I'm looking for a cheap (
I say this because I'm sick of inkjet printers that are slow as molasses and that run out of ink constantly. I'm a sole practitioner and I need something to print marketing materials on as well as b/w documents. Inkjets produce nice photos but are lousy for production work. I'm looking for something that can do both.
Any ideas? Has anyone had any experience with the HP color laserjet 1600 or 2600?
I'm a fan of Canon's Pixma printers, still inkjet but they are wicked fast and have great print quality. Mine will also do double sided. However, if you're looking for a large format (11x17) or up you won't find it in the $300 dollar range, they all start around $400.
My office has a Canon that does up to 13x19 and cost about $400. We also have an Epson 1280 that does the same sizes and only cost about $300, but it's slower and more finicky about the paper it will accept, and it's starting to wear out after about 4 years of constant use. The Canons have replaceable print head assemblies, but Epsons don't, so once they're shot the whole printer needs to be replaced.
i have a canon pixma 4000. i highly recommend it (or whatever its replacement is). it prints borderless 8.5x11, has two paper feeds, can take rolls, and most importantly, print quality is excellent. when i got it, it was around $100.
I bought the HP 2600n for home use, and I really like it. It's fast, uses relatively little toner and has a manual feed tray. Photographic prints are good, of course not the best quality, but I didn't expect that for the low price anyway. Only disadvantage is that it's a bit noisy when printing and the resolution is not so high, which might be difficult when printing very crisp drawings.
farwest I'm not sure you can escape the inkjet, but most of the commercial use ones tend to be more reliable in the last couple of years (at least up the 10000 print mark). Hps are on the plus side when it comes to flexibility between handling colour & bw, but I'm curious as to what else you are looking for or expecting.
having used the canon i9900 & the epson 1280 i can say that it is faster & produces better quality prints than both.
bottom line - i would not print anything promoting my or my firm's work (pretty pictures) on a laser, esp one that is less than $300. i know a bunch of affordable color lasers have come out lately, but they just don't hack it image quality wise.
the best bet would be to buy both - a cheap laser for documents and a relatively cheap inkjet for the pretty pictures.
it all depends on the type of work you are doing too - it you are a sole pract. & are doing smaller scale work, buying an 11x17 b&w laser would be great for busting out mini-sets real quick like.
Apr 25, 07 3:18 pm ·
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Cheap, Awesome Printer
I'm looking for a cheap (
I say this because I'm sick of inkjet printers that are slow as molasses and that run out of ink constantly. I'm a sole practitioner and I need something to print marketing materials on as well as b/w documents. Inkjets produce nice photos but are lousy for production work. I'm looking for something that can do both.
Any ideas? Has anyone had any experience with the HP color laserjet 1600 or 2600?
I'm a fan of Canon's Pixma printers, still inkjet but they are wicked fast and have great print quality. Mine will also do double sided. However, if you're looking for a large format (11x17) or up you won't find it in the $300 dollar range, they all start around $400.
My office has a Canon that does up to 13x19 and cost about $400. We also have an Epson 1280 that does the same sizes and only cost about $300, but it's slower and more finicky about the paper it will accept, and it's starting to wear out after about 4 years of constant use. The Canons have replaceable print head assemblies, but Epsons don't, so once they're shot the whole printer needs to be replaced.
i have a canon pixma 4000. i highly recommend it (or whatever its replacement is). it prints borderless 8.5x11, has two paper feeds, can take rolls, and most importantly, print quality is excellent. when i got it, it was around $100.
I bought the HP 2600n for home use, and I really like it. It's fast, uses relatively little toner and has a manual feed tray. Photographic prints are good, of course not the best quality, but I didn't expect that for the low price anyway. Only disadvantage is that it's a bit noisy when printing and the resolution is not so high, which might be difficult when printing very crisp drawings.
farwest I'm not sure you can escape the inkjet, but most of the commercial use ones tend to be more reliable in the last couple of years (at least up the 10000 print mark). Hps are on the plus side when it comes to flexibility between handling colour & bw, but I'm curious as to what else you are looking for or expecting.
we have a canon pixma pro 9000 @ work & @ home.
it is $439.88 @ j&r electronics.
having used the canon i9900 & the epson 1280 i can say that it is faster & produces better quality prints than both.
bottom line - i would not print anything promoting my or my firm's work (pretty pictures) on a laser, esp one that is less than $300. i know a bunch of affordable color lasers have come out lately, but they just don't hack it image quality wise.
the best bet would be to buy both - a cheap laser for documents and a relatively cheap inkjet for the pretty pictures.
it all depends on the type of work you are doing too - it you are a sole pract. & are doing smaller scale work, buying an 11x17 b&w laser would be great for busting out mini-sets real quick like.
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