I'm giving up on ink-jet printers. The ink is just too expensive. I was wondering if anyone out there could advise me on a good colour lazer printer to operate with Linux. I was thinking around $250. Best Buy had one for $150, but I suspect it might be a bit too cheap. I know nothing of lazer printers except they are reputed to be fast. Do they require expensive paper? Do the lazer diodes last very long? Are any of them parrallel port? Any advise would be most welcome.
A lot of clients have recently bought cheap Brother laser printers. So far I have not had very good experiences with them when using anything other than MS Windows.
A tip I got from a printer service guy is to pick up a Tektronix on eBay. You get free black toner for the life of the printer. He said that they honer this even if it is not from the original owner. You'll probably pay a little more up front, but that has got to save you money in the long run. We have a Tektronix 850 DP with has ethernet, centronix and usb interfaces and supports postscript 3 & PCL. It has lasted us about 4 years so far and has only been in for service once.
~ Spencer
millward said:
I'm giving up on ink-jet printers. The ink is just too expensive. I was wondering if anyone out there could advise me on a good colour lazer printer to operate with Linux. I was thinking around $250. Best Buy had one for $150, but I suspect it might be a bit too cheap. I know nothing of lazer printers except they are reputed to be fast. Do they require expensive paper? Do the lazer diodes last very long? Are any of them parrallel port? Any advise would be most welcome.
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I don't know if it is true or not but HP claims that the per-page printing costs of their newer colour deskjet (inkjet) printers is lower than a colour laser.
Apparently Cannon owns the patents on colour laser technology and HP has to pay large royalties to them which makes them more expensive to operate. Additionally, the newer inkjet technologies use much less ink than before so cartridges last longer.
This was told to me by an HP rep at a conference I was at. I've never looked into it so please investigate yourself before making any decisions.
At first blush I was sceptical figuring that he was just trying to justify the high cost of replacement ink. Then I realized it didn't make sense for him to be talking me out of buying the laser printer since it was much more expensive. Why would an HP rep talk me down to the $400-$500 deskjet when I had originally been interested in a $1200 laser?
Regards,
-
John Lange -
millward -
Spencer