Printers (again) Uncomplicated Inkjet AiO?

Have you tried a decent photo grade inkjet on proper photo glossy paper in the last few years? The top end inkjets will produce output easily on par with stuff from a photolab.

Colour laser output has improved (although HP possibly less so than some, since its not really their target market) - but usually lacks the colour gamut and finish for top end work. Some get closer with oil finishers and other post printing treatments.

Maybe I'm not most people, but if I see "Thermal Printer", my first thought is of a till roll, closely followed by bus tickets.

For an esoteric printing method, I've got an Olivetti Sparkjet printer that will work for as long as the two spare cartridges I've got last. They may just be the last ones in the world, too. The printer uses a spark to carry powdered carbon across a gap, depositing it on the paper on the way through.

Yup... there were also a few that could take a thermal ribbon for printing on plain paper (with a sort of shiny waxy looking print).

I suspect there can't be many of them left in use.

That's actually not too bad ... CMY and K inkjet cartridges can cost £60 and you'll only get a few hundred pages out of them (much less if you're printing photos).

At that price the cartridges will be low-capacity ones that need replacing almost straight away ... otherwise it would be cheaper to buy a new printer for its consumables than to buy the consumables alone (there was a very short time when you could do that, some years ago, but the manufacturers realized their error!)

I'd say a cheap (but not too cheap) mono laser for text printing -- a duplex one so that you can use both sides of the paper -- and for occasional photo printing use one of the printing bureaux. It's not worth owning (and taking the trouble to look after) your own colour photo printer unless you do a significant amount of printing (or are amazingly impatient!)

Cheers, Daniel.

I remember those.... Brother standalone word processors?

Very handy for industrial espionage, as the ribbon could only be used once, and what had been typed was easily readable. It took people a while to catch on. ;-)

I bought the cartridges about ten years ago, and they were pretty close to being the last ones available.

Indeed, the EP22 and EP44. There was also a Hitachi plain paper fax called the Hi-Fax something or other. That used great A4 width thermal cartridges to print on "plain" paper (plain in the sense that it needed to be very smooth and finished to get a decent result)

Yup ;-) Some of the multi pass carbon ribbons could give away plenty if you pinched one that had only been back and forth a couple of times.

Yup lexmark made that mistake. There was a time it was cheaper to buy a new printer each time the ink ran out!

Yup, a plausible way forward these days.

I had one (may still be in the attic). It took wax roles and printed at 300 dpi a line at a time across the paper. It also did dye sublimation printing which makes all inkjets and lasers look poor. If only they still made the media.

I don?t agree, I have an Canon IP 4500 which prints Photos on gloss paper that are if anything better then any photo lab that i have used and it costs

We've got a crap-o-matic HP all-in-one plastic block of elephant poo which prints (badly) when it feels like it, and scans and copies in much the same way. I hate it. The "drivers" require several terabytes of disk space, or at least that's how it feels.

I did get offered a laserjet 5000 the other day, which should improve matters somewhat.

cheers

Jules

In the seemingly unlikely event of a printhead blockage on the Canon MP600 and similar models, the head simply unclips and you can just leave it to soak in some cartridge flush fluid and leave it to dissolve any blockage out of the very fine (9800dpi) holes. Just stir a few times if needed and be patient!

Funny, but there does not seem to be much mention of the very costly problems that do happen with lasers ... drum/fuser assemblies etc.

I have 2 Laserjets (a 5M and a 4L) which have been banging out printouts for years. One cost £35 and the other £40. If they ever go bang, I'll just buy another one on eBay (which is where these came from.)

IMHO, all inkjet printers block if left unused for a while. Lasers seem quite happy with this. So I'll take my chances at 1% against 100% - even when the 1% can cost more to fix.

So who recalls the "one-shot" IBM golfball ribbons which you could unroll, to read all the confidential stuff the managers were getting typed....

IIRC, carbon ribbons. Gave beautiful results, though.

Same on the Quietwriter printers too

Which is why, in my wife's office, they had to be removed and locked up each night.

Because they're rare if you look after the printer? Inkjets often die just from lack of use, which generally isn't a problem with lasers.