I wasn't going to reply, hoping others would provide reasonable answers,
and for the most part you have been given that.
Of course, there is always one...
For your needs, if you will be doing quite light color use, and you do
not require photographic quality (and if near that will do) then your
answer is probably a color laser printer.
Just like inkjet printers, laser printers are now using the same
wasteful business model, selling you the printer at very low or no
profit while gouging you on the toner and cartridges.
However, the advantage of lasers over inkjet system are numerous for
your applications.
1) generally they have a larger installed yield on purchase (more on
that in a minute) than inkjet models. In other words, the yield from
the installed toner cartridges is more than the yield from an inkjet
cartridge provided on purchase of your printer.
2) Toner and the cartridges for laser printers usually last a very long
time without the image degrading due to age. Some inkjet printers will
literally stop working once a cartridge gets to a certain age regardless
of how much ink is left, because the manufacturer tries to protect the
heads from "old ink". Whether this is legitimate or not, it makes the
ink left unusable.
3) Most inkjet printers use up ink every time they are turned on to
clean the head. They also clean all colors using up color ink even if
you are only printing monochrome black and white images. Laser printers
typically use no toner during their set up process (or very little).
4) Inkjet printers will often not work if any color runs out of ink.
You can usually override that with a laser printer, and print with the
toners that are working. Some inkjets have as many as 12 cartridge,
color laser printers only use 4.
5) Inkjet printers today use a estimation system for determining when
the cartridge should be "empty" (ink monitoring). They are inaccurate
and moreso if you have a clogged head and need to clean it. You can
actually "use up" a whole cartridge trying to unclog the head, and
though no ink may have left the printer, the cartridge will still read
as empty. Often once that estimate is assumed, the printer won't print
until you replace the cartridge, or if the printer allows you to
override it, you risk damaging the head with thermal type inkjet head
should it run out of ink. Some laser printers do monitor toner levels
and warn you if they run low, but you can almost always override that
warning, and it will not dame the printer to run the toner cartridge out.
6) Laser printers work fine with standard bond paper, offering somewhat
better results with "color laser" papers, which still are much cheaper
than using inkjet specific coated papers. Most color inkjet output is
lower quality on regular bond paper. Depending upon the ink used, it
may also not be waterproof or may fade easily with sun or ozone
exposure. Laser toners are waterproof and tend to be very light resistant.
7) Inkjet printers are environmentally sensitive. They tend to clog in
dry climates. They do require some exercise to keep from clogging.
Laser printers tend to sit for a long period without issue developing.
8) Most laser toner cartridges can be refilled, although some models
will run more slowly on refill due to a chip being "blown". Many inkjet
printer cartridges are difficult to refill, and you may require a
special resetter to reset the ink monitor chip for the printer to
recognize the ink.
9) Color laser printers have become as tiny as inkjet and there are all
in one units color laser versions now, also. However, be careful,
usually these very small models have very small toner cartridges which
are costly to replace.
10) All desktop inkjet printers dump ink into a set of pads at their
base during cleaning cycles. If these pads are deemed as "full" which
often is not the case, the printer will usually lock up and no longer
work. Some allow a reset procedure, but many do not anymore. If the
ink does get too great, it will begin to leak out of the printer bottom.
With laser printers usually the excess toner on the drum is either
recycled and reused or is stored in a box or the cartridge in a waste
toner area. You may have to empty the waste toner box, or replace it if
it has a microchip interface, but you won't have to dump the printer.
With some inkjet the pads can be replaced by a service bureau, but the
cost is usually almost that of a new printer.
11) If you will have light use, and not heavy coverage per sheet, if you
play it right, you can buy a color laser printer which has larger full
cartridges which may last you the life of your need of the printer, so
you never have to buy more cartridges or refill them. To get your best
value, you need to do your research and perhaps even contact the
manufacturer. As one example, three HP color laser printers with pricing
differences of $25-$75 per step up offered half full cartridges on the
first step (and no ethernet and a lower duty cycle for the printer).
For $25-35 more the next step up offered an extra tray, ethernet
communications, double the service duty and twice the toner per
cartridge, supplying about 3000 prints at 5% coverage per color as
opposed to 1500 prints.
The next step up provided a much more robust machine, which ran faster
and has still extra features, and for $100 more than the lowest model,
offered another 3000-4000 copies at 5% per color with the provided toner
cartridges. The exact toner cartridges provided with the printer (with
the same amount of toner) run about $200 each to replace (or $800). The
printer with the full cartridges was under $350.
So, what you want is a light to medium duty printer, with the largest
most filled cartridges you can find installed with the printer, or a
printer with very reasonably priced toner refills (a few models allow
you to refill the printer numerous times before you have to replace the
printer cartridges or drums).
If you navigate yourself to my blog (shown below) I have a while article
on this issue.
Art
If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:
http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/