InkJet or Laser

Crann na Beatha

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mordeith

Phoenix wrote: »

Hey guys,
In the market for a printer what would you recommend?I will use it for college,printing documents and other stuff,any ideas?

Inkjet will be cheaper to buy/run but you'll get better quality from laser. If you're not printing loads of stuff and it's not graphics heavy I'd go with Inkjet.

Seamus1964

Printing documents and other stuff :

The monochrome laser is still the workhorse printer of choice in many cases, holding its own against color lasers and increasingly capable inkjets for one simple reason: Not everyone needs color

If inkjet printer (colour ) is required, go with Kodak - cheapest ink cartridges available and good quality print.

machiavellianme

Laser toner doesn't dry out in the same way that inkjets do so if you only use it occasionally, laser might be the way to go. The cost of toner can be off-putting but they last for ages and have excellent quality.

Crann na Beatha

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bluferbl

Phoenix wrote: »

What brand is good,durable,reliable?

Any of the big brands will be fine...I've personally had Brother laser printers for a long time and never had trouble. I've also installed them for businesses and always feel confident I'm not going to get endless calls with printer problems when they choose a Brother printer. I've also supported loads of HP printers for businesses and they're a good choice too. In my experience you'll pay a bit more for a HP than a similar or better spec'ed Brother because HP are the go to name in printers.

My recommendation would always be to go for a laser for printing documents. Probably a higher initial cost for the printer and the price of a toner cartridge can appear to be high but the page yield is always better and a big plus is that toner never dries out (unlike ink). My first laser was an Oki which was only on the second toner cartridge when I stopped using it after more than 10 years (yeah I don't print much personally). I only stopped using it because it was slow and I decided to get a colour laser.

Final observation...be kind to your printer and treat it gently! There's a bunch of moving parts in there and it will last a lot longer and be less temperamental if you're gentle with it.

Other last observation...if you think that graphics will be important you might be better off going the inkjet route. At one point I was doing a lot of graphics so I used to print the text portions minus the graphics on a laser so they were super crisp and clean, then I'd run the page through an inkjet to do the graphics. It took a wee bit of lining up but the output was great. Best of both worlds!

shanec1928

Phoenix wrote: »

What brand is good,durable,reliable?

Brother

Czhornet

machiavellianme wrote: »

Laser toner doesn't dry out in the same way that inkjets do so if you only use it occasionally, laser might be the way to go. The cost of toner can be off-putting but they last for ages and have excellent quality.

I wish I knew this 2 years ago, we bought a HP copier, printer and scanner, worked great for the first while and then the print quality was very bad. we eventually brought to a private printer shop and they said that the ink dries up and there is nothing you can do only print a sheet every now and then the keep it freed up, a bit un-economical if you ask me!!

Raminahobbin

Normally, laser would be the way to go, but Brother have been selling a range of A3 inkjet printers that outperform many of the laser printers on the market at the moment in terms of quality and value for money with cartridges.

I bought this one recently and am pretty impressed with it. The quality is excellent (designed to be able to print pretty sharp photographs) and although not as quick to print as a laser printer, it feeds the pages landscape so it is much quicker than a normal inkjet.

Ink cartridges- Brother RRP €99 for a full set of 4 Cartridges. Black does 2400 pages, colours do 1200 each. MUCH better value than most laser printers out there!

(full disclosure: I work somewhere that sells printers, but genuinely did buy this machine myself as I can see how happy my customers are with the Brother A3 range.)