laser printers

[alintatoc]

I would like to know your opinion about laser printers vs normal printers.
I would like to buy one, but I can decide. Couple of guys told me that the laser ones are taking a lot of ink when it uses color printing.
Is it worth a laser printer?

[lordsmurf]

Couple of guys told me that the laser ones are taking a lot of ink when it uses color printing.

Then it seems those "couple of guys" are idiots.

Laser printers use toner, a powder, not ink. It is inkjets, using ink, that suck through a cartridge like a runner after a marathon. Toner carts can last for hundreds of full-color sheets whereas your average inkjet would bleed itself dry in a few dozen.

Do not buy HP printers, those have awful color quality. It rarely matches the screen, even when professionally calibrated, and it's calibration software sucks. Look into a Konica-Minolta for the best color quality, or a Xerox.

You pay more for laser up front, but it's far, far cheaper in the long-run. Those inkjet companies make their money off ink, it's why the printers are near-free. Toner is expensive, yes, $100-200 per toner cart, but you don't have to change them all at once (rarely does that happen), and then even with weekly prints, you can go a whole year without needing a new cart.

[alintatoc]

Couple of guys told me that the laser ones are taking a lot of ink when it uses color printing.

Then it seems those "couple of guys" are idiots.

Laser printers use toner, a powder, not ink. It is inkjets, using ink, that suck through a cartridge like a runner after a marathon. Toner carts can last for hundreds of full-color sheets whereas your average inkjet would bleed itself dry in a few dozen.

Do not buy HP printers, those have awful color quality. It rarely matches the screen, even when professionally calibrated, and it's calibration software sucks. Look into a Konica-Minolta for the best color quality, or a Xerox.

You pay more for laser up front, but it's far, far cheaper in the long-run. Those inkjet companies make their money off ink, it's why the printers are near-free. Toner is expensive, yes, $100-200 per toner cart, but you don't have to change them all at once (rarely does that happen), and then even with weekly prints, you can go a whole year without needing a new cart.

Thanks mate for the info! I was thinking about Samsung CLP-310 or 315. What do you think?

[T-Fish]

i own an oki c3450 and am happy with it.

lordsmurf summed it up nicely, just one thing to add is that you should
be aware that laser printers usually come with half full toners. (starter toner)

another advantage over inkjet is that if you dont use your printer for 2 month
itll be in mint condition unlike inkjets that dry out after not using them for a while :/

[alintatoc]

i own an oki c3450 and am happy with it.

lordsmurf summed it up nicely, just one thing to add is that you should
be aware that laser printers usually come with half full toners. (starter toner)

another advantage over inkjet is that if you dont use your printer for 2 month
itll be in mint condition unlike inkjets that dry out after not using them for a while :/

That I know because I was so pissed every time with my Epson inkjet printer...
Any thoughts about Samsung laser printers?

[stiltman]

Best way to go about finding a good inexpensive Laser printer like HP, Samsung, or Brother.

Find the model that best fits your budget.
Find a place that sells the toner replacement.
Find how many pages per toner it prints, and divide it by the cost of the toner.

Everyone has some real inexpensive models out there until you figure out the cost per page to print. Some end up costing more than inkjet printers for B/W. Just a slight step up in models can cost just a little more, but could also reduce the cost of per page cost by 50%

[alintatoc]

Best way to go about finding a good inexpensive Laser printer like HP, Samsung, or Brother.

Find the model that best fits your budget.
Find a place that sells the toner replacement.
Find how many pages per toner it prints, and divide it by the cost of the toner.

Everyone has some real inexpensive models out there until you figure out the cost per page to print. Some end up costing more than inkjet printers for B/W. Just a slight step up in models can cost just a little more, but could also reduce the cost of per page cost by 50%

How about when the toner is out, black and colors, can you add only black until you buy the color toners?

[Ozzyjim]

Gday,

keep in mind that you also have to change the drum units in laser printers every so often not just the toner cartrige(s). My laser printer has about 1500 A4 pages per toner cart (only a cheap printer though) and the drum lasts about 12,000 pages.

[alintatoc]

Gday,

keep in mind that you also have to change the drum units in laser printers every so often not just the toner cartrige(s). My laser printer has about 1500 A4 pages per toner cart (only a cheap printer though) and the drum lasts about 12,000 pages.

Do I need to change all the colors or can I only change the black toner?
What is the estimation price for a drum?

[bacardi/avt]

DO NOT GET A DELL PRINTER!!

