How to choose a printer.

[EGFPD]

Sorry folks, I know this isn't the most enthralling of subjects, but I could use some advice as I know little about printers.

I'd like to print out A2A (and other) manuals as well as the many medical protocol updates related to my profession, in color, decent quality and at a good price per page. What kind of printer would you recommend? Once upon a time I thought about Kinkos doing that but they're so expensive and I could use one quite regularly now for college.

I see it as an investment for sure and I'm not too dissuaded by price.

Any suggestions?

[AKar]

Hi,

If your print quantities are "moderate", I would consider any inexpensive, but reasonably reviewed color laser - for typical office papers their output is a way better than that of inkjets. I use a cheapish Dell color laser for most stuff, the quality is very reasonable and beats usual office color copiers by much. The cost per page is not too economical if your print quantities are very high though.

Specifically for photo printing I use Epson R3000, together with appropriate papers, but for documents, graphics etc, any reasonable color laser is a must. You can get them for a US$200 or even less these days I presume.

[EGFPD]

Thanks for the reply but it looks like the R3000 is wide format and doesn't suit my needs. I need color primarily for documents, not photographs. The protocols I print out are color coded by level of care and various colored texts to draw attention to drug dosages and contraindications. I suppose I will print out occasional photographs, but my needs are just above that which your average, run of the mill, home use printer would provide. Large documents with some color, en masse.

I figured I'd ask here assuming folks printed their manuals out.

[pilottj]

If you can find a nice laser printer, I would go for that. Lasers are more expensive than Inkjets, but better in the long run. While laser cartridges are more expensive than your typical inkjet cartridge, the actual cost per page is cheaper with laser. Another thing, if you live in a dry climate, if you don't use an inkjet for a while, the inkheads will dry up. With a laser, you could print 50 pages...then not print anything for 5 months, then print another 50 pages just fine.

Cheers
TJ

[AKar]

Thanks for the reply but it looks like the R3000 is wide format and doesn't suit my needs. I need color primarily for documents, not photographs. The protocols I print out are color coded by level of care and various colored texts to draw attention to drug dosages and contraindications. I suppose I will print out occasional photographs, but my needs are just above that which your average, run of the mill, home use printer would provide. Large documents with some color, en masse.

Hi,

I just added the R3000 to point out that I use a different printer for some stuff, and not using my cheap color laser for everything. But, as I said,

[...] for documents, graphics etc, any reasonable color laser is a must. You can get them for a US$200 or even less these days I presume.

I can thoroughly recommend any reasonable color laser, even from the cheaper price points. If your printing quantities are high, you'll probably want to invest to a higher-class color laser. I only print a few hundred pages or so a year, so I do perfectly with a cheapo. Perhaps some other members may assist you for finding specific makes/models, but just googlin' something like "best color laser for money" will probably give you some reasonably advice!

And all that pilottj said, I can agree.



Edit: For your use, if I understand correctly, I would not be too worried about the print quality - any color laser that gets reasonable reviews these days would suffice, they do a damn fine job. The cost-per-page would probably mean more for you. I hope someone can point a recommendation, but I've got no bad experiences with any reasonably chosen color lasers lately.

[Ian P]

We just swapped a Samsung CLP-315 colour laser, which has been in service for a few years (a new printer became cheaper than the cost of replacing the toner cartridges!) with a Brother HL-3140CW.

The little Samsung was an excellent printer, but it is two generations out of date now, hence the expense of the cartridges. The Brother is a lot bigger, it barely fits on the desk, but it has all the features my wife and I wanted and the print quality has been fine so far.

If I had to make a recommendation of the two, I'd probably suggest the Samsung CLP-4xx series for most people.

Cheers,

Ian P.

[Scott - A2A]

I bought one of these 2 years ago for two reasons:

1. "Dad" no longer blows a head gasket when the kids print a ton of pages
2. It's a workhorse for manuals. Prints both sides.

The thing just prints and prints and prints.

It's a workhorse and also has a nice feature that allows it to spit out the first page rapidly. And is quiet.

Great for manuals.

Scott.