SharpyWarpy

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Hi, everyone. I'm in the market for a new printer and I want a good one. Is laserjet better than inkjet? How much better? I want to scan and print lots of family photos and I want good quality and speed. Speed not as important as quality but would be a plus. I use Fedora Core 10. I'm thinking of something from Epson or HP. Thanks ahead of time.

cantab

A laser printer will generally be faster and cheaper per page than an inkjet. But the laser printer will cost more to begin with, and when the toner does run out replacing it will be expensive.

Quality will I think depend more on the individual printer, you should search for reviews.

http://www.openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi will list printers that are and aren't Linux-compatible.

mhbell

I can only relate my own experiance. I find that most color laserjets in the cheaper range do not do as good a job as the Inkjets. They seem to be prone to problems and the cartrages are expensive and on some laserjets a nightmare to replace as well as messy. If you want a color laserjet then you will have to get an expensive one to get the quality that you say you want. I have tried several of the cheaper laserjets (color) and found them to be very unsatisfactory. I find that the Inkjets do a better job with less hassle, even the cheap ones.

most inkjets will do about 200 color pages befor running out of ink $24 to $45, a non color laserjet printing Black only will do about 3500 pages before you have to buy another cartrage about $79 I use a cheap laserjet (under $200) for printing manuals and documents. I have a cheap HP Inkjet that I use for color. The reason inkjets are so cheap is because of the ink. to manufacture a ink cartrage costs $3 and they charge $24 to $45 to get a replacement.

If you get a Inkjet get one that has separate color cartrages, that way you only have to replace the color cartrage that you run out of ink with.

also with the Inkjet you can print on photographic paper. Don't know about the laserjet.
Hope this helps.
Mel

pixellany

Even though color LaserJets have come a long way, they do not match the quality of an ink-jet PHOTO printer (I seriously doubt if they ever will....). "PHOTO" means many things, but, as a minimum, it means at least 6 colors of ink.

IMHO, Epson is the hands-down first choice for photo-quality inkjet. I'm lucky to have this bias, because Epsons are very well supported on Linux.....

Between office and home, I have 2 HP B&W lasers and various Epson inkjets. This is a very good combination for everything that I do.

If you do get a photo inkjet printer, I **strongly** recommend a medium format---eg 13x19. Over the long haul, your ink and paper cost will dwarf the initial purchase price and you never know when you might want a larger print.

jamwaffles

Essentially, for colour use Inkjet unless you want to splash out thousands, or laser for fast, good quality, cheap Black and white prints

James

cantab

Note: The following is for the UK. The ink cartridge numbering may be different in the US.

For HP printers, try and get one that uses the '350' or maybe '300' ink cartridges. They are the best value, especially the XL ones - the 350XL black is supposed to be good for 900 pages. The '21' and '22' are much worse. I have a Photosmart c4480, which despite being a budget printer takes those economical cartridges.

smeezekitty

laserjets are messy.
inkjets are fast and fair quality.

lazlow

Not sure where you get the idea that laserjets are messy, the older inkjets were (inks have gotten better).


While I would agree that laserjets (at a personal use price) are not as good as high quality inkjets, I think most people would find them well within the acceptable range. I guess I would draw the line at around 500 photos. If you are looking at printing out 500 or more I would go with a laserjet, if you are looking at fewer inkjets will probably be the way to go. With the inkjets, price the cartridges before you buy the printer. I bought a inkjet printer a couple of years ago(worked fine) but the replacement cartridges were more than what I gave for the printer. For B&W laserjets win hands down.

PTrenholme

Your post indicates that you want a multi-function unit (scanner + printer). I know of no such units available with laser printers. If that is, in fact, the case, your question is automatically answered: only a ink-jet/scanner unit will do.

SharpyWarpy

Thanks bunches to all. I am going to look some more at NewEgg and TigerDirect armed with all this new and valuable information. I will post back when I have recieved my new printer, set it up and tried it out. Thank you all again.

cantab

Colour laser all-in-one's most certainly exist, for example the HP Color LaserJet 2840. They're generally aimed at the office market (being a colour photocopier as much as a printer), and they are NOT cheap, but they exist.

And he might already own a scanner, and thus not need an all-in-one.

nxja

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:...nction+Printer
http://www.frys.com/category/Outpost...ser+All-in-One

and i think they've advertised samsung color laser multi at $160? after rebate i think.

jamwaffles

@nxja which OS are you using lol

fortcard

Your question can not be answered unless other questions are asked.

First, what is the purpose of your printing? Are you looking to print every now and then, or on a regular basis? Is the printing for personal use or will you be looking to make $$$ out of it?

There are three things you must consider which are very important. And every one is as important as the other.

1. What is your budget? Initially and on a per copy basis.
2. What resolution is the minimum you will accept?
3. Not all printers have good Linux support, so what is minimum support you want from a Linux point of view?

Having an inexpensive printer with good resolution and poor Linux support is meaningless. So determine EXACTLY what you want.

PC Magazine (yes, that PC magazine) does an excellent job of reviewing printers and include the actual cost basis. Take a look there. You can then decide if you want to go further by looking at what printers of the ones you may want have good Linux drivers by going to http://www.openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi (as someone else has already suggested above) to see what kind of support is available.

Xerox has excellent printers, which are neither inkjet nor laser, called phaser. The print quality is excellent, the colors meld very well and the prints will last up to 75 years (supposedly). Most are limited insofar as resolution, but the system and the way colors meld make it seem like much higher resolution. The prices start at $399 but the cartridges can be somewhat costly.

Happy hunting!

kaiser_suse

With inkjets, if you don't print very frequently and you let a long time (weeks or months) pass between uses, the ink may dry out and clog the nozzles, which has happened to some of the inkjets I have worked with. So you will have to follow a maintenance schedule using the nozzle cleaning function of the inkjet to prevent clogging. Laser toner does not suffer from this drawback, though I am not sure of the other effects of long-term disuse of laserjets.