like Epson's, but then the drawbacks of inkjet (like drying out) won't affect you so much because you will use it a lot.
- graton 6y ago
  On the rare occasion I need photos I print them at Costco. Their printers are much higher quality than what a person is likely to buy for home use and the price is very reasonable. I use a black-and-white laser printer at home (Brother MFC-8890DW).
  - secabeen 6y ago
dmd 6y ago
Yup. My $100-ish Brother laser is 12 years old and still going strong.
spicymaki 6y ago
I love my Brother laser printer, however I did not like my Brother inkjet printer. HP has better cartridge design where the printing head is on the cartridge itself whereas Brother's cartridge is separate from the printing head. This sucks because if the printing head fails you cannot fix it by replacing the cartridge.
rgbrenner 6y ago
It's just math. If you don't print much, you can get a HP printer for $30. The cheapest Brother laser printer is $100 + ink. At $1/mo, it's going to 6 years (thanks Ansil) for the price to work out in favor of the Brother. And to the people saying brothers last forever: they don't. I've owned 3. When the drum wears out, the printer is trash because brother charges almost the cost of the printer for a replacement. That $100 brother has a drum that costs $89 and lasts for 12000 pages. So 12000 pages is the life of that printer. Edit: Re: ink drying out. HP doesn't consider printer cleaning and maintenance pages in their page count. So you can actually clean the printer regularly so the ink doesnt dry out, and they'll keep sending you new cartridges.
- jasonjayr 6y ago
  For that $30; you also get 1GB of software installed to your computer with all sorts of ads and telemetry sending data back to HP, and making any print operation bring your computer to it's knees, and invoke all sorts of popups.
  - t0astbread 6y ago
    I don't know what comes with a $30 HP printer these days but I'm using HPLIP and I'm quite happy with it. Granted, I've never audited it but it's in the Debian repos and I've never heard anything bad about it either. Or did you mean something else?
    - jasonjayr 6y ago
      On Windows, it's pretty bad. I understand HP has acceptable Linux support, and the driver package on a Linux platform is not as intrusive as the Windows side.
      - t0astbread 6y ago
        Ah, I see. I suspected that but I wasn't sure. Which makes me wonder why they're even doing HPLIP in the first place. Printing is only really a thing on the desktop and in business networks but in both cases I'd guess the majority of HP's customers are using Windows.
analog31 6y ago
There seems to be a general shortage of inexpensive laser printers. That would not be a surprising consequence of work-from-home, I suppose. The inexpensive Brother model that we have at home is permanently out of stock everywhere. I've been looking for one so my daughter (college music student) can print sheet music from her apartment. All I use my printer for is shipping labels for my home business. Okay, that and Sudoku. ;-)
ravenstine 6y ago
This 100%. My Brother laser printer is 7 years old, I've never replaced the toner, and it still prints quickly and perfectly every time; of course I only need to print a handful of times a year, but I know for a fact that letting any ink jet printer sit that long would result in terrible prints.
nknealk 6y ago
I’ve had the same brother printer since college. Started in 2008. It still works great. Seconding brother as a cheap and reliable brand.
robertelder 6y ago
+1 For Brother laser printers. I've had mine for a few years now, and only gone through 1 cartridge of toner. It works with my Linux setup too.
wffurr 6y ago
Brother Linux support is bad and ChromeOS support is non-existent. I am going to have to replace a perfectly operable Brother laser because it won't work with mother in law's Chromebox now that Cloud Print is turned down. It would not have been difficult for them to provide CUPS drivers...
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  They provide CUPS drivers even for my $50 HL-1112 "Windows Printer" (you know, one of those that doesn't have built-in PCL or processing, it needs everything rendered on the PC). I know the networked ones are even better. Not using ChromeOS though so can't comment on that.
- bityard 6y ago
