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Gokuma

What's a printer that doesn't suck?

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Lexmark's drivers are like spyware. You gotta manually remove every trace from your registery or crap keeps coming back.

Some A lot of printers have been telling people that they were out of ink (so they'd buy more) when there really was still sufficient ink. There was a class action lawsuit about this.

A lot of printers are programmed to reject generic cartridges and/or refilled cartridges even if they're perfectly functional.

So basically I'm looking for a printer without any of that underhanded bullshit. Anyone have any recommendations?

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I think the most important factor to consider when buying a printer is actually how much the ink cartridges cost - rule of thumb, expensive printer/cheap ink is best.

I'd go for Canon.

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If you don't need colour, look into getting a laser printer. Even though toner cartridges are more expensive than ink (usually about 2 or 3 times), you'll replace them far less often. They're generally more reliable too, as there's at least one less moving part (no need for the print head to fly across the page).

Samsung has some nice lasers (I have an ML-1740 at home), most of HP's are nice too. Brother's lasers used to have a combined toner/drum cartridge, meaning if you need to replace one you have to replace the other; I don't know if this is still true or not. Lexmark lasers aren't as annoying as their inkjet counterparts, but the one I use at work (E232) likes to jam when you feed it paper of a different size than it was expecting...

As for colour inkjets, what spank said; don't buy the cheapest one at the store. Right now I'm thinking of getting one of the Epson Rxxx series, which has three things going for it. First, it's one of the few printers for less than $1000 that will print on printable CD-R and DVD±R media. Second, its ink cartridges are relatively inexpensive (and it uses 6 separate carts, so you only need to change the one that's empty). Third, my cousin has one and says it doesn't suck... :-)

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Canon blows away Lexmark in comparison. Our family used shitty Lexmark printers for years, and my dad finally got a Canon this year. The thing is great, it prints fast and well (no white lines going through everything), it scans fast, and it's software doesn't fuck up every other time I use it.

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Canon is a pain in Linux, it has no good driver.
A printer that does not suck is no printer at all.

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I reccomend one of those scanner/copier/printers if you can spare the cash. They're so surprisingly usefull it's not even funny.

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ducon said:
Canon is a pain in Linux, it has no good driver.
A printer that does not suck is no printer at all.

Good point, if anyone's thinking of using a printer in an operating system that isn't Windows or Mac OS, visit www.linuxprinting.org before you buy a printer...

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Probably not what you're looking for (expensive but high quality), but I use an HP Laserjet 2200. It works fine with reconditioned toner cartridges (though I normally use ones from HP themselves), which might give you an indication of Hewlett Packard's policy with respect to consumables from third parties.

I recall that their warranty didn't cover any problems that arose from using third-party consumables, but that seems quite reasonable. In that case, if you wanted to be safe, you'd want to check that the third party provided suitable warranty of their own against problems. Of course, you could imagine that all becoming a bit of a shitfest with both companies blaming each other for some conflict.

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I have both an epson and an hp (around $100) witch seems to be the most typical printers. the hp cartridges do last a tad bit longer than the epsons for some reason now thats its brought up and they both print about the same but your still led down that same isle where the easy numbered replacment cartridge box's reside, where you get to re-purchase the cost of your little bundle of printing plastic joy over and over many times more within a short while. good enough for every day to day printing but im going to invest a little more in a nice all-in-one style printer next time.

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Epson is nice. Can't say I think its the absolute best out there, but it doesn't come with any bullshit and it prints just fine.

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Another idea is to get a really cheap printer and throw it out when you run out of ink. My friends did that for a while. They'd buy a $20 printer and then when it ran out of ink, they'd toss it and buy a new one because it was cheaper than buying replacement cartridges.

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I do want a color printer.

My family went through two Epsons (well they're still using the second one), and they do go through ink too fast. Their print quality doesn't hold up well. It gets a messed up from dust and stuff and it totally fails at cleaning its print heads. I'm definitely not dealing with Epson anymore.

It seems unanimous that Lexmark is utter shit.

So far what seems reasonable is HP doesn't have that big brother proprietary shit at least on some of their printers, but it does on some since there was a HP chip resetter on that site Fodders linked. I can't say I've ever been impressed by HP but I haven't had to deal with them sucking either.

Canon is sounding like good quality that's economical on carts. But not good for linux (which I never got around to setting up very well and using much on my comp but I do have it). No one said anyone about it having any lockout on ink carts but there was no Canon resetter for sale on that site, so that may mean that there isn't a need for them.

So far Canon's looking best except for the linux trouble.

Also, I am looking for something that's flexible on sending stuff like paperboard through it (Epson was alright for that) to make stencils.

Danarchy said:

Another idea is to get a really cheap printer and throw it out when you run out of ink. My friends did that for a while. They'd buy a $20 printer and then when it ran out of ink, they'd toss it and buy a new one because it was cheaper than buying replacement cartridges.

That's freaking hilarious. But being so wastefull makes me ill. I suppose if you can't resell it somehow, you could donate them to thrift shops.

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I hate Lexmark printers. I had two that broke mechanically with low use and I have found that the ink catridges dry up fast, plus the cleaning the print heads never seemed to do much. Lexmark is crapola. I bought a HP over a year ago and I'm very happy with it so far. I don't do a lot of printing and I can leave it idle for months and the catridges aren't dried up afterwards.

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Forget Lexmark. Someone called me for help sharing their Lexmark across a network and I eventually deduced that it was impossible.

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Ha I tried that before and I think I got it to work for just a couple prints and then it stopped working. Then I had fun removing all its crap from my registry even though the piece of junk wasn't hooked up directly to my computer.

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Geez... Lexmark sounds like the AOL of the printers' world.

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HP is definitely the most popular brand of printer. But don't be shocked if the software for your printer takes up a gig of hard disk space and takes half an hour to install.

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Oddly, my best and most reliable printer has been a lexmark, but this was back in the dark days of the 20th Century when computers did what they where told, didnt always try and "help" you by stopping your drop-down menu ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE from appearing, and putting a few mp3's on your Geocities page so that people could sample bands you liked before paying for thier CD's was a perfectly acceptable practice and wouldnt get you put on the sex offenders register...

I've never had much luck with HP's, my HP Scanner used to un-install itself every month, and the two HP printers i've been though have been shit, but then they where bottom of the range ones and didnt get used for months in between prints, so probably got full of dust. I now have an old Brother one i got out of a skip, which needs a new (obsolete) drum, some cartridge refill place said they could recondition the drum, but said to try giving it a good clean first, i will when i need to print something...

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The HP Photosmart C3180 works if you are looking for color support (and don't mind InkJet). It's about $100, and can be used as a copier and scanner.

I had an HP Printer back in '03 and it sucked, however.

Brother makes somewhat decent printers (laserjet).

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