this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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If you are a casual printer user, just use the local print shop. It's cheaper that way.
But then you have to go outside and shudders interact with people. Hard pass.
The last printer I got cost 40€. Print shops charge 10ct per copy. That’s 400 prints just to amortize the cheapest garbage printer you could buy 10 years ago. And the ink doesn’t last 400 prints. Owning a printer just doesn’t make sense.
Toner in laser printers is powder. Can't dry out what's already dry. If you get a brother laser printer, it will last forever.
Yup. If you are going to own a printer, get a laser black and white printer and keep it forever. Do not get an inkjet printer. And if you need color prints (you don't) you can literally just do those at walgreens, cvs, or a bunch of other stores that will do color prints.
The only time you should get an inkjet printer is if you are a busy photographer selling a bunch of prints and you've hit the point where doing color prints through a store has become too expensive.
And high volume. Believe it or not, inkjets have lower cost per page than lasers. Especially with the newer tank-based printers, but they were already cheaper before those.
The trick is that you have to use up all the ink before it dries. Printing out a few odd documents per year won't do that. That's most people's use case, and lasers are superior for that because toner doesn't dry out.
There are a few odd niches for inkjets, but he sub-$100 printer market should die in a fire. If you can't afford a somewhat more expensive printer, then you're not going to be able to afford the ink.
I'm struggling with this, what inkjet can I run cheaper than a laser? My real world example, we switched from HP 62xl (480 pages @ $50) to Brother TN660 (2600 pages @ $60) which seemed impossible to beat. We only do black and white, and can burn through a TN660 in a month. Please teach me the ways
Usually have to go up higher in the market, but take a look at any review site that focuses on printers. Different sites will have slightly different methods, so you can't compare across different sites. That said, if you check between lasers and the better inkjets on the same site, the inkjets tend up being cheaper per page.
But again, you have to run through the entire ink before it dries. If you don't do that, then get a laser.
Ink also runs when wet, so caveat emptor if you plan on your paper existing anywhere with water.
And with strange eons even a Brother printer may die.
It is hard to clean all the dust off your printer for the once every 3 years you might need it though without also blowing the toner everywhere.
Thats why I just leave the dust on top lol.
You pay for the convenience.
I don't often need to print something, but when I do, it's usually outside of the opening hours of a print shop and I'm in a hurry.
(95% of my printing are fantasy RPG floor plans that I've downloaded literally 5 minutes before the players show up.)
Paid 55€ for my old used laser printer a few years ago and some toner for 20€, both will last me well over 700 pages, not to mention the time saved by not having to go to a print shop and I can print whenever I want, even on sunday (Germans know what I mean).
If I need to print something in color I could do it at work or at my fathers place, but that didnt even happen yet.
Or a library
Went to the FedEx print shop a few months back. They directed me to a self help that wanted me to overpay or it wouldn't print anything (blocks of payments, like 5/10/15 but the thing I wanted was like 7.89). I asked if they could do it for me instead so I could just pay for the thing I want and they said yes but would charge I think it was 2 bucks for assistance, still cheaper than the other overcharge but wtf. Just going to a locally owned place from now on after that ridiculousness.
This is the way. I have a Brother B&W laser printer/scanner combo because I fairly regularly need to print/sign/scan/email forms for various things, but if I need something colour or really.good quality the local print shop is the way to go
I did that for years until I found myself in a job that frequently involves signing and scanning purchase orders. As I've spent six figures of company money on network hardware and other tech stuff over the past year you'd think we'd have an electronic solution for this and while most of it is done via SAP, our suppliers still often need an actual signature.