  They don't provide handy-dandy single-click driver installation tools for Linux, but I'm not aware of any printer manufacturer that does. However, Brother printers do use standard protocols, so if you can find the PPD file for the model number, all you need to do is provide that to CUPS and it should Just Work.
- myself248 6y ago
  Wow, really? I trashpicked an old Brother multifunction, and whatever provides the printing service on Ubuntu just found it automagically. I had to download a .rpm to get the scanner working, but it was right there on Brother's website. Years old, but worked flawlessly.
- zafiro17 6y ago
  I've got a Brother MFC L2710DW that both Linux and ChromeOS print to without any trouble at all. Newer Chromebooks with the Google Playstore also give you access to the Brother Print & Scan app, which also works.
  - wffurr 6y ago
    Huh, we have a Brother HLL2390DW multifunction laser, and I can't figure out how to set it up on ChromeOS at all. There's no working driver as far as I can tell. The Print&Scan app is a disaster, largely due to how Android works on Chromebooks. It can only access the totally separate Android filesystem, which isn't visible in the ChromeOS Files app. If you want to export a scan to the ChromeOS files, you have to use the "Share" button and pick the Files app. You can't use the very prominent "Save" button.
norswap 6y ago
Just a counterpoint, my Brother printer was very difficult with a VPN a family member had to use (after using the VPN, I couldn't use the printer anymore, short of rebooting and reinstalling the driver). Every other printer we've had worked well with the same VPN. I didn't manage to get it to work, but my investigation led me to suspect it was because of some networking shenanigans it was doing (some kind of broadcast packet IIRC). At some point, it started working, maybe a firmware update fixed the issue. Might also have been a Windows issue to be honest.
bombledmonk 6y ago
Brother's latest firmware updates on newer color lasers have locked out third party toner companies pretty well. It's a cat and mouse game, but Brother is no saint. I own an 11 year old Brother B&W laser that is still cookin'. I just went searching for a color laser and I still will probably go with Brother, but it's certainly not clear cut in terms of business practices.
- lscotte 6y ago
  My Brother color laser is running the latest firmware and works just fine with knockoff Chinese toner carts that cost about 1/4 what Brother charges.
graton 6y ago
I purchased my Brother MFC-8890DW (multi-function laser printer) sometime around 2011. I'll admit I don't print much but it is only recently that I finally got a "low toner" message. I bought a toner cartridge but haven't installed it yet as waiting until I see the effects of the low toner. For my situation I would never buy an inket type printer. When I need to print photos I send them to Costco, which is maybe every couple years. Logged into the printer and see that I have only printed 3370 pages in all that time. I probably use the scanner feature more than the printer :)
mosselman 6y ago
My brother printer sucks. I suddenly can’t print via WiFi anymore, from any device. Also, if I switch off the printer I can’t switch it on again unless I perform some crazy dance routine involving pulling out the power plug and paper tray and holding buttons in a certain order while plugging it back in. Also my brother printer claims the cartridge is empty even though it is half full. I get around this by putting a sticker on the little window it uses to peek into the cartridge so it thinks it is full. Insane.
brainzap 6y ago
I want my brother printer to die so I can buy a new one, but he doesn't
snuxoll 6y ago
Even with Brother, you should be mindful of WHICH you purchase. Some like the MFC-L3770CDW I purchased have higher running costs than you would expect, for example. I knew this when I bought it, deciding that my low print volumes made it worth higher running costs vs the lower upfront cost (if I have a massive job it’s cheaper to send it to a print shop anyway without getting into the real $$$ printers, and otherwise I print tax documents annually and occasionally print a few pages every month. I use the ADF to scan documents on a weekly basis however, so the cheap upfront cost for a auto duplexing scanner is a huge win).

