[sf-lug] current inkjet printer recommendations?

Michael Paoli Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu
Tue Dec 6 05:25:11 PST 2011


Yes, I know the many *dis*advantages[1] of inkjet printers, *but* ...
they do have some advantages[2], and in at least this particular case,
I'm looking for top current recommendations with the following
approximate criteria:
o *reasonable* / "fair" ink cartridge/refill pricing - even quite/much
   better if "generic" cartridges and/or refills are accepted (in more
   recent year(s), I've even seen some manufacturers tout their (much?)
   lower refill cost and lower overall operating cost as a selling
   feature, and sold their printers for significantly more than other
   manufacturers (e.g. not sell them at an initial loss and make it up
   later on locked-in ink supplies).  Don't know if they're "winning" on
   that higher up front and lower total operating cost sales strategy,
   but good to at least see some of 'em try!).
o We're probably looking at <~=50 pages/year here.  Something that would
   likely do that rather to quite well for at least 3, if not 5 or more
   (perhaps as many as 10 or more?) years would be good.
o Don't really need or care about "all in one" or similar functionality
   (but if that functionality happens to be good/excellent, without
   compromising printing and other considerations noted, and with
   negligible increase in price, such may be well considered).
o Don't need or care about other random "snazzy" features (e.g.
   quite improbable anyone's going to want to stick some photo image
   memory card into printer and print out stuff from that, or anything
   close to that).
o Bonus points for printers that are reasonably "mom" (or grandma)
   "friendly" - especially in continued operation (they'll probably have
   fair amount of assistance available with initial setup).
o Linux compatibility?  Not particularly crucial or important that the
   printer work or work well with Linux *now* (e.g. already fully
   supported), but if it's rather to quite probable it will be fairly to
   very well supported on Linux in about 6 months time or less, that's a
   definite plus (primary target host isn't running Linux presently - but
   hopefully that will change :-)  It's presently got some Windows 7
   something-or-another on it.  Fairly likely it'll at least be dual boot
   with Linux in future, but rather likely it'll also retain that 'doze
   boot option for a fair while).

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/recommendations.

1. E.g. often low construction quality, (overpriced) ink cartridge "lock
    in", very high per-page printing costs, etc.
2. E.g. much lower power consumption compared to laser (& fuser)
    printing (there's also cold press fixer - with considerably lower
    power consumption than fuser, but those seem to be quite in the
    minority - at least for smaller laser printers, anyway), don't
    potentially have to deal with messy toner, typically (much) less
    weight, are or can be significantly more portable.





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