Help Me Choose A Printer!

Computer Hardware
#1

Alright guys, my hp deskjet 920c has just grown a little long in the tooth and lacks some important features I want. What do you recommend for me as the best inkjet printer?

Here’s what I need in a new printer (in order of priority):

  1. Ability to print printable DVD-R’s (and please share your experience with this!)

  2. Ability to Print 10.8 inches of an 11 inch sheet of paper (my old HP only did 10.5, and I’m always resizing/shrinking covers)

  3. Cheap ‘Refurb’ Ink Cartriges. HP ink is still far pricier than most other brands off the big EBay refurb market. Mine are about $12/cart while my friend’s Cannon is $4/cart. I’d also like to hear from Epson owners about how cheap they can get decent ink and the other little quirks.

  4. Good ink management software. I don’t want the printer telling me that it’s out of ink with half a tank left. I also don’t want the printer’s last 5 prints to be sort of good…it should print well right up to the second the ink is out. I’ve even hear that Epson printers lock you out (disable further printing) well before the ink is truly dry…is that true?

  5. Excellent print quality. I don’t care about dpi, as the most I will typically ever use is 300-600dpi. What I DO want is good print reproduction. I think you guys know what I mean…who really uses 4800dpi? (or whatever printers have these days)

  6. A good feeder. My old HP always wanted to grab several sheets when I fed it heavy gloss paper. It was okay with regular paper, but I should never have to hand feed the printer to avoid jams.

  7. One that rarely locks up or “acts funny”. The HP just had too many odd episodes where it kept running paper though it printing garbage after trying to halt a print.

  8. Quick text print rates. I print lots of medical documents before work and need to grab them as I walk out the door. On the other hand, I could care less about how quickly photos print (I just want a good job there). An excellent 2 sided print system would also be nice.

  9. Ability to print 11x17 paper. It’d be nice to have for wall decoration/projects.

I’d love to hear what you recommend (and why) in the context of my above requests.

#2

How about this one ?

#3

Belvadere, thanks for the link, I haven’t seen that one.

Do you have experience with it? Which of my wants does it fulfill?:cool:

#4

Nope . no experience. In fact , i hate inkjet printers , laserprinters are far more effecient :). Don’t like to print my cd/dvd’s as well.

But HP has a very extensive faq and datasheet library , i hope you find what you’re looking for.

#5

Had the 920, what an excellent printer - actually the whole 900 series were great. I sold it for a fraction of its initial cost (we all do mistakes) and bought HP7760. Fancy printer with an LCD screen an all, 4800dpi but still not impressed with the printing quality… oh well at least its good looking :slight_smile:

I would recommend HP 1100. It does great prints and has a 69ml black cartridge!!

#6

Hemispasm, does the 1100 (or any HP) do DVD’s?

#7

You mean print directly onto them? No i dont think there is any HP that can do this, i use white labels which i print and stick onto the DVDs

#8

I used to do that, but too many of my discs were unplayable…even with careful use of the CD Stomper. I’d stop using stickers if I wee you.:eek:

#9

well thanx for the advice :slight_smile:

I have used this method for several years now (music cds) - none of the cds became unplayable due to the special stickies that i used.

#10

No prob. I used several types of labels, and some were definitely better than others (generally thin=better) but they all did cause some discs to go bad.

Sorry, just saw thet you do music CD’s. I also had ZERO problems with them. DVD’s are a different story, labels will often ruin DVD’s.

#11

Thanx again mate, will be checking them then for errors regularly :slight_smile:

#12

No prob, I wouldn’t worry about the CD’s too much. They’re bulletproof.

#13

No experience with them – never even seen one, but Epson have two current models that can print labels directly on printable CD/DVD.

Saw a test report somewhere a couple of weeks ago – they were more-or-less approved of, and reasonably affordable.

As ever, the more expensive one does the better job.

#14

Look at the Canon I865, can print directly onto cd/dvds and also has a 6x4 photo paper magazine. it uses seperate ink tanks so u only have to replace the colour you use.
see http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Canon%20i865/page_1.htm for a full review