Help with printer selecton

No brainer, I have a Lexmark CS410DN (duplex, networked) and it has been fine. Not too bad at all for photos, especially if you laminate them (although there is some sort of problem printing photos in Word documents).

Had a Dell before that, also good until the input circuitry died so I've gone off them a bit.

charles brought next idea :

I have the HP4000N, then 2x low end colour lasers, all were free a good home. To be fair, in all the time I have had the colour lasers, I not really used them in earnest. I make occasional use of the HP400N and other than the original cartridge running out, needing replacement and fitting some new pick up rollers, it has never let me down.

The Samsung I had was very definitely built down to a price for domestic use. Reason I fancied it was it wasn't any bigger than an inkjet, when most were.

The earlier ones were definitely Canon. I still use my 1993 LJ4M+.

I've given up on inkjets, they have always dried and clogged by the next time I need them. I use a colour laser printer for everything.

For the few photos I need printing in good quality (for giving to relatives or school), I just get them printed on a commercial, pay per print machine.

Alternatively, have a colour laser printer for general use and a cheap dye sublimation printer for the odd photo.

SteveW

I had a small Samsung Mono Laser printer. The cartridges in my previous colour laser printer ran out and, as I was out of work and short of money, a mono laser on a clearance offer for £25 seemed a good deal. That printer is still in use by my son to avoid coming downstairs to the main printer - it must be 12 to 15 years old now!

SteveW

Or use one of the on-line services where you download their software, upload the image, select the size you want (original image dependent), glossy or matt paper and a few options such as borderless. You have to factor in postage charges for a one off.

I've used Aldi Photos who are probably just a re-seller of some centralised photo processing company for a number of 30" x 20" prints (£5 + pp) A 6" x 4" print starts at 5p.

Aldi have keen prices too.

I use Jessops who print on Fuji crystal archive paper and can vouch for their light stability. Prints done 12 years ago and in filtered daylight for the entire period have survived whereas inkjet prints in the same display have faded even though they were done on Canon's most expensive paper and ink system at the time. The dyes that absorb blue light essentially fade to nothing leaving a ghostly red/yellow tinged pale pastel image with almost no blue remaining. Jessops prices are now quite a bit higher (although they are still doing prints on Fuji CA).

Definitely not. I've left mine idle for weeks. However the odd thing is that the older hp printers never used to have dry out or clogging issues it only seems to be the more modern one I have a 720 c and 840c and they are still running, and as long as compatible ink is around they are fine for very small print jobs. If you are printing photos though, I don't know what lasers are like for that. Brian

? can't say I have noticed a problem with photos in Word documents.

Have had problems drawing circles programmatically in Excel though - it turns out the poor circle gets kerned by the font metrics and ends up oval unless you use a fixed width teletype style font!

The best inkjets will blow away a colour laser but the ink stability longer term isn't fantastic. Long term display boards I prefer Fuji crystal archive prints.

My inkjet printed posters on normal paper are visibly faded after 2-3 weeks under glass or perspex outdoors in full sunlight. Laser printed ones survive all conditions and the ink doesn't run if rain gets in.

Early inkjet ink seemed to suffer from both of those. My current ink jet is an order of magnitude better. And doesn't clog up anything like as quickly. Seems OK only used once a month or so.

I have a mono at work and colour at home. Toner cartridges are cheap as chips (aftermarket ones)

Downside... Only that colour LASER printers are pretty big and lasers in general can be a bit of a Chinese puzzle to find your way into the murky depths to resolve a paper jam but YouTube has come to my assistance a couple of times although even with cheap thin paper I use at work jams are few and far between.

Although even today the inks are nowhere near as stable as the gold standard of Cibachrome or Fuji Crystal Archive (which are pretty much indestructible in very harsh conditions for a long time).