Looking for a printer. Suggestions?

[jennpage]

So I am wanting to buy a good printer for hybrid invitations and other projects. I don't have much knowledge on printers. What would you suggest? Inkjet vs. laser? What model? What kind has a longer life on ink cartridges? Sell me!

[jacinda]

Inkjet is fine for hybrid projects. I have a Canon ip4500. It only cost about $80 (several years ago), but it works a treat. I tried a more expensive printer once (different brand, can't remember what now) but it didn't print half as nice so I returned it for a Canon. I've had 2 Canon printers that I really liked, so I'm sticking with that brand now.

As for inks. Go for the printers that have separate ink cartridges. That way if say, your yellow ran out, you only have to replace the yellow, not the whole 'all-in-one' cartridge.

[Txcorey]

I'm also a big fan of Canon printers. I have a newer HP that my DH bought me and I HATE it. All the colors are in one tank, so if one color runs out you have to replace the whole thing, plus it has just never printed well. I've never had any trouble with my Canon and love it. I've had it for several years now-each color has it's own tank so you don't feel like you are wasting ink. I'm not sure what the models are now since mine is several years old, but you should be able to compare models at Best Buy or somewhere like that. HTH.

[Freckles]

I've been doing some research over the past couple of months because I need a new printer too. What I heard from a family member, is that Canon eats A LOT of ink, even when not printing. This person printed something before going on a vacation and the ink levels were fine. When he returned, 2 weeks later, the ink in one of the cartridges was empty! He also says the cartridges are expensive compared to other brands...
I am leaning more towards buying an Epson, but I'm still not sure.
The positive thing about Canon printers, is that they usually print very well on thicker paper and cardstock, which might be a problem with Epson...
It's a tough decision!

[jacinda]

My Canon inks seem to last quite a while.

[littlekiwi]

Originally Posted by jacinda

My Canon inks seem to last quite a while.

so do mine but then again I don't print much at home

[Arual]

My last couple printers had been Epson and I loooooved them. Then I ended up getting a new printer so that I could scan, fax, copy and print all in one and was given the HP Photosmart Premium-Web and I looooooooove it so very very much! My inks last a long time, the colors are beautiful, it's super simple to operate and my inks are all separate cartridges. At the time it was about 275.00 or so, but I am sure it's much cheaper now. When the time comes for a new printer I'll get another HP Photosmart or another Epson. My epsons were terrific as well.

[MamaBee]

Well... I have a HP PhotoSmart C5100 all in one... and this is my primary for doing hybrid projects... it's very true to the color and I think the ink lasts a long time. It is I think 5 years old so it's getting the time to getting a new one... lately it has been giving me a bit of grief on paper thickness... what it used to let me take is now jamming. However, my hubby hasn't looked at it yet, it might just be user error.

I also have a HP laserjet CP2020. This is our "workhorse"... my hubby uses this one a lot!... and when I need to print a lot pages, like favor boxes or banners... this is the the printer I use. The toner lasts a long time... We have had it for 2 years and finally switching out the cartridges that came with it.

I have only had HP printers and have always been very happy with them.

[sthomas215]

I guess I'm different in that I use a color laser printer. I have an HP LaserJet 1525nw color and I love it. Laser ink doesn't smear or fade and while toner cartridges are more expensive, I replace them every couple of YEARS...or at least lately anyway. Even when I was heavy duty paper crafting I would only replace them once a year.

[Lime]

I have a laserjet and I am trying to buy a new inkjet, but I had trouble getting the saturation I want (for it to match my monitor) with the first one, an Epson WorkForce. It wasjust not saturated enough unless I used "best" and then the text was too thick...thicker than it should have been. Also the duplex won't work because it needs too much time to dry. There was absolutely no banding at all on the Epson. I know the saturation problems stems from their advertisements touting it as the cheapest cost per page of the major brands of inkjets, but they should warn you the duplex option doesn't work when you go full boat saturation. Sadly, for them, the photo I use for testing is a soft gray-green. It is a watercolor portrait of a girl from 1902. There is a lot of variation in hue but it is very subtle. My laserjet printed it like a dream. The inkjet was terrible, although if you just saw the finished product, wihtout seeing what it was supposed to look like, it was beautiful. Took it back.

Bought a HP INkjet - 8600 Pro Plus - Just got this a couple days ago. Totally banded output unless you manually change it every time you print to "best quality"...ok. But there better be a way to get the "best" to be the default or I'll pull my hair out. I already wasted several sheets of cardstock, which by the way, it pinches at the top of the top of the page (unacceptable IMHO) When you use "best" it throws all the data you may have read about cost per page out the window (for both the Epson and the laserjet) and the cost rises significantly. The banded output on regular inkjet printing was fixed in these printers 15 years ago, and I have no idea why it is back, but I am plenty honked off about it. The new HP has a new style of jet where the ink doesn't dry out as it did before. I saw it was very different, but I cannot attest to it not drying out yet. (This drying out is the reason I bought the laser jet and the detail in printing is why I've my old laserjet for so long, as Stacy pointed out above, laserjet cartridges last forever because they are dry inkes (toners) that get "baked" to set.)

