[LinuxUsers] printer ink

[Jeff Lasman]

On Wednesday 20 May 2009 01:56 pm, Chris Thomas wrote:

> I've had inkjet printers from HP, Epson, Cannon and others. I have
> tried 3rd party ink supplies in each one and have had one or both of
> these problems: 1) low yield per cartridge 2) blacks are not dark
> enough. So I started to not get the 3rd party ink and only go with
> the printer manufacturer's ink.

That's what I do, but read on...

> A few years ago, I went with a color 
> laser printer. Now I don't have to worry about ink and the toner
> seems to last forever. I can print 1000s of pages with one toner
> cartridge instead of 100s with an ink cartridge.

A few years I wanted to buy an all-in-one; I'd just moved back from an 
office to my  home, and needed to conserve space.  Prior to that I'd 
had all separate units: color inkjet, monochrome laser, inkjet fax, 
color scanner.

When I started looking I couldn't find a reasonably priced all-in-one 
with good specs that ran with Linux.

I ended up buying the HP Officejet Pro L7680 All-in-One.  It's an inkjet 
printer using the new HP88xl cartridges (four cartridges, one for each 
primary color, one for black) that's supposed to be less expensive to 
use than laser.  It was about $500 then; now it's end-of-life and the 
replacement model is under $400.  Ink is, in my experience, very 
inexpensive and lasts a long time.  And even with 20-lb cheap paper, 
with reasonable color coverage, there's no bleed-through.  I'm happy.

I buy the cartridges at either Costco or Sams, and I turn in the empty 
cartridges for $3 each credit at Staples or OfficeMax; and use the 
credit to buy paper when it's on sale.

Works for me <smile>.


But I'll ask anyway: Is there a good color laser printer to do what I do 
with the printer I've got now (see above for what it replaced), to fit 
on my 6-foot table, and to not use so much electricity that it dims the 
house-lights when it starts printing?

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman, Nobaloney Internet Services
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