Printer Advice

If you don't use the inkjet frequently have you considered the possibility of a colour laser AIO? If inkjets aren't used frequently you'll likely get blocked jets and spend a fortune in ink trying to unblock them. If you do use the inkjet frequently, check on the availability of refills rather than the very expensive single-use cartridges.

Even for photos, lasers are considered acceptable for home use.

I use an ET-2650 which has ink tanks. Don't know about WiFi connectivity. Scans and copies OK. Seems happy on W11

If I want a good color picture I sort the image out with GIMP etc and put it on a stick and saunter down to the local photo processing shop, where they can produce extremely high quality prints for small money

Color inkjet/laser isn't for making much beyond simple leaflet. But it can proof a lot.

I like HP. Not cheap for ink but never had a problem with blockage etc.

I use with Mac and Linux but have used Windows in the past.

Work with iPhone, iPad etc.

Wi-Fi built in.

I have a multifunction one, forget the model number but doubt it is still available as I’ve had it years. Ditto a mono laser one.

I recommend their ink service. It detects when you are running low and they send you new cartridges. You pay a small few depending on usage ( pages per month).

I have an HP 6022e and have had nothing but trouble from it. I often have to "switch it off and on again" to get it going, or restart it when it stops.

Sometimes it stops printing in the middle of the page.

The controlling software is awful.

I changed to a colour Laser AIO some time back, for the reason you mention above. I am very satified with it, but I wouldn't claim that it reproduces photos quite as well as a good inkjet.

I used to have an inkjet. A1. the red ink disappeared after a week in bright sunlight.

The colour laser is critically dependent on toner colour. It needs recalibration every cartridge change if yoiu want true colour rendition. Deep purple is especially hard to get. That is why I recommend using print and photo shops with very expensive machines for decent quality.

OTOH a colour laser is great for proofing, and general hack usage.

Wouldn't be without mine.

Most inkjets are dye inks. If you want lightfastness then you need pigment inks, which can be found on artist-oriented printers.

Also to note that Epson's inkjets are the best ones for mucking about with putting random stuff in the cartridges. Unlike the bubblejet ones (Canon, HP) they use ultrasonic piezo mechanisms and they don't care too much about what stuff they're squirting out. As long as it's not got lumps that block the jets they'll print anything. I worked with someone who printed transistors using semiconductive ink (they were large and not terribly effective transistors, but they worked).

Although large format printing (A3, A2, A1, ...) tends to be easier with inkjets.

Theo

The solid ink Xerox Phasors(sp?) were good, but seem to have disappeared nowadays

I can remember some inkjet advertising in "freebie" trade papers X years ago. One such advert came with an actual photo (inkjet on photo paper) proclaiming how bright and lifelike was the image and how stable the ink was for record keeping. One of these photos was put on our works notice board with half of it blanked out, covered with a bit of photocopy paper. After around a month the side exposed to office lighting and sunshine through the window looked a tiny bit washed out but when removing the blanking paper the two halves were like chalk and cheese. The faded half looked like half the the other side intensity/contrast and with very subdued colours.

I have a series of inkjet produced prints in glass fronted frames and they have been there 5+ years and still look good. They were printed on an Epson 5 colour inkjet but using cheaper "comparable" cartridges. The photo paper was quite an expensive thick own brand from one of the supermarkets. It was the heaviest weight of paper that the printer was specified for. The prints don't get full sunlight shining on them but during most of the year daylight is the only lighting required in the room.

I agree with others that if you don't use an inkjet often enough the ink will dry in the head/jets. I have a image much like a test card that uses all my cartridges to print and I run it though the printer every 2 to 3 weeks, even though I may have used the printer for black text with coloured logos - its a PITA if one heads/jets dries up. I spent a good few hours and quite a lot of ink when I went on holiday for around 3 weeks in the hottest part of summer with the house fully locked up and the heads/jets in the Epson dried out. With an Epson the heads/jets are part of the machine so its not just a ink cartridge replacement to get then working again. It a matter of positioning the heads/jets on some wetted blotting paper (or equivalent) and keeping the blotting paper damp for maybe days. Afterwards seeing if this worked by running the head cleaning facility which uses a LOT of ink.

On some (all?) HP inkjet printers the head/jet comes as part of the cartridge so a blocked jet can be cured by replacing the cartridge which possibly makes the cartridges more expensive. I have had both HP and Epson printers and although I've had my current printer some time it is an Epson because at the time it appeared to the best for producing "quality" photo prints.

I also have a Xerox branded mono laser printer and I tend to use this to print text documents and sticky postage labels (inkjet ink can run if the label gets wet).

BTW you may find that some brands don't use there own laser print engines. At one time HP lasers used Brother laser print engines so something at the top of the price range may have been using the main internal component as an alternative brand but at the cheaper end of the market. These days that kind of information is quite easy to find on Google :)

You may want to select from a shortlist based on the price of the consumables, especially if printing off a lot.

I can only comment on my / our experience.

We bought each of our three daughters cheap ( £30 or so) HP multi function ones when they went off to Uni.

One must have been about 2008, the other two in 2011.

The 2008 one saw her through Uni and beyond and was given away working in

The 2011 ones I am pretty sure are still being used.

I have a Canon printer that I have used for years and it is still soldiering on, but it hasn't got a scanner. So I bought a used HP3050 from ebay, and then used a USB connection from my laptop to configure it to connect wirelessly to my router, then disconnected the USB. It now can scan wirelessly and also print wirelessly from both Windows and Linux. It also has the option of scanning a document and printing a copy in a choice of colour or monochrome, so it can be used as a photocopier (though a bit more expensive in ink). It isn't really designed to provide photograph quality on photographic paper but it did an adequate job (not as good as my Canon) the one time I tried.

If you can find one where the previous owner has left the original software on it, it will also take non-original ink cartridges. It notices when I put one in but it obeys the override to use it anyway. The later software update removed the override capability.

The HP website says it doesn't (currently) work under Win11, though all other windows versions are OK.

These are youngsters!

I still use, daily, my 1993 LaserJet 4 Plus!

I trust you have solid floors? It's difficult getting heavy-duty lifting gear into the room if you ever want to move one of those.

I can lift it myself, even at my age. I leave the duplexer and large paper tray until later, though.

HP have been nothing but trouble for me since they went wifi. The Ink-by-post system is good in principle but the software never works. Constant failure to connect by wifi, refusal to reconnect, plug in the usb cable and you get multiple printers confugured when there is only one. The app is hopeless. The only good thing about them is you can take them back to Currys and plonk it on the desk and say 'Doesn't work, I want another' but you will get fed up with doing that.

They have unlimited phone support. I once spent a whole morning on the phone to Singapore before eventually printing a single page. I still couldn't repeat it after I hung up. That was when I put the thing in the back of the car and got a replacement which was just as unreliable.

This is with a recent HP laptop and proper windows.

TW

That is why I suggested an older model of an HP All-In-One. And use Windows rather than the HP software to add the printer.