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I use this service for now because my wife is a teacher and she has to print a lot of stuff, at home, in color (yea I know the schools should be paying for that

I use this service for now because my wife is a teacher and she has to print a lot of stuff, at home, in color (yea I know the schools should be paying for that but that's not how teaching in the US works apparently). The printer itself is like 100 dollars and I have to say the convenience of not having to drive to Walmart at 10pm Sunday because she surprise-printed 150 pages of stuff is kind of nice. That said the printer only prints well for about 2 years before color images just start to streak no matter how new your print cartridge is or how many times you clean/align. I'd love to invest in a color laser but last time I went through this it was close to 600 bucks to just get started. I wonder if it's time to check that option out again...

wolrah 4y ago
> I'd love to invest in a color laser but last time I went through this it was close to 600 bucks to just get started. A color laser is effectively four laser printers in one box, so it is inherently going to be multiple times the cost of a single one. That said, unless your wife is printing mostly actual photos that she cares about having in top quality, the color laser is the right answer if she actually needs color. Inkjet printers are for photos and nothing else. They range between not good and bad at documents, always have, and always will. Anything greyscale made of mostly solid colors is laser's territory.
Merad 4y ago
Brother has color laser printers starting at around $250, but they get you on the toner cartridges... $75 each and it takes four of them. It probably works out to be cheaper than an inkjet though since you don't have to worry about toner drying out when you've only used half the cartridge.
deelly 4y ago
Serious question: why not try inkjet with refillable tanks? I use Canon Pixma for 2 years, I print A4 full color page every day, one time I printed color book and BW book with a lot of images. I spent like $ 8-12 on non-original ink and I didn't even finish these 4 200ml bottles yet.
- kempbellt 4y ago
  > I print A4 full color page every day This is really a key point. Inkjet printers are great for printing photos and will work great if you do so frequently. But if you don't, they have issues. Unless you print something in "full color" (and even if you do), you rarely use the inks evenly. One cartridge will always run out or dry out faster than another. Also, ink can dry out in the jets - causing clogs and resulting in streaks. Also, if a cartridge dries out, the printer thinks it is empty and almost always requires you to replace it before printing even if you don't need it. They're great for photos (especially Canons), but a simple BW laser is a better investment if all you print is documents. If you need color (for documents), a color laser is also more ideal. It is much more expensive up front, but also a good long-term investment. Toner you use less frequently (like cyan) won't dry out. It'll just sit there until the odd day that you need it. Prints-per-cartridge are usually higher since the cartridges are typically larger, physically. Streaking in the conventional sense isn't even possible with how the tech works. Price-per-print is typically much lower. Especially if you consider less trips to the store, and less replacing of wasted cartridges. A $600 color laser (more like $400 now) can be an expensive upfront investment, but for printing color docs, it's almost always cheaper in the long run. Source: I worked retail in college and sold printers and had this conversation literally thousands of times.
  - Taikonerd 4y ago
    I have an inkjet, but I rarely print anything. Would it make sense to print out a test page (say) every week, just to prevent the ink from drying out?
    - kempbellt 4y ago
      That's what we recommended. Print something that uses all the colors at least once a week to keep the ink moving. I believe some printers have a "test" print that does exactly this.

wolrah 4y ago

> I'd love to invest in a color laser but last time I went through this it was close to 600 bucks to just get started. A color laser is effectively four laser printers in one box, so it is inherently going to be multiple times the cost of a single one. That said, unless your wife is printing mostly actual photos that she cares about having in top quality, the color laser is the right answer if she actually needs color. Inkjet printers are for photos and nothing else. They range between not good and bad at documents, always have, and always will. Anything greyscale made of mostly solid colors is laser's territory.

Merad 4y ago

Brother has color laser printers starting at around $250, but they get you on the toner cartridges... $75 each and it takes four of them. It probably works out to be cheaper than an inkjet though since you don't have to worry about toner drying out when you've only used half the cartridge.

deelly 4y ago

Serious question: why not try inkjet with refillable tanks? I use Canon Pixma for 2 years, I print A4 full color page every day, one time I printed color book and BW book with a lot of images. I spent like $ 8-12 on non-original ink and I didn't even finish these 4 200ml bottles yet.

kempbellt 4y ago
> I print A4 full color page every day This is really a key point. Inkjet printers are great for printing photos and will work great if you do so frequently. But if you don't, they have issues. Unless you print something in "full color" (and even if you do), you rarely use the inks evenly. One cartridge will always run out or dry out faster than another. Also, ink can dry out in the jets - causing clogs and resulting in streaks. Also, if a cartridge dries out, the printer thinks it is empty and almost always requires you to replace it before printing even if you don't need it. They're great for photos (especially Canons), but a simple BW laser is a better investment if all you print is documents. If you need color (for documents), a color laser is also more ideal. It is much more expensive up front, but also a good long-term investment. Toner you use less frequently (like cyan) won't dry out. It'll just sit there until the odd day that you need it. Prints-per-cartridge are usually higher since the cartridges are typically larger, physically. Streaking in the conventional sense isn't even possible with how the tech works. Price-per-print is typically much lower. Especially if you consider less trips to the store, and less replacing of wasted cartridges. A $600 color laser (more like $400 now) can be an expensive upfront investment, but for printing color docs, it's almost always cheaper in the long run. Source: I worked retail in college and sold printers and had this conversation literally thousands of times.
- Taikonerd 4y ago
  I have an inkjet, but I rarely print anything. Would it make sense to print out a test page (say) every week, just to prevent the ink from drying out?
  - kempbellt 4y ago
    That's what we recommended. Print something that uses all the colors at least once a week to keep the ink moving. I believe some printers have a "test" print that does exactly this.