I can second this. I bought a $120 laser printer years ago for college. It's been extremely solid, I've only needed to replace toner once and it was cheap. It can sit for months unused without getting clogged or become unusable. If you print sporratically and don't need to print pictures, then it's perfect.

terse_malvolio 6y ago

Get a laser printer, brother https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25014482 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25014482

roflc0ptic 6y ago

Yes. As someone with absolutely no vested interest in anyone buying brother printers, I can confirm that my brother printer has worked for years, the ink lasts apparently forever, and I'm finally beginning to unlearn the feeling of dread and uncertainty I instinctively have whenever I think to myself, "Man, I really need to print this out."

derefr 6y ago
Printers are mostly-mechanical devices, with a little bit of electronics. Most consumer printer brands, though, are designed by computer hardware or consumer electronics companies who don’t know all that much about mechanical engineering. Meanwhile, Brother is a typewriter and sewing machine company—mechanical engineers make up the majority of their engineering competence. So, IMHO, it’s no surprise that Brother gets design elements correct like “efficient use of toner” and “self-cleaning” and “optimizing for low wear on the print head” that other printer manufacturers struggle with. (If anything, you’d fear that Brother’s software [e.g. drivers] would suck even worse than everyone else’s; but somehow, it doesn’t. Then again, hardware-headed companies do seem to treat drivers as literal drivers, while software-headed companies seem to treat them as a fat shim that value-adds and makes noise all the time.)
- nitrogen 6y ago
  HP's historic printers were fantastic though. It's sad to see the company that produced the Laserjet III and battletank of a Deskjet (I think I saw the "plus", black only with two slots for font cartridges) fall so low.
- beojan 6y ago
  > If anything, you’d fear that Brother’s software [e.g. drivers] would suck even worse than everyone else’s; but somehow, it doesn’t. On Linux it certainly does. For some reason I can use network printing on my Brother laser from Windows and even Android, but not Linux.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - derefr 6y ago
    See https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/436250 https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/436250 and https://wiki.debian.org/CUPSAirPrint https://wiki.debian.org/CUPSAirPrint — apparently the AirPrint universal-fallback file format "URF" is patent-encumbered, such that you can't really have a FOSS encoder for it without licensing the patent (just like the MP3 format, until recently.) So OSes that cost money can pay for licenses and so ship encoders, but FOSS OSes cannot. (I'd nevertheless have expected AirPrint support to exist somewhere in Debian's multiverse repo — but it that doesn't seem to be there. Does nobody have that itch to scratch?)
  - bluGill 6y ago
    Most brother printers just speak PCL or Postscript. You just need to figure out how to make it work. On my printer is means use the right queue as it detects one that doesn't work. Otherwise any PDL will work it seems.
- mopsi 6y ago
  Indeed, I was very much impressed with the software that came with my Brother label printer. The included P-touch Editor[1] is Windows-98-good, and if that's not enough, they also offer b-PAC SDK[2] to programmatically access the printer and templates made with the Editor. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdU9geyCyac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdU9geyCyac [2] https://www.brother.co.jp/eng/dev/bpac/index.aspx https://www.brother.co.jp/eng/dev/bpac/index.aspx
ashton314 6y ago
The cartridge does really last a very long time. I just replaced mine after about a year of intermittent use. I thought that that was fine, but then my wife pointed out that we were replacing the half-capacity cartridge that came with the printer. I expect this cartridge to last a good two or three years. The AirPrint abilities have been a little spotty at times, though that might just be my WiFi. I might hard-wire a raspberry pi to drive it though. Also, I have no incentive for anyone to buy a brother printer. Just another happy user.
jaypeg25 6y ago
I bought a printer at the beginning of COVID just to print Amazon return shipping labels, etc. that I used to take advantage of the office printer for. All I really wanted was a wireless printer so I could stick it somewhere out of sight (small apartment) and be able to print easily. I settled on an HP because it was a good combination of cheap/decent reviews. Setting it up was such a pain in the ass, including instructions telling me to install what I later found to be the wrong setup program. Now I have two separate programs (one that I can change printer settings including changing wifi networks, and another to use the scanner). It doesn't seem right and I feel like I should only need one, but whatever it works right now and I don't plan on changing anything until the printer or I die. That feeling of dread and uncertainty is all too real for me.
- Moru 6y ago
  The first tip I got from an older fellow computer nerd at the first company I worked at was: When customer asks for printer, suggest brother for laser and canon or epson for inkjet. So far I'm very happy I listened. The Brothers just work so never got so far as to try the canons. And I got no support calls about the printers either.
  - ashtonkem 6y ago
    To a first order approximation, nobody actually needs an inkjet printer. The vast majority of consumers don't print enough photos to make inkjets worth it, once you include purchase price and wastage due to dried out ink, most people should get a laser printer for documents and send their photos to Costco or similar.
loeg 6y ago
> I can confirm that my brother printer has worked for years, the ink lasts apparently forever I've had to replace my (Brother) toner once in almost a decade. Granted, I do not print a lot.
- Moru 6y ago
  And before you replace it you just take it out, shake it a bit and put it back in again for another 200 pages. Repeat until it starts giving you missing lines on the pages. This can be going on for many cycles. I just plopped in my spare that been sitting half a year waiting for it's turn when the printer started complaining about low toner.
RonanTheGrey 6y ago
Took me a year to print something for my mom the last time she needed it because I simply KNEW that inkjet was going to be impossible when I needed it. And, lo and behold it was.. It was a Canon Pixma G3200, one of the ones with the built-in inkwells. When I finally decided to face the frustration I knew the thing would present me with, it threw an error. It took a fair amount of time to track down the error (a particular pattern of blinking lights) that meant "the ink cartridge is inserted incorrectly." Ok.... I thought to myself, this thing doesn't even have cartridges. At which point I bought the Brother laser printer I currently have that has not failed me even once.

