What Printer? - Page 4

**Kaz** · #31 01-20-2009, 04:29 PM

No matter which one you buy, six weeks later you'll be wishing you bought the other'

One of the Worlds Universal Truths

**Darwin** · #32 01-20-2009, 04:31 PM

Ian, having seen many of these strings, I have come to one conclusion: AVOID LEXMARK LIKE A PLAGUE!!!! Otherwise, it seems that most people are reasonably satisfied with the brand they have become used to, and have learned how to cope with its shortcomings.

**BARX2** · #33 01-20-2009, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iantrader

You know, Guys, the more I look into this, the more difficult it's becoming. Even Carl's wonderful HP Photosmart C7280 only gets 7/10 for quality on Trusted Reviews:

HP Photosmart C7280 All-in-One Inkjet Printer Review - Printer Reviews - TrustedReviews

There seems to be little consensus in many reviews on many printers, and many seem not to have been reviewed at all.

I think you pays your money and takes your choice. And chance. Hence my post.

I appreciate all your comments. I'm sure I'll make a decision soon

Ian

You're exactly right. That's why a thread like this is always going on on some card model forum. Everyone's searching for the holy grail of printers - the best combination of price and quality. It would be great to go into Office Depot - or some big office store - and try each one before you buy. But I have never seen the printers available for testing. So we're left with reviews and personal experiences to help us decide.

I don't think you can get a really bad one these days, but I would avoid the cheapest ones as they will probably be the least efficient and reliable. On the matter of small cartridges, people may not realize that new printers now come with what are called "starter" cartridges that do not contain a lot of ink. They do this because for a while people were throwing out their printer and buying a new one because it cost just a little more than buying new cartridges for their existing printer. They got wise to that and now don't give you a full cartridge with a new printer!

Another thing to consider is networking. It's great be able to print to one printer from any computer in the house. From my experience with dedicated print servers I would highly recommend getting a printer with built-in networking capabilities. You can choose from wired or wireless.

Finally, decide whether you need to print large sheets or just Letter/A4 size. You may want to enlarge a model someday and you can't do it with a printer that only prints Letter/A4 sheets.

**CharlieC** · #34 01-20-2009, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BARX2

Finally, decide whether you need to print large sheets or just Letter/A4 size. You may want to enlarge a model someday and you can't do it with a printer that only prints Letter/A4 sheets.

You can always use a graphics program like Photoshop or Gimp to reorganise enlarged pages to a custom size which will go through an A4/Letter printer. That is, if you double the size of a model in A4 (210 x 297mm) to A3 (297 x 420mm) you can organise the parts to fit on 210 x 420mm which will go through an A4 printer. I think Lief did this with his enlarged (to 1/16) 1/33 aircraft. It's going to be a personal judgement the benefits of cheaper printer cost versus the time to move the parts around.

Regards,

Charlie

**Darwin** · #35 01-20-2009, 07:56 PM

I add my endorsement for the wide carriage printer....there is an outfit on ebay that has several pallet-loads of "lightly used - less than 50 pages printed" HP 9800s that are going for $151.00 including the shipping. I got an email today that mine has been shipped.

**lee4752** · #36 01-20-2009, 09:13 PM

I don't have a favorite printer. I just know the one I have isn't it. I have an HP2210xi all-in-one, which uses HP 56 & 57 cartridges. With my wife downloading and printing pictures off the internet to show my daughter as part of her home schooling, I'm always runninng out of ink, usually when trying to print critical parts of paper models. I would reccommend something wirh a much larger ink cartridge/reservoir.

**birder** · #37 01-20-2009, 10:28 PM

Thank you for organizing and clarifying all this! I love my HP c5380 but it has the problems of small ink capacity....the quality is superb, though

**birder** · #38 01-21-2009, 12:09 AM

(that's hp C5280 :o)

**Darwin** · #39 01-21-2009, 01:42 AM

One last comment regarding ability to print A4-sized files....Wasau (and apparently a few other suppliers) produce legal-size cardstock. You will probably have to do some looking to find it (I found some at the local Zip Print), but A-4 prints ok on it, and any available inkjet can handle it.

**iantrader** · #40 01-21-2009, 07:25 AM

Hi Barx - many thanks for your comments.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BARX2

I don't think you can get a really bad one these days, but I would avoid the cheapest ones as they will probably be the least efficient and reliable.

I agree but but avoiding bad ones is part of the problem - some of the reviews do say that some printers are poor and produce banding, for example, which we need to avoid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BARX2

Another thing to consider is networking. It's great be able to print to one printer from any computer in the house. From my experience with dedicated print servers I would highly recommend getting a printer with built-in networking capabilities. You can choose from wired or wireless.

Yes, Ethernet is a must for me. And duplex printing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BARX2

Finally, decide whether you need to print large sheets or just Letter/A4 size. You may want to enlarge a model someday and you can't do it with a printer that only prints Letter/A4 sheets.

At the moment, I think I'd be happy with A4. Most models are printed on A4, aren't they? Guess if I really get into it I can look to 'expand'

Ian