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What's a good printer for minimal usage ?
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nctnico:

--- Quote from: MathWizard on February 02, 2023, 07:46:06 am ---Once and I while I want to print something, just B/W text I guess, but I haven't had a working printer in years.

Does anyone make a cheap one, that won't clog up, or anything else bad, like need new ink every time, if you hardly ever use it ?

--- End quote ---
Get a laserprinter. Inkjet is horrible. I have good experiences with the HP printers for business use. Do yourself a favour and get one with a network (and/or Wifi) interface. That makes it much easier to place it somewhere far from your PC AND use it with other computers.
tom66:
I've got 4 year old Brother Colour Laser (HL-3140CW).  It works perfectly and is still running on the factory supplied toner.  Print quality for mono is excellent, and while colour is not photo-quality, it's not bad at all!  My biggest complaint is the build quality is very optimised, a lot of plastic parts, for instance the lifting arm for the toner door is all plastic, as are all the mountings.  But for occasional use that's probably fine.
tom66:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on February 02, 2023, 11:06:15 am ---If you don't print often, then don't bother with a printer. Go to a public library and use the printer there.

--- End quote ---

Same for if you infrequently buy photo prints.  You can get miles better photo print quality ordered directly to your door, or at the supermarket at one of those print machines, and just use a colour laser for all the other jobs.  Unless you print hundreds a month, buying an inkjet only for photo quality prints is a huge false economy.
Miyuki:
Laser printers are best for most tasks except photo quality.
And for minimal usage what kills it the most time is Microsoft and the next version of Windows.   ::)
It is a bigger and bigger problem to run some older printers under 10 with every update and straight impossible under 11. But the printer itself is still going strong. Same with old HP LaserJet and Konica Minolta.
So if you buy a printer that works under Windows 11 and print just a few pages a year. It will probably work until the next major version.
T3sl4co1l:
nth-ing laser.

I had an inkjet for a long time, a hand-me-down which was actually rather nice for what it was: good color prints, photo quality available, doesn't whinge about empty cartridges, no DRM.  (Canon Pixma i6000D I think it was.)  But it did waste quite a lot of ink, at the rate I used it (little).

Later I got a laser, Brother DCP-L2540DW, which is fine.  Probably still be a while before I need a cart (it's still on the "free" half-filled or whatever toner cartridge).  Scanner is reasonable and in color, too.  Oddities: it's more a copier than a scanner?  It's weird, it has a document feeder but only for copying, even though, it, y'know, literally scans a sheet into memory to make the copy?...  I don't know that I'd recommend this model specifically, but the brand is fine; it's adequately confirmed to me what others have said about Brother printers.

Tim
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