marcinzm 6y ago

My brother has been going strong for 5 years across 4 moves!

0xTJ 6y ago

Those Epson ink tank ones seem pretty cool, though I've never used one.

jcobnl 6y ago
I have one, and it is clogged up now :(. The only printing mode that give somewhat readable prints is the “Epson photo” mode (or something named similar), which is really slow. But I hope it will magically fix itself if I keep on printing in that mode for awhile.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  My Epson has a function in the Tools menu to unclog things. If you haven't looked for it already, that might be something to explore.
- thescriptkiddie 6y ago
  Try diluting the ink with alcohol (70% isopropanol is fine) and doing a bunch of throw away prints. If that doesn't work you can buy a replacement print head from Epson.
  - avian 6y ago
    I suggest checking the type of ink first. Inks for my printer (type 664) are definitely water based and don't dissolve well in alcohol. A cloth dipped in alcohol hardly touches any dried-on ink, but distilled water will dissolve it nicely.
- avian 6y ago
  Similar experience. For some reason my Epson clogs more easily than the HP it replaced. I tried cleaning heads manually (there are a few tutorials out there that show how to do it with distilled water and some cloth). It's very dirty work and that didn't really work for me. It very quickly gets clogged again. A trick that I found more useful is to not bother with the print head itself, but instead clean the parking spot and the tools that the printer uses to clean the heads itself (there's a rubber wiper, foam and some other stuff there). I unplug the printer, unlock the head and roll it off to the other side, and then use some cotton swabs and distilled water to clean the rubber and rinse the foam. I also keep the parking spot wet with water (the rubber seal + pad that rests on the head when the printer is turned off). Keeping that part clean + the periodical head cleanings that the printer seems to do automatically works out reasonably well. Although every time I do a nozzle check I still always have a nozzle or two clogged so it's not perfect.

ripcity512 6y ago

This article showed up just as I am looking for a replacement for my HP 1320 which works perfectly except 3 out of 4 users in our household can no longer print to it. I’ll look up the Brother laser printer mentioned here to see if people report having better luck. Thanks

jgalt212 6y ago

I have numerous HP laser printers. Linux wifi set up is a bit tricky, but no ink complaints. I see as an ink jet versus laser printer discussion.

m_eiman 6y ago

What about photos? It's been a few years, but last time I checked laser printers were still way behind ink in terms of photo quality.

