I got one about six months ago from J&R. It is a Ricoh SP100something, and
produces decent text, better than an inkjet printer does with text. I got it
because it was on sale for something like $39, only print a few pages a
week, but never any problems.
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Klein
Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2013 10:57 PM
To: lug ; olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [OM] OT: Home laser printer
I am contemplating buying a black and white home laser printer. Our
vintage 1994 HP Deskjet 500 finally died. I think I got my money's
worth out of that one. :-) So I turn to the infinite-seeming knowledge
base of this group.
Requirements:
* My wife needs to be able to print a dozen pages per day, give or take,
of letter-size scratch documents for translation (not final copies,
those are emailed).
* The printer must be able to print legal size (8.5x14) as well as
standard letter size. I don't mind if it must be fed from a secondary
manual-load tray. I need to print music from PDFs or scanned documents,
at up to legal size (9x12" sheet music seems to print quite readably on
legal-size paper, slightly reduced). Any bigger than that, and I'll use
my Epson R1800 with carbon ink, or go to Kinko's.
* Reliability is key. I don't want a cheap piece of junk pre-programmed
to die shortly after the warrantee expires, or to only take overly
expensive consumables (which is why Lexmark is out).
* The printer should be networkable, preferably via wireless. I don't
mind networking via an external network/print box if it will save
substantial money.
I've pretty much decided on laser rather than inkjet. From what I've
read, laser means better quality and lower long-term cost (unless you
folks have different experience). And no clogging. I already have 2
photo inkjet printers, an Epson R200 for color and an R1800 with
cartridges hand-filled with MIS Eboni carbon ink for B&W. The latter
actually prints documents nicely, but I don't want to be filling
cartridges all the time for my wife's language translation business.
I thought about getting an all-in-one (scan/fax/copy/print). This would
be convenient some of the time. But my experience at work is that the
all-in-one's tend to have complex problems. And if the scanner dies, it
may stop printing, too (firmware self-test failure). Repair is not
economical, so you have to buy a new one. Also, the all-in-one's need
for you to install all the manufacturer's software, which in HPs case is
universally awful. I think I'd be better off with a simple laser printer
and getting a flatbed for music and old family photo scanning.
I'm inclined towards HP but will entertain other suggestions. This week
Office Depot/Max and Best Buy all have sales going on. There seem to be
three price-classes, $150, $250 and $300 on the B&W printer-only models,
with $30-$50 off this week.
Any thoughts?
--Peter
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