Printer advice please.

[Urien]

I've just got to the stage of printing off a lot (approx 800 pages) of manuscript; I have an Epson DX8450. Not bad but can only take about 50 pages a time. Hence lots of trips to refeed the machine.

Does anybody have any advice on a bigger/faster machine or more appropriate machine for highish but sporadic printing? I'm willing to pay up for the optimal machine especially for copy going to editors/agents.

Thanks in advance for any tips or help.

Cheers

~U~

 

[chopper]

not that i've got one yet, but i think i'd be looking at a dedicated laser printer for b&w text printing. most colour printers seem designed with photos in mind rather than anything else.

 

[HareBrain]

You're using an inkjet to print 800 pages? Are you Fred Goodwin?

I've got an old HP Laserjet 4000 from a friend whose office was chucking it out. For B&W text, it is brilliant, and very economical with toner (my friend said the cartridge was on its last legs, and that was about 3,000 pages ago). It seems you can still get them new for £125. It's bulky, but if you've got a space for it, I'd recommend it.

 

[Urien]

Thanks so far... Fred Goodwin? It took a moment to remember who that was, I was thinking Fred West (the serial killer).

Yep it's a lazoooor printer for me I think. I have a history of buying technology that on use proves to be not quite fit for purpose.

 

[Nik]

I suppose my unfortunate habit of single-spacing documents dates from my first real printer, an expensive, slooow and jack-hammer noisy 9-pin Epson dot-matrix tractor-feed with ribbon cartridge. I fed it professional-quality 'micro-perf' fan-fold, but even that expensive stuff earned me a bunch of instant rejection slips after the six months required to float up the 'un-established' queue...

Fuzzy-edged *and* wrong size....

To add insult to injury, I could NOT get US-sized fanfold in UK, two 'gotchas' which made for a peneplain-flat learning curve...

After years of slooow, thirsty, but blessedly quiet ink-jets, I bought a modest laser-printer. My now-discontinued Samsung takes a 'one-pack consumables' insert. It runs via USB, the modest driver makes no fuss, and it can quietly print fifty B&W pages in a couple of minutes from cold...

I've also got a super 'all in one' HP photo-smart with scanner, card slots, phot-quality tray etc. That shares my NAS boxes' local network, but the mega-driver cyber-squats this modest browser-PC, so I only wake it when I need colour or a one-touch photo-copy.

FWIW, I've also got a Dymo USB label-printer...
---

How much printing will you do after this project ?? Should you have taken your document to a print-shop ? Should you look for a laser-printer with extension tray that takes a '500' paper pack ??

I'm not sure of the break-even point for laser consumables but, if you plan to do a *lot* of printing, you should consider a 'laser' with seperate toner and drum.

Also, consider a laser printer with networking, wired and/or wireless. Rest of family will *love* you...

 

[Urien]

Bravo Nik thanks. Not sure I want cyber-squats though, it sounds... unpleasant.

 

[ctg]

Why don't you walk in nearest copy shop and ask how much it would cost to print 800 pages? Probably less than a new printer, but quality will be much better than anything you can get off from off-the-shelf stuff.

 

[FionaW]

I've just kicked my Samsung into touch - it's barely a year old, but it's useless. Doesn't take the paper into the feed (I have to hand feed each sheet, and time it exactly right or it throws a fit). It also, despite having a new toner cartridge, prints text in a charcoal grey.

I gave away my beloved HP when I left the UK. After 11 years of faultless service it was only on its 2nd toner cartridge. It's the only thing I regret leaving behind!

I'm about to have a 2nd level Brother machine as a replacement - it's what the local schools use, so it should be hardwearing and reliable. Laser mono, 34 sheets/min.

My recommendation is not to simply get one of those cheap deals in a computer shop that leave you paying hundreds for ink. Contact a company that supplies them to schools, businesses and hospitals, and the extra you'll save down the line (by going up a level I save 0.5c/sheet, which for a writer is going to mount up quite quickly).

The dream machine arrives on Tuesday - I'll let you know what I think.

 

[Urien]

Cool. Thank you Fiona, good advice.

 

[Gudanov]

I use a Samsung ML-1710 laser printer (I doubt they make them anymore, I've had it for years). It hasn't given me any problems and the cheap third-party toner cartridges have worked fine so far. I do have to make sure it isn't in toner saving mode, it makes things too light. Laser printers are the far and away better for B&W printing IMO.

I also have a Samsung SCX-4521F multifunction laser printer that has worked well for years as well.

I can't say much about other brands, I haven't owned any laser printers aside from the Samsungs for a long time.

I'd go more by the price of consumables for selecting a laser printer. Find the ones that cost the least to run, then look at the actual printers.

 

[FionaW]

The Brother HL-5340D is fabuloso!

The best thing ever - it does double sided printing, which will reduce my ecological anxieties a little. It's a bit noisier than my previous one, but it's faster than any printer I've ever owned. Eleven pages, zippety-splat!