reaperducer 6y ago
I went with Epson inkjet. I don't know if things have changed, but at the time I bought it, Epson was significantly less evil than that HP I dumped. I'm interested in knowing Canon's level of evil, if anyone has any information about that.
- strombofulous 6y ago
  n=1 but in my experience it is brother >> canon > hp
rytis 6y ago
I usually order good quality photo prints online. It's not immediate feedback, but I never found a need for that. Otherwise so-so quality can be produced by a color laser printer.
GekkePrutser 6y ago
True, I don't even bother with colour laser, it's no good for photos, just for graphs and coloured text. But really the rare occasion I need photos printed, I just order them. If you're a pro or hobby photographer, you can't beat pigment inkjets like Epson's, but then the drawbacks of inkjet (like drying out) won't affect you so much because you will use it a lot.
graton 6y ago
On the rare occasion I need photos I print them at Costco. Their printers are much higher quality than what a person is likely to buy for home use and the price is very reasonable. I use a black-and-white laser printer at home (Brother MFC-8890DW).
- secabeen 6y ago

dmd 6y ago

Yup. My $100-ish Brother laser is 12 years old and still going strong.

spicymaki 6y ago

I love my Brother laser printer, however I did not like my Brother inkjet printer. HP has better cartridge design where the printing head is on the cartridge itself whereas Brother's cartridge is separate from the printing head. This sucks because if the printing head fails you cannot fix it by replacing the cartridge.

rgbrenner 6y ago

It's just math. If you don't print much, you can get a HP printer for $30. The cheapest Brother laser printer is $100 + ink. At $1/mo, it's going to 6 years (thanks Ansil) for the price to work out in favor of the Brother. And to the people saying brothers last forever: they don't. I've owned 3. When the drum wears out, the printer is trash because brother charges almost the cost of the printer for a replacement. That $100 brother has a drum that costs $89 and lasts for 12000 pages. So 12000 pages is the life of that printer. Edit: Re: ink drying out. HP doesn't consider printer cleaning and maintenance pages in their page count. So you can actually clean the printer regularly so the ink doesnt dry out, and they'll keep sending you new cartridges.

jasonjayr 6y ago
For that $30; you also get 1GB of software installed to your computer with all sorts of ads and telemetry sending data back to HP, and making any print operation bring your computer to it's knees, and invoke all sorts of popups.
- t0astbread 6y ago
  I don't know what comes with a $30 HP printer these days but I'm using HPLIP and I'm quite happy with it. Granted, I've never audited it but it's in the Debian repos and I've never heard anything bad about it either. Or did you mean something else?
  - jasonjayr 6y ago
    On Windows, it's pretty bad. I understand HP has acceptable Linux support, and the driver package on a Linux platform is not as intrusive as the Windows side.
    - t0astbread 6y ago
      Ah, I see. I suspected that but I wasn't sure. Which makes me wonder why they're even doing HPLIP in the first place. Printing is only really a thing on the desktop and in business networks but in both cases I'd guess the majority of HP's customers are using Windows.

analog31 6y ago

There seems to be a general shortage of inexpensive laser printers. That would not be a surprising consequence of work-from-home, I suppose. The inexpensive Brother model that we have at home is permanently out of stock everywhere. I've been looking for one so my daughter (college music student) can print sheet music from her apartment. All I use my printer for is shipping labels for my home business. Okay, that and Sudoku. ;-)

ravenstine 6y ago

This 100%. My Brother laser printer is 7 years old, I've never replaced the toner, and it still prints quickly and perfectly every time; of course I only need to print a handful of times a year, but I know for a fact that letting any ink jet printer sit that long would result in terrible prints.

nknealk 6y ago

I’ve had the same brother printer since college. Started in 2008. It still works great. Seconding brother as a cheap and reliable brand.

robertelder 6y ago

+1 For Brother laser printers. I've had mine for a few years now, and only gone through 1 cartridge of toner. It works with my Linux setup too.

wffurr 6y ago

Brother Linux support is bad and ChromeOS support is non-existent. I am going to have to replace a perfectly operable Brother laser because it won't work with mother in law's Chromebox now that Cloud Print is turned down. It would not have been difficult for them to provide CUPS drivers...

