If you need a printer for documents, get something that runs on powder toner, like a color LED.
If you want to print photos, send out for it; it will be cheaper anyway.
The quality is not as good as the very best inkjets but it’s good enough if you’re not exhibiting your photos.
The reliability though is amazing. I have an old Selphy printer from the 90s that still works perfectly from certain cameras. There’s nothing to dry out or spill.
It just works.
I have replaced it but only because the USB implementation seems too old to be recognised by many modern devices.
The Selphy I replaced it with I expect to run and run.
For everything else I use a Brother colour laser.
Canon, Epson or HP inkjets are a fool’s purchase. I’ve been that fool before, never again.
Tried the recommended things to fix but couldn't fix. I liked the quality of the prints even if they were a bit pricey per print.
Upright design of ES1 didn't help, since the paper must do a 90 degree turn like it's performing a stunt! Just to reach the output tray. All in a creaking plastic box. I respect Canon cameras but not my old Selphy ES1. Sorry!
Got an Epson photo eco-tank and it's good. No stress about running out of ink. Nozzles haven't clogged and I like the quality, it is well made printer the Epson ecotank, at least the model I have.
Previous Epson printers - hated the cost of ink and clogged nozzles.
I wonder how much paper I need to go through to get myself an Epson end of life message! I doubt I will print/waste that much paper. Funny how some are concerned about the e-waste implications of printing a truck load of A4.
I've only used the CP range of Selphy printers. These are flat, horizontal designs where the paper travels out one side and back again. They sound much simpler mechanically than a vertical machine.
I think I pay about £0.20 to £0.40 a photo (paper + ink) where as my local supermarket prints for about £0.07 each, so there are cheaper options but I'd bet still cheaper than buying and running a high end Epson inkjet.
I buy bulk paper+ink packs and print pretty rarely. Since it never goes off (I've used 20 year old stock before) it just sits in the box until the family comes round.
I'm glad you're getting good service from your inkjet but I'd never buy another one.
What I really hated about my Epson and Canon inkjets is the driver software. It's overly big and very rent seeky. It tries desperately to sell you stuff like ink, paper or photo storage, none of which is competitive price wise. On the Mac I needed third party software to remove it completely.
The experience soured me on both brands, (old Selphy printers excluded).
The autofeed tray was broken, but the manual feed tray still worked.
A steal at $100 and cheaper, easier and more reliable even in the short run than trying to unclog the 2 inkjets my wife and I both brought to the marriage.
Marriage: Pick your battles.
It was limited to black and white though.
I've had zero cases where I needed to print color. If I want to print photos I just order them at Shutterfly and pick them up in less than an hour at the Walgreens around the corner.
I picked up a Brother (L3510CDW) colour laser + scanner a few years ago. It was slightly more expensive than a bubblejet, but consumables and maintenance will mean TCO is way lower. Brother seem to have some of the better support for GNU/Linux & CUPS these days - this thing Just Worked (over the network, too) on Debian with I think one package from the standard repos.
Also, the printer from your childhood was limited to black and whatever colour paper you fed into it, not black and white.
I meant ‘are they being produced anymore’, ‘would you still recommend them’, etc.
>> Also, the printer from your childhood was limited to black and whatever colour paper you fed into it, not black and white.
I wouldn’t have known - it’s not exactly like I was the person purchasing the toner, and I was simply told by my Dad that it printed in black and white only.
At that age, I was just grateful to be able to print my Winnie-the-Pooh fan fiction. :P
It's a bit of a trope, people calling monochrome printers black & white -- they don't print the white areas, of course. Some light-yellow paper would have been appropriate for the fanfic. : )
For photo prints, you are far better off just paying per page for commercial products, though color lasers are pretty good for simple things like colored charts. A really good color printer costs a lot; it's far cheaper to rent the use of one when you need it.
I used an HP LaserJet 4+, upgraded to 4M+ by adding a PostScript board, and adding memory to get it into the 30-something MB range. That was 12 ppm printing speed. I replaced it with a much-lighter Brother HL-2140 (22 ppm) when I had owned it for about 10 years, during which I replaced the toner once. The Brother is now almost 10 years old, still working just fine, though I have replaced the toner twice.
I could replace it, but why? It still does what I bought it to do.
Lost soundscapes, like playing a computer cassette out loud or hearing a modem dial up have a really nostalgic power for me.
I wonder, what sound is current now that will disappear in the future?
Car engines for one I’d bet.
The manufacturers generally don't fuck around with their laser lines.
If it's color and they don't have a machine identification code (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Identification_Code) then you have a real gem. They actually respect you as a customer.