What printer should I get?

[Middle Finger]

I wanna be able to print typical color stuff for the kids school projects and miscellaneous office type needs, and I want to be able to print on card stock well to print out things like color playing cards. It doesn't have to be top of the line professional quality, just something that won't give me headaches, is easy to use, and can handle alternating between card stock and normal printing needs, whether black and white, or color.

[Liquid]

this one will save you money on ink cartridges

[D]

I'm a big fan of the HP All-In-One Photo printers these days. I used to absolutely HATE HP printers because every single one I had jammed. Now I've got an HP Photosmart C4140 All-In-One that I love, and my mom has a Photosmart C5200 All-In-One that she is happy with too. Also, according to PC World's ink tests, HP wastes the least amount of ink too. These models handle card stock quite well, I've printed a bunch of custom cards for Magic: the Gathering, and also a custom playing card deck in the "Wanted Poster" style. It also prints well on envelopes, CD Label templates, Avery address labels, and more other things than I can remember. Just be forewarned, you have to buy a separate USB cable for these if you get one.

I've also heard good things (but can't vouch personally for them) about the newer Kodak All-In-Ones as well. However, according to the ink tests in PC World Mag, Kodak wastes the most. They had an average of 33 pages worth of ink left in each cartridge if I remember correctly. It was a lot. Or maybe it was 33%. I can't find that issue offhand, so I only remember a bit about it.

EDIT: The pic/card are from about a year ago, so she had just turned six. Isn't she gorgeous . (YES I'm a proud father.)

[Liquid]

we have an hp all in one and so far it has performed very well for normal every day printing (color and black and white).

for picture printing we have a cannon for just picture printing.

[Middle Finger]

Thanks ... I see that the HP is thermal inkjet. I never know whether to go laser or inkjet cause I'm ignorant about the difference, lacking practice in them. I normally have a local printer do my stuff but with the kids needing it more and more it is becoming way too inconvenient.

[Liquid]

my father is a professional photographer and he uses a Epson 3800 Photostylus for printing his images and they print incredible!! He can print 13 by 19 images and I believe even bigger then that.

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/P...C635011UCM

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/review...3800.shtml

[D]

Thanks ... I see that the HP is thermal inkjet. I never know whether to go laser or inkjet cause I'm ignorant about the difference, lacking practice in them. I normally have a local printer do my stuff but with the kids needing it more and more it is becoming way too inconvenient.

If you have multiple PCs hooked up on a LAN, then you might want to get a network printer. This way it has it's own built in Ethernet port and you can just hook it to a spare port on the network, and voila, everyone can print to it. Oh sure, you can get this functionality by sharing your printer from the computer its hooked to also, but that isn't always the better solution. Obviously, you'll need to make your own judgment here based on your wants, needs, price range, etc...

[Maggot]

Juicy wrote:

this one will save you money on ink cartridges



I walked around Staples about 6 weeks ago and spent an hour matching up cheap ink to the cheapest (almost free) printers. I found out that the ink can sometimes be more expensive than the printer, and the printers come with two free inks, color and B&W,Icould sell the printers (as many as I had) still in the box at a yard sale for 10.00 each and buy another ink cartridge, for the last one.

This same mentality can be used when getting cash from your credit card. You go to a bank and buy a cash visa card with a credit card and avoid the higher percentage of the cash withdrawal. Go to another bank and cash the cash visa card for free and you end up paying 12% for instant cash. I have not tried it yet but it will work in a pinch to avoid the cash fees that can sometimes be as high as 28%

I have not tried either thing but thinking about it makes me snicker.And I did walk around Staples thinking of doing it, then bought 8 aaa batteries for my sons race car.And an Alice Cooper C.D.

I avoided shopping for kids shoes again!::banana::and all was well with the world.

Oh yeah good luck with the printer,ink, blah,blah ,blah.......

[Liquid]

the ink IS where the companies make their money. any printer (or photographer who does a lot of printing) will tell you that. they basically give the printers away because they know they will make it back 100 fold with the cost of ink cartridges.

[D]

And the ink carts that come with those printers are lower quality (for printers that can take 2 different quality carts of ink) and are also "sample" carts that have less ink in them.

[Maggot]

Anyone ever used the ink injector system thingy? Does it work? Is it viable? Is it messy? Does it work?..........shit I said that already.

[D]

Yes they work. They're only messy if you are.

[Middle Finger]

I would up going with the HP Photosmart C7280 WiFi All-In-One Printer ... thanks again for the comments.