GekkePrutser 6y ago
They provide CUPS drivers even for my $50 HL-1112 "Windows Printer" (you know, one of those that doesn't have built-in PCL or processing, it needs everything rendered on the PC). I know the networked ones are even better. Not using ChromeOS though so can't comment on that.
bityard 6y ago
They don't provide handy-dandy single-click driver installation tools for Linux, but I'm not aware of any printer manufacturer that does. However, Brother printers do use standard protocols, so if you can find the PPD file for the model number, all you need to do is provide that to CUPS and it should Just Work.
myself248 6y ago
Wow, really? I trashpicked an old Brother multifunction, and whatever provides the printing service on Ubuntu just found it automagically. I had to download a .rpm to get the scanner working, but it was right there on Brother's website. Years old, but worked flawlessly.
zafiro17 6y ago
I've got a Brother MFC L2710DW that both Linux and ChromeOS print to without any trouble at all. Newer Chromebooks with the Google Playstore also give you access to the Brother Print & Scan app, which also works.
- wffurr 6y ago
  Huh, we have a Brother HLL2390DW multifunction laser, and I can't figure out how to set it up on ChromeOS at all. There's no working driver as far as I can tell. The Print&Scan app is a disaster, largely due to how Android works on Chromebooks. It can only access the totally separate Android filesystem, which isn't visible in the ChromeOS Files app. If you want to export a scan to the ChromeOS files, you have to use the "Share" button and pick the Files app. You can't use the very prominent "Save" button.

norswap 6y ago

Just a counterpoint, my Brother printer was very difficult with a VPN a family member had to use (after using the VPN, I couldn't use the printer anymore, short of rebooting and reinstalling the driver). Every other printer we've had worked well with the same VPN. I didn't manage to get it to work, but my investigation led me to suspect it was because of some networking shenanigans it was doing (some kind of broadcast packet IIRC). At some point, it started working, maybe a firmware update fixed the issue. Might also have been a Windows issue to be honest.

bombledmonk 6y ago

Brother's latest firmware updates on newer color lasers have locked out third party toner companies pretty well. It's a cat and mouse game, but Brother is no saint. I own an 11 year old Brother B&W laser that is still cookin'. I just went searching for a color laser and I still will probably go with Brother, but it's certainly not clear cut in terms of business practices.

lscotte 6y ago
My Brother color laser is running the latest firmware and works just fine with knockoff Chinese toner carts that cost about 1/4 what Brother charges.

graton 6y ago

I purchased my Brother MFC-8890DW (multi-function laser printer) sometime around 2011. I'll admit I don't print much but it is only recently that I finally got a "low toner" message. I bought a toner cartridge but haven't installed it yet as waiting until I see the effects of the low toner. For my situation I would never buy an inket type printer. When I need to print photos I send them to Costco, which is maybe every couple years. Logged into the printer and see that I have only printed 3370 pages in all that time. I probably use the scanner feature more than the printer :)

mosselman 6y ago

My brother printer sucks. I suddenly can’t print via WiFi anymore, from any device. Also, if I switch off the printer I can’t switch it on again unless I perform some crazy dance routine involving pulling out the power plug and paper tray and holding buttons in a certain order while plugging it back in. Also my brother printer claims the cartridge is empty even though it is half full. I get around this by putting a sticker on the little window it uses to peek into the cartridge so it thinks it is full. Insane.

brainzap 6y ago

I want my brother printer to die so I can buy a new one, but he doesn't

snuxoll 6y ago

Even with Brother, you should be mindful of WHICH you purchase. Some like the MFC-L3770CDW I purchased have higher running costs than you would expect, for example. I knew this when I bought it, deciding that my low print volumes made it worth higher running costs vs the lower upfront cost (if I have a massive job it’s cheaper to send it to a print shop anyway without getting into the real $$$ printers, and otherwise I print tax documents annually and occasionally print a few pages every month. I use the ADF to scan documents on a weekly basis however, so the cheap upfront cost for a auto duplexing scanner is a huge win).