Photo Printer

My daughter's going to college this fall
and needs a printer for her MacBook that will
do papers and color photos.

Any recommendations?

Any bewares?

Any comments on hp3180?

JKA

John Ahlstrom wrote:
> My daughter's going to college this fall
> and needs a printer for her MacBook that will
> do papers and color photos.
>
> Any recommendations?
>
> Any bewares?
>
> Any comments on hp3180?
>
> JKA

The best bet, both for quality and long-term cost, is a multi-tank
printer, one tank per colour. I like the Canon Pixma series. A friend
who prints art cards and such commercially likes Epsons. I had an HP
colour printer a while back, and it was the toughest printer I ever
owned, but I hear that HP's are no longer as well built as they used to
be. All these brands have Mac drivers, but not necessarily for a given
printer model, so read the specs carefully. All these manufacturers
offer updated drivers on their websites, so check that out as soon as
the printer is installed. Set a price point for cost of ownership, and
shop around that price point. There is no significant difference between
the major brands.

Here are my comments under the general heading of "Beware!"

How much do you want to spend for a) the printer; b) the ink? That's a
key question. Think hard about it. Cost of acquisition is the smallest
component of cost of ownership. Trust me: I've made my share of mistakes
buying "cheap" printers. ;-)

First off, what you want is not economic. A colour printer is a lousy
choice for run-of-the-mill b/w (ie, text) printing. Ink costs a lot. In
fact, "cheap" printers sometimes cost less to buy than a set of ink
cartridges (but those cheap printers come with under-filled ink
cartridges, so it's not worthwhile to just toss them and buy a new one.)
If your daughter doesn't expect to print many photos, it may well be
cheaper in the short term to use a photo-printing service in the nearest
mall, and have only a b/w laser printer for her papers.

Second, avoid printers that have a black and a tri-colour cartridge, no
matter how attractive the deal (you can get such printers for well under
$100 these days. Beware!) In the long term, multi-tank printers are cheaper.

My recommendation is two printers: one a photo-quality colour inkjet,
the other a cheap laser printer. (Lexmark, who make below average
inkjets, make decent cheap laser printers.) Total cost should be around
$500-600, which sounds like a lot, but when a set of ink tanks or
cartridges costs $60 and up, the savings mount up pretty quickly. You
can often get excellent deals on discontinued models, just make sure
they use the currently available cartridges. Often, the only difference
between the cheaper/older and the more expensive/newer model is speed.
Look for a laser printer for which reconditioned cartridges are
available (for example, at Staples.)

I have a Canon Pixma IP8500, and Canon ImageRunner laser (office quality
multi-function). Based on my own experience, a laser printed or
photocopied page will cost 5 cents or less, depending on paper costs. A
colour inkjet printed text page will run 25 cents and up for the ink
alone. If colour images are included, it will be 50 cents and up. A 4x6
photo will cost 50 cents and up, depending on where you buy your photo
paper. (If you want to save on photo costs, print four pictures on a
letter size page, instead of printing individual 4x6 pictures.)

Unsolicited advice A: Avoid 3rd party inks. They don't damage a printer,
but the colour quality isn't there.

Unsolicited advice B: Buy from Staples. Their salespeople are not on
commission, so you are likely to get less biased advice from them.

--
Wolf
'Just because it's true doesn't mean it's the right answer.'