Those are the worst I have ever tried, mine worked for about 100-150 pages then it started to smear the print in a couple of places. Only way to fix it according to DELL is to get a new drum.

A soon as the toner runs out this one is going to the recycling station.

I will never again buy any DELL products because of this experience.

[lordsmurf]

Gday,

keep in mind that you also have to change the drum units in laser printers every so often not just the toner cartrige(s). My laser printer has about 1500 A4 pages per toner cart (only a cheap printer though) and the drum lasts about 12,000 pages.

Do I need to change all the colors or can I only change the black toner?
What is the estimation price for a drum?

Four separate carts, C - M - Y - K (K is black)

Some lasers don't use drums, the comparable tech is actually located inside the carts.
Drums are any more expensive than carts, in most cases.

Black is always cheaper, about half the price, of color toner.

[stiltman]

How about when the toner is out, black and colors, can you add only black until you buy the color toners?

edit:

Have to learn to read


Every laser printer I've seen has a seperate toner cart or seperate toner storage for each color
So yes, if black runs out, you replace just the black.

Keep in mine many low cost color laser printers really suck in qaulity and are just if not more expensive to use than inkjet printers. Shop very carefully and make sure you verify page counts for toner and cost per toner.
I thought you were only wanting a B/W laser printer

[JohnnyMalaria]

Very happy with my Brother. 38,000 pages, on its 3rd toner and 2nd drum. Still belts the pages out flawlessly.

[neomaine]

Alintotac,

I've got a Samsung CLP-510 I picked up at Staples, on sale for $199 at the time (3-4 years now...), and have NEVER (and will never...) looked back. Its not picture quality color printing but it sure is nice and a great workhorse. We help with the school booster clubs with flyers and mailings and this thing has been godsend. Had so much luck with it my family got together to buy my mom the smaller Samsung 310(?) for Christmas.


Our initial purpose was to replace the inkjet style printer for the kids and their homework. Yes, my wife baulked at the initial price and didn't believe me about the life of toner cartridges but has done a complete 180 since. The 'starter' cartridges lasted about a year and a half. That was with telling the kids one small coler picture per project. Now, there's no gate and they can use color to their hearts content.

If you plan accordingly, you can get cartridges in the $45 range - and that's with Samsung cartridges and not even third party ones. Could I have payed less? Probably, but the difference wasn't significant based on the life. On my third black cartridge, replaced the yellow and red once, the blue one twice (the kid's high school color is...yes...blue...)

Depending on your printing needs, I'd go with the 500 series for heavy volumes and the 300 series if its lighter. The 500 series are more of a small-medium business type printer while the 300 is more for light duty home type stuff. I'd say the 500 series cartridges hold about 4 times as much toner as the 300 series based on the difference between my cartridges and my mom's.

And, I agree with Lordsmurf ... your 'guys' are idiots.

[alintatoc]

How about when the toner is out, black and colors, can you add only black until you buy the color toners?

edit:

Have to learn to read


Every laser printer I've seen has a seperate toner cart or seperate toner storage for each color
So yes, if black runs out, you replace just the black.

Keep in mine many low cost color laser printers really suck in qaulity and are just if not more expensive to use than inkjet printers. Shop very carefully and make sure you verify page counts for toner and cost per toner.
I thought you were only wanting a B/W laser printer

Actually I am going back and forth about b/w or color laser printer.
The Samsung that I've found is CLP-310 which costs 109 euros, and the CLP-315 costs 132. The toner costs a bit less then 150 euros for all 4 colors.

[stiltman]

CLP-315 for black only that's .03 per page ($45 for toner). A page is usually considered 30% saturated/coverage
For color it's 1000 pages per toner at $40

Not too bad, plus I'm sure you can get the toner for less than what you can off of Samsung's website

Prices are US so that will change things for you

[orsetto]

