Experiences with color laser printers?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gary Drag
  • Start date Start date
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Gary Drag

Good afternoon!

I am considering purchasing a color laser printer. I will be using the
color feature of the printer to print web pages and to create our annual /
semi-annual family newsletter. The majority of the printing will be in
"good old" black type. Do you have any comments regarding the equipment or
consumables for the following printers?

Brother HL-2700CN
Lexmark C710
Lexmark C750
Lexmark C910
Minolta 2350EN

I am considering these printers because of the following features ranked
from high to low priority:

Available Postscript drivers
Availability of a duplexer
1200 dpi resolution
Availability of a 500 sheet tray

I am currently using an IBM 4019 Laser Printer for black printing and
either a Lexmark 5700 or Optra 40 for color printing. I am very tired of
messing with dual printers, ink cartridges, and dried ink nozzles. Also, a
single printer will make it easier for my wife to use the computer. Thank
you in advance for any and all help.

Have a safe and joyous day!
Gary Drag
--
http://www.prairie-smoke.org
Gary Drag <GaryDrag at prairie-smoke dot org>
Gary Drag <GaryDrag at sbcglobal dot net> (reply to)

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Gary Drag said:
Good afternoon!

I am considering purchasing a color laser printer. I will be using the
color feature of the printer to print web pages and to create our
annual / semi-annual family newsletter. The majority of the printing
will be in "good old" black type. Do you have any comments regarding
the equipment or consumables for the following printers?

Brother HL-2700CN
Lexmark C710
Lexmark C750
Lexmark C910
Minolta 2350EN

I am considering these printers because of the following features
ranked from high to low priority:

Available Postscript drivers
Availability of a duplexer
1200 dpi resolution
Availability of a 500 sheet tray
Click to expand...
How many pages do you anticipate producing? You may also want to
consider the cheap Samsung 5xx range/Xerox 6xxx range which can duplex,
I'm not sure off hand if one of them has postscript.

I wouldn't get too bothered about 1200 dpi resolution as you will have
to try quite hard to tell the difference with laser output.

Depending on the initial budget you may want to consider Kyocera's
machines. They cost more to start with, but if you are doing lots of
pages they have lower running costs, I was sent some samples for their
A3 (11x17" machine) at the start of the year and they did look very
good.

Another option about halfway between the two prices options is Xerox's
8400 the solid ink machine, of which I have the predecessor the 8200,
which produces good output with a slightly glossy finish due to the wax
process.
 
I purchased a Dell CN3100 color laser printer. While it is huge and heavy,
tipping the scales well above 50 lbs, it surprisingly doesn't take up that
much room because it's tall.

Color and B/W output is fast and very good. I print quite a bit of spot
color and process color documents for my work, handouts, brochures and the
like. It's great for that. if you are printing only B/W, you can turn off
the color and make it B/W printer for that job.

I got it directly from Dell for $599 less 40% with a special coupon from
www.xpbargains.com It included all four color cartridges supposed rated at
4000 each. As of today, I've just bought but haven't installed a replacement
black carts. All others are full.

Printer networks well.

Steve
 
How many pages do you anticipate producing? You may also want to
consider the cheap Samsung 5xx range/Xerox 6xxx range which can duplex,
I'm not sure off hand if one of them has postscript.

I wouldn't get too bothered about 1200 dpi resolution as you will have
to try quite hard to tell the difference with laser output.

Depending on the initial budget you may want to consider Kyocera's
machines. They cost more to start with, but if you are doing lots of
pages they have lower running costs, I was sent some samples for their
A3 (11x17" machine) at the start of the year and they did look very good.

Another option about halfway between the two prices options is Xerox's
8400 the solid ink machine, of which I have the predecessor the 8200,
which produces good output with a slightly glossy finish due to the wax
process.
Click to expand...
Timothy,

Thank you for the information. I probably only print 250 to 500 pages per
month. Of those pages, only about 5 to 10% require color.

Have a safe and joyous day!
Gary Drag
--
http://www.prairie-smoke.org
Gary Drag <GaryDrag at prairie-smoke dot org>
Gary Drag <GaryDrag at sbcglobal dot net> (reply to)

Please include both the name and mail address on the "To", "Cc", or
"Bcc" lines. The name is used as a watermark to filter out unwanted
mail and solicitations.
--
 
I have different viewpoint for your reference! Do you decide what kind
paper you want to use? The laser printing quality has connection with
paper thickness. That means the color saturation will be reduced when
your paper weight is more than 80 gsm (common photocopy paper). The
second consideration is coating material has the potential risk to be
melted-down due to high temperature heating during laser printing.
Recommend try your paper with your considering printers. You may use
key word“laser printing photo paper”or “laser printing photo card”to
find more information on Yahoo and Google search engine as follows.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?_adv...&ve_vt=any&vd=all&vst=0&vf=all&vm=i&fl=0&n=10

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&...s_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images
 
Gary Drag said:
Thank you for the information. I probably only print 250 to 500 pages
per month. Of those pages, only about 5 to 10% require color.
Click to expand...
Perhaps not the answer you want, but at that level, it may be worth
revisiting the two printer option (inkjet + b&w laser). If you want to
stick with the colour laser I would guess at that level the samsung 5xx
or xerox 6xxx would probably be most cost effective, since it will take
sometime to recoup the difference in consumables costs.
 
kolorwell said:
I have different viewpoint for your reference! Do you decide what kind
paper you want to use? The laser printing quality has connection with
paper thickness.

That means the color saturation will be reduced when
your paper weight is more than 80 gsm (common photocopy paper).
Click to expand...
Pardon? Using the Xerox Colortech 100 gsm paper produces a nicer copy
than on cheap copy paper, but only in as much as it is a whiter paper
and feels a bit thicker, you would need to try quite hard to notice a
difference under a magnifying glass.
The
second consideration is coating material has the potential risk to be
melted-down due to high temperature heating during laser printing.
Click to expand...
Recommend try your paper with your considering printers. You may use
key word“laser printing photo paperâ€or “laser printing photo cardâ€to
find more information on Yahoo and Google search engine as follows.

Don't use inkjet coated paper in a laser. I find Hp's soft gloss paper
quite decent, also datacopy have turned up with a 160 gsm glossy laser
paper that is very reasonable viking-direct.co.uk have it.
 
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