Printer recommendations?

[pbray]

Many years ago, flushed with success after selling my first book, I purchased an HP inkjet printer. As I recall it was on sale for $399.

Pause. Blink. $399. A bargain at the time.

It still works, but it's slow. The input paper tray holds a maximum of 100 sheets, and the output tray needs to be emptied if there are more than 50 sheets in it, otherwise they begin spewing all over the floor. Normally this isn't an issue, except for the times when I need to print an entire manuscript. As happened recently, when I needed to print off not one by three copies, which meant an entire evening of babysitting the printer.

I'm now toying with the idea of purchasing a laser printer. Any thoughts or recommendations? I thought about it last year but was lazy and never got around to making a decision. But the prices of B&W laser printers have come down so much that it's really foolish not to have one.

Comments

[mmarques.livejournal.com]

Until recently I was using a Canon inkjet printer of perhaps the same vintage (or older)! It was from when you measured speed in minutes per page.

Last year my husband won a Dell networkable laser printer. I am *so* happy. First, it prints 23 pages per minute! Second, I put it on the network, which means that I can print wireless from my laptop, or from other computers (if I were to install the printer driver elsewhere). I still have to clear the output tray when printing my novel, but I only have to reload paper once. And with fast printing, "babysitting" the printer doesn't feel likes such a chore.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I hadn't thought about networking but that's definitely something to look for.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I'm on my third laser printer (my first was a reconditioned Panasonic that I used for ten years). I would not now go back to an ink jet. I'm currently using a Brothers multifunction machine, with more bells and whistles than I need but I can copy and scan (b&w) as well as print, and that flat top copy function is invaluable. It's a big machine, because it is a flat top. I could fax, too, but I don't have that set up. Anyway, I'm pleased with the Brother so far. My second printer was an HP, but it had consistent problems with the feed.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks! A friend purchased a Brother laser printer a few months back that they're pretty happy with, but I wasn't sure if it could keep up with the demands of a writer. It's a brand I wouldn't have ordinarily thought of, so it's good to hear another endorsement.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I don't print out a ton, or even on a daily basis. So I don't know if it's a machine that stands up to repeated daily wear. But I'm happy so far. And as I said, having the flat top copy/scan functionality is fab.

[rkbwrites.livejournal.com]

I've been using a Samsung ML-1430 for printing out my screenplays and it's perfect. Unfortunately, it's discontinued. I had good luck with Canons and Samsung Printers if it helps any...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

:-)

I'm the type that thoroughly researches the perfect models on Consumer Reports...and by the time I've done my homework the model is withdrawn from the market.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

I paid $469 (Canadian) for my Canon Bubblejet in about 1994. It quit working a number of years ago, and we've been printer-less since.

My mom (a freelance editor) has the same printer we have here in the office, which is an HP 1320N. She loves it, and I love ours. It will print double-sided, which I love because I save so much paper that way, and it's pretty fast, considering. The only problem I have with it is that it doesn't beep when it runs out of paper, so sometimes it sits there blinking its little orange light for a while before anyone notices. But basically it's a great machine.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Hee! I had a Canon Bubblejet way back in the day--around 1993 or 1994. It was a great printer but after a couple of years (and many copies of the first two novels) it started misfeeding sheets, so I replaced it with the HP Deskjet.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

I think my mistake was trying to refill the ink cartridges ...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I had a friend who used to refill her cartridges. Watching her do it convinced me I should never try this at home :-)

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

See, I thought the refilling process was rather good fun.

But the printer never worked quite as well after I started doing that ...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I figured it was a good way to wind up wearing toner :-)

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, that too ;)

Of course, since becoming a parent I have learned to enjoy wearing all kinds of even more interesting things ...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I bought a small-office grade HP laser printer a few years back, for the reason you mention -- printing off multiple copies of manuscripts. The difference between 4 ppm and 30 ppm gets amazing at about 500 pages...

Toner is a lot cheaper per page than inkjet, a definite plus.

The input tray only holds about 250 sheets and I have to pull output at about the same time, but that doesn't really qualify as babysitting. This is a model 2300, which I suspect has been replaced in the product line.

Also have an inkjet all-in-one for color printing and faxes.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Exactly! At 4 pages per minute it's 2 hours for each copy of the manuscript, which is a lot of time spent websurfing and playing freecell.

HP lasers seem to predominate among the writers I know, and most people are happy.

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

I have an HP LaserJet 3330 all-in-one laser printer. While it is not as nice as my old Cannon laser printer it does make a good quality print out. It's now at least 4 years old and (knock on wood) still working just fine.

Check out a few consumer reviews to see what's reliable this year.

I don't think Cannon is making laser printers anymore which is a pity because it was a great printer. At 8 years old it still worked beautifully and if I hadn't out grown the memory I'd still be using it too.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

The models change so fast that by the time something is widely reviewed it's off the shelves :-)

Canon's not in the game anymore--HP, Brother and Lexmark seem to predominate. No one has recommended Lexmark so far, which doesn't surprise me--in the past I've found them to be pricey.

HP 1022

[randomfreshink.livejournal.com]

Had to be reasonable priced toner cart, dead reliable in reviews, fast, quite and not too big. HP LaserJet 1022 turned up tops in all categories--I love it! (I had a 4L and that was a workhorse, but the 1022 is sooooo much faster).

And it's not even expensive.

I still do miss my old, old, old Xerox printer--god, it wasn't even a laster jet, but the thing ran without service or a whine for years.

Re: HP 1022

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks! HP's are definitely the hands-down favorite based on the comments so far.

Commiserations on the Xerox, I know how hard it is to give up something that works. I feel guilty thinking about replacing my HP Deskjet which has needed only new ink cartridges for the past ten years (and twelve novels!) It's been trouble free, and that kind of reliability isn't common.

But it's slowwwwwwwwwwwww, and <4ppm just isn't cutting it any more.