Just as with color inkjet printers, the cheapest is not necessarily the best value. The person who posted of 4+ years good service from a Samsung is the exception that proves the rule: Samsung color lasers are hands down the most notoriously bad choice you can make. When they work, which is rarely, the color is OK for the price and the toner cost is reasonable. But they are very poorly engineered, fragile, with bad paper handling and they suck up as much electricity as an entire house (you'll see your lights dim when it prints). Avoid them, and the lower-end HPs which always have problems. The most solid color laser printers out there are the Brothers, 4040 and 4070 series. They're big, they're heavy, but they're very well-made and durable. Toner comes in two sizes: the large will last you forever. The more expensive model adds networking ports and a PostScript graphics emulator which is useful for printing from page-layout software, otherwise its the same printer as the cheaper one. In the USA, Brother color lasers cost $300-450 depending on sale days and model. Xerox, Oki and Konica/Minolta also make good color lasers, but they are more limited in distribution and are not as heavily discounted as the Brothers. If you buy a Koni-Minolta, try to pick it up yourself from the store: they do not ship well and tend to break if roughly handled. Dells should be avoided unless you can get one for almost nothing as part of a new Dell computer purchase, also note the Dell printers only work with whatever version of Windows Dell is cross-promoting with Microsoft at the time you buy it (Dells will usually not work with Macs or Linux or older Windows systems).

[JimJohnD]

I have recently gotten more into my digital photography. To get my Color Management under control I bought an X-Rite ColorMunki to calibrate/profile my Epson R1900 printer and Nec P221w monitor. It works great and I get near AdobeRGB 1998 color reproduction (approx 96%). Just for 'fun' I profiled a Dell Color Laser printer (3100cn) we have at work. When you compare the icc gamut to even the much smaller sRGB the Dell looks like an acorn sitting in the middle. After seeing that I am amazed a photo printed on it looks anything like the original image.

So, if you want to print 'business' graphics a laser printer is fine. If you want to print photos, forget it or be prepared to be disappointed in the color.

[MJA]

I would like to know your opinion about laser printers vs normal printers.
I would like to buy one, but I can decide. Couple of guys told me that the laser ones are taking a lot of ink when it uses color printing.
Is it worth a laser printer?

check the Brother HL-2170W Wireless Networking it's only $89 from newegg.com.

Brother HL-2170W Monochrome Laser Printer w/ Wireless Networking $89.99 + $1.99 Shipping, Apr. 28 4 PM

Newegg has the Brother HL-2170W Monochrome Laser Printer for a low $89.99 after $10 off Coupon Code: EMCLRNW42 (Exp 5/4). $1.99 Shipping. Tax in CA, NJ, TN, PR.

23ppm black; 2400x600dpi; USB 2.0, ethernet, and 802.11b/g wifi for networking

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-TechBargains&cm_mmc=AFC-TechBarga...82E16828113291

nice thing about Brother you can use generic Toners

I own the Canon Pixma ip3000 inkjet since i use cheap ebay generic ink i have no complain

[lordsmurf]

JIf you buy a Koni-Minolta, try to pick it up yourself from the store: they do not ship well and tend to break if roughly handled. D.

Four shipped Minoltas, zero shipping problems. CDW, NewEgg and Frys.

[dphirschler]

Happy with my HP CP1518ni so far. Less than a year old and just changed the starter black toner cart to a full black toner cart. The color quality is OK for me. Way better than my inkjets.


Darryl

[lordsmurf]

I print photos on my Minolta color laser, and it looks at least as good as an inkjet. If we want to talk about "photo quality", then get it printed for real, with silver halide process on photographic paper -- inkjet is crap no matter how you use it. Visiting Walgreens or Wolf (or even uploading to Snapfish.com) will be far cheaper AND better quality than an inkjet.

[alintatoc]

If we want to talk about "photo quality", then get it printed for real, with silver halide process on photographic paper -- inkjet is crap no matter how you use it.

You're right there! That's why I think I will go for a monochrome printer. I prefer to print photos in a professional photo shop.

[neomaine]

The person who posted of 4+ years good service from a Samsung is the exception that proves the rule: Samsung color lasers are hands down the most notoriously bad choice you can make. When they work, which is rarely, the color is OK for the price and the toner cost is reasonable.

Now I feel like crap for recommending them.... But, I've only bought two - one of each model - and they're a couple of workhorses (relatively...). Lucky is better than good!!

[orsetto]

Now I feel like crap for recommending them... But, I've only bought two - one of each model - and they're a couple of workhorses (relatively...). Lucky is better than good!!

