LaserJet vs InkJet Printer

[Media2007]

I'am starting on writing a book.And need a printer.Someone told me that the laserjet printer won't use up ink as fast as the inkjet printer.Does,anyone know if this is a fact?

[SithTracy]

A laser printer uses toner, and yes, you should get more pages per toner cartridge than you would with ink jet cartridges.

I would also expect the letters in a printed document to be crisper and clearer with laser vs. than what you get out of a ink jet... that said, I own an ink jet at home and am happy with the results, but I don't do a ton of printing... But when compared to the black and white printing I do at home with printing in the office, the HP LaserJets in the office are clearly better.

[Dartman]

I think it really depends on the quality of the inkjet printer as to whether the letter quality is close to laser jet or not. I have a older HP 990 that has very crisp letter quality in BW print. My newer Epsons I use for mostly photo printing look mediocure plus they tend to drink ink faster and the tanks are small. The HP has pretty large color carts and last me 6 months or less in medium duty home use.
I would think if you don't need color and just want excellent font quality a good laser would be at least a tiny bit to a great deal better plus yes, the toner will outlast just about any inkjet, but can be spendy to replace, just like inkjets, at least if you buy OEM carts.
I've been buying remanned carts and so far have great results with both printers, Laser should be the same plus some you can refill if your brave.

[Media2007]

Do toner's come with the Laser printer at first?Or will I have to buy it too?

[smartin4]

HP laser printers always come with a toner.

I would think that other manufacturers would too, but I have no experience with anyone other than HP as far as laser printers go.

[Dartman]

They have to give you a toner cart, they just don't have to fill it fully
Some come with what they call starter carts and others give you a full cart when you buy it so do some research to see what you get. Some of the inkjet makers pull the same crap, small carts, chips to shut them off before they are empty etc.
They've all found out they can make more money selling consumable after they sell you a printer.

[Media2007]

Is this one anygood?

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=HPLJ10 ... 7b0cb3d401

[Dartman]

Thats a a good price but it is the cheapest one HP makes according to google when I searched it.
My 990 has auto duplexing which is great for making a book/pamplet layout on both sides without doing anything extra, I'd recommend it if your printing a book. I have printed HUGE manuals with mine, walked away, come back later it's all stacked in the tray ready to be stapled.
Hit some pro print review site and see whats out there then watch for deals.
Fat Wallet and Slick deals are great places to check once you know what you want and how much it retails for.

[Media2007]

Are 990 still sold?

[Ian]

I bought a Brother HL5250DN about a year ago. It has duplexing, network support, etc. and cost about $150 on sale.

http://www.brother-usa.com/printer/Mode ... D=HL5250DN

[Media2007]

Well,see my budget is about $150.00.I've still got to buy my new dvd burner on August 1st.

Ian that printer that you've got.I'd like to get;but it's not cheap enough.

[Media2007]

So,far these are the only printers I can afford:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6828113217


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6828113160


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6828104433



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6828113160


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6828112055

[Dartman]

Are 990 still sold?

The 990 and its slower brothers were sold about 5 years ago or so. It's the last of the truly tank like HP's that also take large single carts, black and RGB.
I have seen some with low miles on E-bay for fairly cheap now that they are older. I paid 300 for mine from e-bay when they sold new for 4 to 5 hundred.
It prints documents in mono very clean and still does about as well as my photo quality Epsons I have that have 6 or 7 colors on glossy photo prints.
Do check the deal sites I mentioned because they post printer and laser printer deals all the time that can be way less then your budget if you get lucky.
I paid 30 bucks for my Epson r200 back when they were new after rebate, and like 180 shipped for a r800 through Epson on a refurb deal with a year warranty. There can be similar prices on laser printers if you want to play the bargain hunting game, and get there first

[LoneWolf]

My advice is to buy a used laser printer. You can now find heavy-duty laser printers from HP that are several models old, for pretty cheap, models that never die, and are easy to find inexpensive remanufactured cartridges for. I myself have two. First, a Laserjet 5M (picked it up from a university with 11,000 pages on it, network interface, and a cartridge I still haven't fully used up, for $35. The Laserjet 5 printers are hard to kill, and take massive abuse (we have several with hundreds of thousands of pages of use at work).

I also have a Laserjet 6P for my wife. Ripped it out of the trash bin at the surplus store from the same university. Took 45 minutes to take it partially apart and remove the paper jam deep inside it; now it's running great. I'm not encouraging you to buy junk and repair it (I was HP certified at one point, so that helps), but it is a model worth looking at.

Models I'd consider looking at used:

Light-to-medium duty:
HP Laserjet 1200
HP Laserjet 1300

Medium to higher duty:
HP Laserjet 6P, 2100, 2200

Heavy duty
HP Laserjet 5 series
HP Laserjet 4000 or 4050 series

As for cartridges I use Databazaar.com . Inexpensive, free shipping on carts, and high ratings from Resellerratings.com.

P.S. If you're going to be printing a book, don't go with an inkjet. Inkjet printers have one primary function: to sell inkjet cartridges. Everything else is secondary. You'll pay far more in cost-per-page.

[Media2007]

All that Iam coming up with is new printers.How do I find a used HP 1300 or P6?

[LoneWolf]

All that Iam coming up with is new printers.How do I find a used HP 1300 or P6?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/about/cities.html

Craigslist is your friend. Also check and see if local companies or educational institutions are getting rid of surplus equipment that is obsolete for their needs. Maybe check if there are some shops in your area that sell used, refurbished, or off-lease computer equipment.

[Dartman]

here's a deal off slick deals you might want to consider as well if you can afford to wait for a couple of rebates http://www.slickdeals.net/forums/showth ... 9&t=563737
Looks like a brother all in one laser/scanner printer with auto duplex,might be very handy for you. there are probably other deals listed so poke around the site.

[Grain]

Anybody refill their laser carts? I have a HP 2605, and the toner is going to be dying on me soon.

[cougfan]

Nothing like tacking on to an old thread Lonewolf, but....


I was looking at network print servers to put one of my inkjet printers on the network so the wife and kids could have access whan I came across your post about used HP printers. I found an HP 4050tn on ebay with 39K pagecount, network card and 30 day warranty for $129 so I decided to take the plunge...

[Ian]

That's a good deal cougfan. We use those at work and they're great. They stand up to the (ab)use of students pretty well too.