Printer recommendation (color inkjet, low per-page cost, OS/2 and Linux compatible)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Timur Tabi
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Get a postscript laser printer. Stay away from ink jets, they cost a
fortune to operate and their ink jets clog if you don't use them
frequently. Laser printers cost more initially but in the long run they
are much cheaper. I've used a variety of HP and Lexmark laser printers and
they all work fine with Linux.

How much is a photo quality color laserprinter?
 
In comp.os.linux.hardware
Message-<[email protected]>
Wayne said:
FYI, my next color inkjet will be one of the Epson printers. My HP
[...]
Read this before purchasing an Epson:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/31623.html

I read it. Sounds to me like an engineering idea that looked good on
paper but not so good on the retail shelf. I'm not too concerned
about the ink level thing. I imagine if enough brouhaha is raised
they'll rethink this "smart chip" ink level idea. Besides there /will/
be inexpensive ways around it eventually if not already. Just pray
that Lexmark loses it's "chip" lawsuit. ;-)

Gene <[email protected]>
 
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TCS asked


There is none.

That is: if you judge optical/chemical photos
and the output of the best photo inkjets to be of
"photo quality", there is NO color laserprinter that
meets that standard.

That said:

I've heard positive reports about the QMS-Minolta
Magicolor 2350 EN. But I haven't examined the output
personally.

Here's that ~$1,110 model's homepage:
http://www.minolta-qms.com/products/color/mc2350/index.asp

I think I'll just stick with paying $80-100/yr for ink cartridges. Odds
aren't good for that laserprinter saving enough to cover the intial
cost.
 
TCS asked


There is none.

That is: if you judge optical/chemical photos
and the output of the best photo inkjets to be of
"photo quality", there is NO color laserprinter that
meets that standard.

That said:

I've heard positive reports about the QMS-Minolta
Magicolor 2350 EN. But I haven't examined the output
personally.

I would never spend agai n a single cent to minolta. I'd buyed a
network color laser printer from them - even as it owns a network port
and can accessed with any browser to query the state - it is always
unable to print a single page - when the job is NOT coming from
Windows NT. As it needs Windows to print to both, the parallel port or
the network.

Not a single sentence in all its documentation says that it works ONLY
with Windows.

So buy something else!

Won't work without Windows and the QMS/Win spezific Crown driver.
There is NO crown that works with other systems than Wincrap and MAC.
It won't even work with linux as it is NOT mentioned explicity. Ask
them for support for others than explicity mentioned and they will
tell you: use Win NT, 2000 or XP! The Crown Technology is converting
PCL or postscript to binary printer stream by Crown - not the printer.

The network connection is used to provide the status (paper, toner
fill and others, but not printing over network, for the latter you
needs Crown installed under windows.

--
Tschau/Bye

Herbert Rosenau
http://www.pc-rosenau.de eComStation Reseller in Germany
eCS 1.1 GA englisch wird jetzt ausgeliefert
 
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I think I'll just stick with paying $80-100/yr for ink cartridges. Odds
aren't good for that laserprinter saving enough to cover the intial
cost.

Even as I say you should avoid Minolta QMS anyway, using a laser is
more cheap than anything else - excep you prints only 1 page/month.

What does a Black cartridge cost?
Can you print more than 50 pages without replacing it?
What does a single page costs that you prints?

I come to a price of about 60 Cent/page

What does a toner cartridge cost?
How many pages can you print with one?
I come to about 3000 in practice.
What does a single page cost?

I come to a price of about 2 Cent/Page b/w
2,5 Cent/Page color

I print about 100 pages/month. That means:

- 2 b/w inkjet cartridges
- 1 color inkjet cartridge

OR

1 black toner cardridge in 2 years.
3 color (magenta, red, green) toner cardridges in 3 years
whereas magenta will live some month longer and green holds 12 month
longer


Another compare:

Printer itself
inkjet laser
150.-- 1.000.--
360.-- inkjet card. black
600.-- inkjet card. color
=======================================
1,050.-- cost till 1. year 1.000.--
960.-- inkjet as above
=======================================
2,110.-- cost till 2. year 1,000.--
960.-- inkjet as above
toner black 75.--
toner red 120.--
toner magenta 120.--
========================================
3,070.-- cost 3. year 1,315.--

Now you goes shopping to buy another inkjet, because it strikes.
You can buy another computer first class computer with 19" TFT screen
from the money you've saved yet. You'll save more than $1,000 again in
the 4. year.

The time the laser saves you not even calculated:
- change cartrides constantly
- fillup paper every time when it's urgent to get something printed

The laser doen't require any attention in month. Because you fills up
500 pages at once, you've no need to change ink cardrides every time
you have an urgent job

The ink will dry up when you doesn't print in very short time frames.
The toner doesn't.

If you've no need to print color, you gets a laser for less than the
half price than the color laser yet, so you saves much money in the
first year, instead to come only even.

--
Tschau/Bye

Herbert Rosenau
http://www.pc-rosenau.de eComStation Reseller in Germany
eCS 1.1 GA englisch wird jetzt ausgeliefert
 
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On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 18:47:52 UTC, TCS
Even as I say you should avoid Minolta QMS anyway, using a laser is
more cheap than anything else - excep you prints only 1 page/month.
What does a Black cartridge cost?
Can you print more than 50 pages without replacing it?
yes. I get about a ream of paper per cartridge.
What does a single page costs that you prints?
At $15/cartridge, that comes out to about 3 cents a page.
I come to a price of about 60 Cent/page
Most of the pages I print aren't complete 80 character lines.
What does a toner cartridge cost?
How many pages can you print with one?
I come to about 3000 in practice.
What does a single page cost?
....


How much does a photo quality laser printer cost?

For printing 30 photo's a year, how long will it take for the difference
between ink cartridge costs and toner costs to add up to the difference in
prices of the printers plus bank interest?
 
Herbert said:
What does a Black cartridge cost?

For the canon i550 ~ 12 Eur
Can you print more than 50 pages without replacing it?

it prints ~ 300 Pages, others like e.h. HP (with higher priced
cartidges) print about twice or even more.
What does a single page costs that you prints?

4 cent for ink + paper

But rule is quite simple:

If you print more than ~75 pages a month a laser printer is recommended.

Another solution (depending on what and how much someone prints) may be
to buy a b&w laser for letters and a color-ink for printing in color. In
total thats cheaper than to buy a color laser.

Klaus Staedtler
 
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