No need to feel like crap! If you have had good experience with the bargain Samsung color lasers, you would naturally want to recommend them, and you SHOULD: everyones experience should be heard so that interested buyers have a wide range of opinion from different users to draw from. People rarely recommend something they like, they are more prone to complain about stuff they don't like, which skews a lot of opinion threads toward the negative. The trick with some of the real rock-bottom stuff like the Samsung color lasers is they do work for some people, otherwise their largely terrible rep would have shoved them off the market years ago. I know the return rate on these at my local Staples is something like 60%, but enough of 'em must stay in buyers hands to make them worth selling. I tried two for the hell of it when they went on sale at giveaway prices, both were awful and unusable to the point of not even working to print text, so I'm squarely in the "don't buy one" camp. But again, Samsung has not changed a screw on their color lasers for the last four years, they just drop the price by $100 each year, so they must work OK for some people. If you seriously have absolutely no money and want a color laser, the Samsungs often go on sale for $150 plus a rebate offer. At that price, you could risk one, it may work for you. Just be sure to buy from a store with easy return policy so you don't get stuck with a bad one.

(Oddly enough, the cheap black and white Samsung lasers are known to be quite good and an excellent value: odd they couldn't quite transfer that reliability into their color lasers.)

[orsetto]

-- inkjet is crap no matter how you use it.

This is more due to the greed and bad engineering of some mfrs than to any inherent limitation of inkjet technology. A properly-designed inkjet that doesn't artificially screw itself up to sell more ink can be very useful, but these are now gone unless you find a functioning much older model. I soured on inkjets long ago, Epson especially, after seeing the aggravation they caused in professional graphic design studios where they were often the only affordable option for some tasks. Even today, if you need large-format comps in-house, inkjets are your only choice, a necessary evil. Professional offices that print full color several times a day will see the most value and least problems: frequent use maximizes consumables output and minimizes clogging problems.

And yet, a friend gave me their old HP DeskJet 5150 to play with when they moved to a multifunction printer last year. I was shocked to discover it still printed text perfectly, and that I got beautiful photo-quality prints using the expired-two-years-ago ink cartridges inside it. I have never seen another color inkjet that printed perfectly from years-old cartridges: I had to play with it some more and push its limits. After using up the old ink tanks, I loaded new ones to see if they printed better: they didn't! I then bought a supply of outdated expired-last-year inks from a surplus dealer (a set of new but expired black and tri-color inks sells for $16). To my shock they load right up and print just fine. Next, I purposely let the HP 5150 sit unused for two months (death to any Epson printer). When I turned it back on, it merrily went right on printing: no clogs, no tank dry-outs, no smears. Prints from scanned 35mm film are gorgeous. And all this performance is out of a throwaway HP inkjet that used to be included in computer bundles! It just goes to show inkjets don't HAVE to be crap unless the designers make them like crap. I am glad to have this old HP inkjet as an occasional photo printer for stuff my color laser can't handle (I even bought a second one off eBay for $25 as a backup, I like the 5150 that much). Meanwhile, my friends do nothing but complain about the new expensive multifunction HP inkjet they bought to replace the 5150: the new HPs are just as bad as Epsons or Canons with the dry-outs, the clogging, the faulty ink detector chips, etc.

In cost per page, speed, and sheer convenience, color lasers or thermal wax will always win. But certain graphics tasks or large formats still require inkjet, so its a shame they are so shoddily constructed now as nothing more than ink whores, the pro models included. If HP could sell a bulletproof, non-clogging, photo-quality inkjet printer back in 2001 that could keep running on expired inks, they should damn well be able to do so today (never mind Epson with its lock on the pro market, overpriced printers, and overpriced inks that evaporate the minute you unseal the package.)

[T-Fish]

my laser can print up to 21 cm x 1,2 m
i mainly use it to print cd covers (my own covers). the main reason i didnt
get an inkjet was the dryout. i still have an old canon inkjet (bjc-7000) that
was great, but i cant buy anymore of the cartridges around here.

[handyguy]

Local artists refer to inkjet prints as 'Glicee.' I guess that inkjet sounds too cheap.

[lordsmurf]

Local artists refer to inkjet prints as 'Glicee.' I guess that inkjet sounds too cheap.

I don't know why -- but this annoys me. Do they drink lattes with pinkies in the air too? Do they discuss what clothes are "in season" and comment on the sublime?

Making up new words ... bah...

[orsetto]

Like many other terms, "glicee" originally meant something naroowly specific but is now thrown around to tart up anything "artists" want to palm off on the public. A few years ago, "glicee" was only applied to large prints made on very elaborate media that simulated the appearance of actual painting, and had some texture to it. Generally the image was abstract or a photorealistic one that lent itself to the "glicee" appearance. (As my grandmother might have sneeringly said, "Its a look".) But apparently nowadays every streetcorner hack with a an Epson is hawking "glicee" prints- its meaningless.