Printers

[sjc]

Not too worried about budget, but lets say £300 as a starting point. most of the stuff is going to be photos ( but would like very good quality, with the rest general purpose stuff. As a complete non-informed when it come to these things ( and most others!)what shoul I look for and are all printers compatible with all computers with the right software?
Thanks in advance.

[leorest]

Consider the cost of running the thing. A years worth of consumables in ink cartridges for inkjets or toner and ALL of the other associated paraphernalia for laser printers can belittle the original purchase price for a printer. I have an epson photo stylus for colour stuff and a cheap brother HL-2030 laser printer for black printing. When the toner runs out on the laser I'll either refill from a bottle or throw it away and buy another cheap laser.

Most mainstream operating systems will be supported by most printer drivers. Check the specification for which OS is supported and check you have the appropriate hardware to connect with USB/network/parallel.

[FunkyGibbon]

if you are going to be doing a lot of full colour printing a colour laser will work out much cheaper per page than an inkjet.

[road2ruin]

FunkyGibbon said:

if you are going to be doing a lot of full colour printing a colour laser will work out much cheaper per page than an inkjet.

May be cheaper but Photo's will look rubbish. The best photo option is still an inkjet printer with seperate ink tanks to keep the cost down. All printers will work with MS op systems pretty much.

[thepassenger]

FunkyGibbon said:

if you are going to be doing a lot of full colour printing a colour laser will work out much cheaper per page than an inkjet.

Cheaper per page sometimes, but I've seen colour lasers doing pictures's and yeah it looks good and I'd be happy to see a report or document come out but for photo's... your looking at some seriously expensive equipment.

Or a comparitivley cheapo inkjet.

[malman]

You could buy a cheap mono printer and get your photos done online or at the various high street stores doing digital prints. Depends on what volume you have of each

[Tripps]

malman said:

You could buy a cheap mono printer and get your photos done online or at the various high street stores doing digital prints. Depends on what volume you have of each

That's the root I've gone for now as I very rarely actually need colour printing. A decent B&W laser does the trick for me and provide very cheap copy and high quality.

My last laser cost me sub £300 and lasted around 7 years, my new one is a good bit better and cost £100. As has been said, it's cheaper to throw them away nowadays as new toners and drums are almost as expensive as the printers.

I've got a good ink jet but find I use it so infrequently it needs the nozzle cleaning each time I use it so isn't that much use to me really. PhotoBox gives good results every time and carries any sort of paper I'd care to need. Works out a lot cheaper too on a per picture basis.

[R1 GTR]

We got a HP all in one inkjet a few weeks ago. Although its an all in one, its an inkjet and prints excelent photos.