- the laserjet is soo much sharper, text, graphics, canvas backgruond paper, watercolor nuances ...everything is sharp and clear. The pages come out shiny, like a magazine-shiny, and you have to tilt them if you read by the light of a lamp at night (just like you do a magazine). Downside: Laserjets are so sharp, they don't know what to do with shadows.. it is bad on shadows, and I've tried every combination of blur and burn mode. Each laserjet shadow is made from progressive bands 1 px wide that get progressively deeper in tone instead of the blur you'd expect. This is not the inkjey banding I was talking about above, but the way the printer deals with shadows. If you are a shadow nut, and even if you aren't, I don't know if you'll be able to get used to the shadow banding of a laserjet. And I'd love it if Stacy above me can correct me because I am on an oldCM1312 nfi, and surely they've made strides in this area.... If hers is newer (and it *must* be newer thanmine!) maybe they've figured out the shadows, but I have a feeling they haven't. I most always use light plain colored backgorunds, so the shadow anomoly is striking on my Los, but I'm used to it and not that much of a nut.

No matter which one you get, I think you should test 2 things: a watercolor style paper with soft greens, blue,s and maybe a teny tiny bit of pink to see what it does. Then do a full-page of a solid color. You are looking for anomalies and anything that doesn't look right, but especially banding. There is also another test that uses blocks of three colors, and this can be smaller sqaures to save on ink. Pick a blue, a green, and a gold or light taupe. Get up very close in PS and get those blocks right next to each other with no pixel space, and no pixel overlap. Whenyou print, you are looking at the place where each color meets to see if all the jets are straight and true. If they are not, there could be a single cyan or magenta or yellow row of pixels going from one color into another. Does that make sense?

The reviews online are worthless because they were written by men who only seem to care how much per page it costs and how fast it is. Their idea of beautiful output, well??? I don't know what they are thinking!

Sorry, didn't mean to twirte a book. And now especially that the original query was back in Sept!! LOL

Suzy

[kristijoy]

Originally Posted by Freckles

I've been doing some research over the past couple of months because I need a new printer too. What I heard from a family member, is that Canon eats A LOT of ink, even when not printing. This person printed something before going on a vacation and the ink levels were fine. When he returned, 2 weeks later, the ink in one of the cartridges was empty! He also says the cartridges are expensive compared to other brands...
I am leaning more towards buying an Epson, but I'm still not sure.
The positive thing about Canon printers, is that they usually print very well on thicker paper and cardstock, which might be a problem with Epson...
It's a tough decision!

I've had a lot of trouble getting my printer to feed in cardstock. So frustrating!! I would look for a printer that has a 'pass-through' option (which mine doesn't have *sigh*). If you have trouble with the paper tray you can use the pass through. The paper goes in the front straight and comes out the back straight. Everytime it has to curl it over a roller it has problems.

[Heather Roselli]

My husband got me an HP Laser Jet CP1525 color printer a bit over a year ago. I LOVE it! I has separate color cartridges, but I haven't had to replace them yet and I do quite a bit of hybrid. In the past I've had all manner of Epson inkjet printers and I liked them fine I just didn't like replacing the ink constantly.

[NeverendingJen]

Originally Posted by Heather Roselli

My husband got me an HP Laser Jet CP1525 color printer a bit over a year ago. I LOVE it! I has separate color cartridges, but I haven't had to replace them yet and I do quite a bit of hybrid. In the past I've had all manner of Epson inkjet printers and I liked them fine I just didn't like replacing the ink constantly.

I got the same printer around the same time as you and just now am starting to have to replace the original cartridges and that's after printing 3 complete albums of full color 8x8 layouts and 5x7 layouts. I print a ton and LOVE my printer.

[alinalove]

i recently bought a brother mfc-5895cw (um... half a year ago).
it was really cheap, the replacement ink is ridiculously cheap (4 cartridges) and i am printing all my large layouts with it.
i can print close to 12*12.
it can be used by wifi, for telefax, scanning and it takes your sd and other cards, too.

i had a laser printer before for some days because i thought it would be great to have a laser instead of an inkjet. but the quality was awful and the smell wasn't acceptable at all.
happy that i could send it back through amazon.

this isn't the quality of prints i get when i use a print service but i can reach a great quality that is more than acceptable and cheap.

i had a card done for my mil and just a minute after i gave it to her, someone spilled a glass of water on it. i simply took a towel and brushed it off. the color was still in place. even the photopaper was in quite good shape.

i love printing at home. instant gratification :-)

[Sherri Tierney]

Originally Posted by sthomas215

I guess I'm different in that I use a color laser printer. I have an HP LaserJet 1525nw color and I love it. Laser ink doesn't smear or fade and while toner cartridges are more expensive, I replace them every couple of YEARS...or at least lately anyway. Even when I was heavy duty paper crafting I would only replace them once a year.

I also use a color laser printer. Mine is from Dell. We've had it over 6 years and we've replaced the toner cartridges for each color (and black) ONCE. I use it heavily for printing every day stuff, coupons, yearbook proofs, etc. I also use it moderately for hybrid. I printed my own calendars this year and bound them at work and they look awesome.

[d2vasquez]

Ok for those of you who have the HP for a few years - what do you photos or printed things look like now? I ask this because loving HP's, I was disappointed how my photos were fading after a few years in my scrapbooks. After researching things, I turned to Epson and solved this issue. I am in the market again for a wide format printer and would entertain HP again since I would assume that technology is much better than it was 5 or 10 years later.

[NeverendingJen]

Mine isn't a wide format, it's a standard laser.

[d2vasquez]

I am just asking about the quality now on the hp - do your prints fade after time or still look as nice as when first printed.

[NeverendingJen]

Mine still look fabulous, but its only been a year. I do have stuff that I printed on my HP inkjet years ago(5 or so) that still looks fab as well