I'm pretty excited about the price of color lazer priinters.

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RobMarkie

Under $1000CDN for some models.
I've never had a laser printer.
Is there a downside to color lasers?
How much cheaper is the print than my HP Deskjet 1220?
Is the ink water proof and colorfast, or does it fade?
Thanks.
 
=>Under $1000CDN for some models.
=>I've never had a laser printer.
=>Is there a downside to color lasers?

You have to buy four toner cartridges for it -- total cost
will be in the neighbourhood of the cost of the printer
itself. Cheap laser printers are not likely to be as
durable as the more expensive ones; my experience has been
that cheap = flimsy when it comes to printers (with most
technology, in fact.) If you plan on a lot of printing
_and_ need high quality colour printing, a cheap colour
laser will be no better than a cheap inkjet. The facts is
that a commercial printer can do a better job than you can,
because he uses better equipment - and that means more
expensive equipment. For occasional high-quality colour
printing, a high-end inkjet may be a better choice.

=>How much cheaper is the print than my HP Deskjet 1220?

For colour, not much. For b/w, lots.

=>Is the ink water proof and colorfast, or does it fade?

It's not ink, it's toner -- a powder that adheres to the
paper, and is set by heat (a laser printer is actually a
copier whose image is produced by a computer-guided laser
rather than a light+lens system.) The stuff is water proof,
and fades very little. One source told me he'd compared a
colour laser print and a film print by setting them in a
south facing window. After six months, the film print was
faded badly, the laser print was still bright.

=>Thanks.

You're welcome.

BTW, I'm facing the same problem - I will be replacing my
printer within the next 6 months, and haven't decided
whether to get a laser or an inkjet. I'm having the same
uncertainties. My comments reflect my reading and
brains-picking as of today. Next week -- who knows?
 
Under $1000CDN for some models.
I've never had a laser printer.
Is there a downside to color lasers?
Click to expand...

Consumables are more expensive, print quality a bit less in plain paper.

How much cheaper is the print than my HP Deskjet 1220?
Click to expand...

They are much more expensive. Except if it's a b/w laser.

Is the ink water proof and colorfast, or does it fade?
Click to expand...

Yes, in most cases more than inkjet's, especialy in plain paper.
 
BTW, I'm facing the same problem - I will be replacing my
printer within the next 6 months, and haven't decided
whether to get a laser or an inkjet. I'm having the same
uncertainties. My comments reflect my reading and
brains-picking as of today. Next week -- who knows?
Click to expand...

there's another alternative - xerox phaser which uses solid ink.

Jan
 
Yianni said:
Consumables are more expensive, print quality a bit less in plain
paper.



They are much more expensive. Except if it's a b/w laser.
Click to expand...

How much is the cost per print for the 1220?

For my HP 4500 Color Laser, over a 12 month period I printed 44,103
pages, 23,623 of which were color. Total consumables installed in the
printer (not the paper) over the same period cost us$2,496.

If I assume the B&W prints were free (silly assumption), then 23k prints
/ $2400 = $.1 per page. If my b&w costs 3 cents, then my color is 7. My
understanding is that the newer HP color lasers are cheaper to run than
the one I have.

fwiw, A goodly portion of my color pages have about 40% coverage with
all 4 colors.

As far as quality, it depends on how you measure. Not as many colors,
and transistions are coarser. Resolution is much better. Not in terms of
measured dots, which are a marketing gimick, but if you compare 4pt
italic text side by side under a loupe, the laser is much better at
putting the dots on the page where they are intended to go. Especially
on plain paper.

I wouldn't buy a color laser to print photos (I would do that at a
discount store). I would buy a color laser if you need to produce long
documents with many instances of color, or if you need to produce
numerous copies of documents, especially when your time has any value.

Bob
 
Under $1000CDN for some models.
I've never had a laser printer.
Is there a downside to color lasers?
How much cheaper is the print than my HP Deskjet 1220?
Is the ink water proof and colorfast, or does it fade?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Using my QMS and HP color lasers as examples and comparing them to my
Epson C80 and 1280 here are my opinions.

Inkjets cost per 8 x 10 photo =$1.25
Black text page =$0.20

Laser cost per 8 X 10 full color photo = $0.13
Black text page = $0.03

The inkjets will give much more photo realistic pictures than lasers
if you use premium glossy paper.

The laser jets will give very good quality graphics quality color
prints that are not quite photo realistic.
The 1280 is really, really good.

The Epson C80 inks are nearly water and fade proof.

The laser prints are as water proof as the paper and fade resistant.

Get a laser if you need a large quanity of the same poster or flyer.
Get an ink jet if you need a few quality pictures.

As far as I am concerned, the biggest drawbacks of color lasers are
long warm up times ( five minutes) and noise.

Dennis
 
Dennis said:
Using my QMS and HP color lasers as examples and comparing them to my
Epson C80 and 1280 here are my opinions.

Inkjets cost per 8 x 10 photo =$1.25
Black text page =$0.20

Laser cost per 8 X 10 full color photo = $0.13
Black text page = $0.03
Click to expand...

And since I refill my inkjet using quality bulk ink my costs are equal
to or less than the cost of running a laser.

-Taliesyn
 
By refilling, my cost for an 8 X 10 is about $.60 Still a long way from
$.13 but I looked close at a laser print the other day and it was really
pretty bad compared to what I am use to with my Canon i950. I guess there is
an argument both ways.
 
BF said:
By refilling, my cost for an 8 X 10 is about $.60 Still a long way from
$.13 but I looked close at a laser print the other day and it was really
pretty bad compared to what I am use to with my Canon i950.
Click to expand...

Cheap laser printers will be that way. To get a good laser print
comparable to your i950, you'll need a machine that costs far, far more.
You'll need a commercial-quality color laser printer.
 
BF said:
By refilling, my cost for an 8 X 10 is about $.60 Still a long way from
$.13 but I looked close at a laser print the other day and it was really
pretty bad compared to what I am use to with my Canon i950. I guess there is
an argument both ways.
Click to expand...

If you want to get technical you can refill the toner on a laser
printer as well. It cost me about $25 for 3 refills. I can get about
9000 pages off of that. The total ink cost comes to around 0.0027
cents/page. At that point I would need to get a new cartridge as
other components will be starting to fail. Even if I purchase another
one ($100) and another refill kit ($25) the next 9000 pages would
still only cost about .01388 cents/page. However I'll probably just
replace the entire printer. I'm sure you can replace color toner as
well. I'd say get a really good printer and just replace the
toners/cartriges for about 5-6 years, then get a new printer. If you
rarely print color it may take a long time before it runs out. Unlike
inkjets that dry out if you do not use it.

Eric
 
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