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Author Topic: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer  (Read 4026 times)

mouser

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Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« on: April 24, 2022, 04:01 AM »
I have always done a lot of printing on my (black+white) laser printer.  I love the speed of printing, long lasting ink, easy and fast duplexing, and the quality.  I frequently print papers to read, documentation, board game rules, etc.

And I have always had a color inkjet printer, upgraded through the years, but never a pleasure to use.  Too slow, ink is too EXPENSIVE, and dries out from infrequent use, slow startup times, waste of space.

I would only use the color inkjet on the rare occasions when I needed color -- most of the time if it was a document with just a little color or where I didn't care, I'd print on the laser in black and white.

---

But I finally bit the bullet and bought a color laser (HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw for about $350).

It feels like a bresh of fresh air.  It has almost all the advantages of the black and white laser, but I now can print out documents with some color in them, and just have to deal with 1 printer.

Now if you need to print photos, then the color laser is not going to satisfy you; inkjets produce far better nice glossy color photos.

But for everything else it's been a joy and a relief to not have to mess with the inkjet.

I'll also say, I do think the black pure text printing from the color laser is *slightly* worse quality than my previous black+white laser, but especially with my eyes not being what they were, it's barely noticable and an easy trade off for me for the benefits of color printing.  I'm so glad to be done with inkjets.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2022, 05:00 PM by mouser »

Deozaan

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2022, 04:07 AM »
Sounds like a good post for GADGET WEEKENDS.

I'm glad you like your new printer. I hope the toner costs don't bankrupt you. :D

tomos

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2022, 01:05 PM »
Congrats. I don't know if colour toner is less expensive than ink (probably depends on the brand). But at least it doesn't dry out like the printer currently on my desk...
Tom

mouser

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2022, 01:17 PM »
I am pretty sure that the laser toner is cheaper -- but the clincher is that inkjet ink dries up in a major way, and inkjets have to dump quantities of ink into a waste reservoir after periods of disuse, which really exacerbates things.  Laser toner is in powder form so doesn't seem to have that problem.

hornet

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #4 on: April 24, 2022, 04:42 PM »
I also have a laser printer (B&W) and an injet colour printer.

My wife and I use the laser for all of our needs nowadays.

The injet has not printed properly for a few years now - I only use it to scan documents.

I probably should bite the bullet and rationalize too.  Thanks for the prompt.

Deozaan

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #5 on: April 24, 2022, 11:43 PM »
I knew someone who had a fancy color laser printer and it had separate toner cartridges for each of the four colors (CMYK). I believe each toner cartridge cost him something like $160, which seems like a lot when all the inkjet printers I was familiar with at the time needed only 2 ink cartridges (one for black, and one for all of CMY) which were in the $15-$35 range. But as has been stated, laser toner doesn't dry out so it will last much longer than ink, especially if you don't use it much. And also, all of that was probably 10-15 years ago, so the technology and prices may have changed quite a bit since then. :)

mouser

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2022, 02:34 AM »
Yeah the dried ink was what was really killing me with the rarely used inkjet.  Every time you use an inkjet that hasn't been used in a while, the printer actually dumps out a bunch of ink into a "waste pad" in the machine to help clean out the nozzles.

Remarkably, the color laser printer still has 4 different toner cartridges in it -- it's remarkable how almost the entire cavity of this small machine is mostly toner:

Contro

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2022, 01:15 PM »
I quit the printing to paper world.
I usually print to pdf and then copy to any of my devices or send by email.

But .... for 12 euros it seemed to me a good printer for those that don't use even a mobile to transfer data.
https://es.aliexpres...gatewayAdapt=glo2esp
 :-* :P
I waste a lot of money printing many manuals to paper until the moment I decided to read in digital format.
I have a lot of books copied in the shop so I don't need more. And is for docent purposes.

But another article I am waiting is this :

https://es.aliexpres...gatewayAdapt=glo2esp

When I need to scan now i will use this method instead of photos of the documentation. When I need to scan many pages I go to the shop.....
 :-\

Contro

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2022, 01:26 PM »
Two interesting articles if go well. I haven't received yet :

https://es.aliexpres...gatewayAdapt=glo2esp

https://es.aliexpres...00015779246601%22%7D

I bought another label printer cheaper. I suppose i will never receive.....


And from Amazon or AliExpress I renounce to hard disks of 16 TB for 35 euros some time ago

https://es.aliexpres...00028186492221%22%7D

 :-* :P

Note : I wish the label printer to print the inventory of books and articles I have made to have control of my stuff.
Trying to control any little article I have positioning in numbered boxs or described boxs.
 :-\

This link don't speak very well about my selection :

https://es.aliexpres...gatewayAdapt=glo2esp   and after enter in "valoraciones".
I am afraid I will never receive this article....
 :-[
« Last Edit: April 25, 2022, 01:32 PM by Contro »

Contro

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #9 on: April 25, 2022, 01:45 PM »
I have received recently but I haven't use. I suppose will be useful when no mobile, it's raining and difficult times.
https://es.aliexpres...gatewayAdapt=glo2esp

 :-[ :tellme:

Shades

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2022, 05:43 PM »
And from Amazon or AliExpress I renounce to hard disks of 16 TB for 35 euros some time ago

Hahahaha, That is what the manufacturer of the HDD pays for the hardware parts that go in the drive and most of the electronics that go on the drive....if it was a 2 TByte drive. A 16 TB drive needs far higher grade electronics and much more specialized hardware for in the drive, using technologies that make it more difficult to produce, so only a limited set of production lines are capable of producing such drives.

So a much more specialized drive, produced in small numbers for a relatively small market (mostly datacenters, although I'm sure some people here in this forum have such capacity drives or larger ones at home) on offer on AliExpress for 35 Euros....

I sure hope you did not provide your credit card data to the persons behind that AliExpress offer, because they will lavish themselves from your funds. What was that saying again about fools and their money?

Contro

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Re: Bought a color laser printer -- it's a game changer
« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2022, 03:13 AM »
And from Amazon or AliExpress I renounce to hard disks of 16 TB for 35 euros some time ago

Hahahaha, That is what the manufacturer of the HDD pays for the hardware parts that go in the drive and most of the electronics that go on the drive....if it was a 2 TByte drive. A 16 TB drive needs far higher grade electronics and much more specialized hardware for in the drive, using technologies that make it more difficult to produce, so only a limited set of production lines are capable of producing such drives.

So a much more specialized drive, produced in small numbers for a relatively small market (mostly datacenters, although I'm sure some people here in this forum have such capacity drives or larger ones at home) on offer on AliExpress for 35 Euros....

I sure hope you did not provide your credit card data to the persons behind that AliExpress offer, because they will lavish themselves from your funds. What was that saying again about fools and their money?
:-\ Sure !!!!!!!