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Comment by oneplane | Hacker News Reader

This makes me more curious about the act of printing in general. When was the last time you actually had to print anything?

I still have a color laser printer but the last time I used it was over a year ago when I moved it to a different printserver (it's a non-networked model) in my house and I wanted to test it.

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I hardly use mine, but still feel like I have to keep it around for things that only take forms and documents in physical form. I end up using mine like once a year, but when I do use it it's usually something that has to be printed.

I ended up buying a Brother combination laser printer and scanner. Laser printers deal better with infrequent use, and I find the scanner (which is much more useful, IMO) helps justify the space the machine takes up.

I don't own a printer but if I did I would print out academic papers because I find it easier to focus on them when they are printed out

In my house we print receipts for tax deductions, tax documents, agreements that need signed then scanned, todo lists for kids, the occasional academic paper, Christmas cards, occasional party invitations. A few of those are outsourced to OfficeMax or Costco, but I'd like to upgrade my printer to stop doing that soon.

School-aged kids always have something to print... this may change this school year.

Tax forms that the tax software doesn't handle. A fair amount of banking business that needs signatures.

I don't think I've had a single of paper to print for any of the banks I deal with over the last 10 years, even while I was buying houses or getting a mortgage or anything. Same with tax or anything for my business.

I do think some kids in my family still have to print something every now and then but usually the school supplies anything related to printing/scanning/duplication. But anything beyond the first 10 years is practically either in-person or purely digital.

Maybe it's a difference in country/culture/government/time.

My wife is treasurer of a non-profit and has to deal with annoying physical paper once a month or so.

Even aside from school, we constantly print coloring pages or other crafts related things for the kids. We can usually find the exact obscure Pokemon or whatever they want to color online.

> this may change this school year.

I think it will increase. A lot of teachers are posting pdf worksheets for kids to print and complete at home.

> this may change this school year. IN the last 5 months I had to print more stuff for my kids than I've done in total over the last 5 years. Lockdown actually pushed me to replace a crap inkjet I've had for a decade, with a brand new Brother laser that is simply a dream (with macOS at least - had issues with Linux that I've just not had the inclination to solve, it's easier to just copy files over...).

Sometimes I have to print invoices, when I travel I make sure to print out the ticket/boarding pass just in case. We still send Christmas cards. I've designed and printed out a few A3 posters for a friend's bar.

We still don't own a printer, it takes up too much space, I just go to the convenience store and pay 10+ cents per page

I print almost nothing despite having spent my whole career working on printing technology of one form or another.

I print maps and other resources for D&D. Occasionally I'll also print a picture I take or something I draw.

That's about it for me.

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