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What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at home from non OEM toner?



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 21st 12, 11:39 PM posted to alt.home.repair,comp.periphs.printers,rec.photo.digital
Ashton Crusher
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3
Default What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at home from non OEM toner?

On Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:22:09 +0000 (UTC), "J.G."
wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:08:43 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:

Yeah, when I was working I went thru several color laser printers with
the idea they would be able to do color photos better then the
"expensive" inkjet process.


I'm slowly coming to the following hard-won realization,
much to my chagrin, regarding printing color photos at home:

0. B&W laser writers (such as my HP 3200m) are trivial & cheap to refill
1. Most color laser writers are also trivial & cheap to refill.
2. However, color laser writers stink at printing pictures at home!

Given that, we are FORCED to look at ink-based printers:
0. IMHO, all ink-based printers from HP are to be avoided at all costs!
1. Kodak/Canon/Dell ink-based printers 'may' be a viable alternative.
2. The key is to buy the printer based on the ease of "replacing" the ink!

Drat! Color lasers, which are the subject of this task, are slowly
dropping off the radar screen ... and the dreaded ink-based printers
are rising up, again.

Why is finding a decent printer to print photos at home at a decent
price such a miserable process?


Last time I needed to buy a new AIO Inkie I was going to avoid HP. I
read all the reviews I could find, compared features and user
satisfaction, plus looked at reported problems. I Finally settled on
a Canon that sounded REALLY good from the reviews. After getting it I
was VERY disappointed in it's print quality for text and photos, it
just did not match the quality on simple run of the mill daily
printing that I was used to from my old defunct (my fault) HP. Some
users had mentioned it's lengthy startup time for the first page but
it didn't sound too bad so I still bought it. Start up time turned
out to be a HUGE pain in the butt. If it sat for more then a few
minutes it seemingly parked it's print heads and then when you went to
print again there was all sorts of start up racket and delay while it
brought the heads out of cold storage. Then I discovered that in what
it considered normal mixed color and b/w printing it used a mix of all
the color inks to produce the "black" which came out more like a dark
charcoal. So its prints looked lousy and used up all the color ink!!
I took it back and returned to an HP AIO. Good luck with your
search!!
  #2  
Old August 22nd 12, 02:47 PM posted to alt.home.repair,comp.periphs.printers,rec.photo.digital
SMS
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,312
Default What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at homefrom non OEM toner?

On 8/21/2012 3:39 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:

snip

I took it back and returned to an HP AIO. Good luck with your
search!!


All the rantings about HP are not because of the print quality, they are
because of the business practices of what has essentially become an ink
company.

I find an HP AIO to be ideal. The print quality is excellent. I buy the
replacement color ink cartridges from monoprice.com for as low as $8.
The price of HP ink cartridges does not affect me.

The key is to look at consumables first, and then select a printer based
on the availability of after-market consumables. Even if it means
finding a used printer.

Freecycle is full of used printers. When computers lost their parallel
ports there were a bunch of free laser printers available (often of a
quality that is no longer available) because so many people wanted
printers with USB ports. Then a lot of people wanted printers with
wireless built in so they gave away their printers that lacked wireless.
Now a lot of people want printers that support Airprint, so they can
print directly from an Apple iPad or iPhone, so they are buying new
printers that support Airprint.

Of course there have always been easy workarounds to these issues, but
they are not well known. I.e. I have a wireless print server with two
USB and one parallel port that my printers connect to. There is an
Airprint print server from Lantronix so any network printer can print
from an iPad or iPhone. But new inkjet printers are so cheap that few
people will bother with any workaround that costs $100. What they don't
realize is that that new inkjet printer is designed to stop the use of
refilled ink cartridges and aftermarket ink cartridges.

  #3  
Old August 22nd 12, 03:02 PM posted to alt.home.repair,comp.periphs.printers,rec.photo.digital
Chris Malcolm[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,142
Default What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at home from non OEM toner?

In rec.photo.digital SMS wrote:
On 8/21/2012 3:39 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:


snip


I took it back and returned to an HP AIO. Good luck with your
search!!


All the rantings about HP are not because of the print quality, they are
because of the business practices of what has essentially become an ink
company.


I find an HP AIO to be ideal. The print quality is excellent. I buy the
replacement color ink cartridges from monoprice.com for as low as $8.
The price of HP ink cartridges does not affect me.


The key is to look at consumables first, and then select a printer based
on the availability of after-market consumables. Even if it means
finding a used printer.


I happily used one of the allegedly better quality EPSON-compatible
inks for a few years. Not the cheapest, but a good reputation on the
web. My own tests had shown me only slight differences in colour, not
worth paying all the extra for unless I wanted to do some exhibition
quality prints. Which I sometimes did. And so sometimes I ended up
doing a few of my family snaps with EPSON inks, and most with the same
good quality replacement ink.

My wife pinned those she liked best on the kitchen wall, carefully
choosing a position the sun never reached. Nevertheless after a year
all the replacement inks had browned off like old masters, whereas the
EPSON ink snaps were still bright and colorful. After two years the
compatible prints looked like fading sepia prints, whereas the EPSON
ink prints still looked newly minted.

So now I stick to the printer maker's inks. Have you tried any
lightfast fading tests on your 3rd party inks?

--
Chris Malcolm
  #4  
Old August 23rd 12, 05:11 AM posted to alt.home.repair,comp.periphs.printers,rec.photo.digital
Gernot Hassenpflug
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3
Default What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at home from non OEM toner?

Ashton Crusher writes:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:22:09 +0000 (UTC), "J.G."
wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:08:43 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:

Yeah, when I was working I went thru several color laser printers with
the idea they would be able to do color photos better then the
"expensive" inkjet process.


I'm slowly coming to the following hard-won realization,
much to my chagrin, regarding printing color photos at home:

0. B&W laser writers (such as my HP 3200m) are trivial & cheap to refill
1. Most color laser writers are also trivial & cheap to refill.
2. However, color laser writers stink at printing pictures at home!

Given that, we are FORCED to look at ink-based printers:
0. IMHO, all ink-based printers from HP are to be avoided at all costs!
1. Kodak/Canon/Dell ink-based printers 'may' be a viable alternative.
2. The key is to buy the printer based on the ease of "replacing" the ink!

Drat! Color lasers, which are the subject of this task, are slowly
dropping off the radar screen ... and the dreaded ink-based printers
are rising up, again.

Why is finding a decent printer to print photos at home at a decent
price such a miserable process?


Last time I needed to buy a new AIO Inkie I was going to avoid HP. I
read all the reviews I could find, compared features and user
satisfaction, plus looked at reported problems. I Finally settled on
a Canon that sounded REALLY good from the reviews. After getting it I
was VERY disappointed in it's print quality for text and photos, it
just did not match the quality on simple run of the mill daily
printing that I was used to from my old defunct (my fault) HP. Some
users had mentioned it's lengthy startup time for the first page but
it didn't sound too bad so I still bought it. Start up time turned
out to be a HUGE pain in the butt. If it sat for more then a few
minutes it seemingly parked it's print heads and then when you went to
print again there was all sorts of start up racket and delay while it
brought the heads out of cold storage. Then I discovered that in what
it considered normal mixed color and b/w printing it used a mix of all
the color inks to produce the "black" which came out more like a dark
charcoal. So its prints looked lousy and used up all the color ink!!
I took it back and returned to an HP AIO. Good luck with your
search!!


Yes, many of the Canon inkjets which, after all, are made for
photo-printing, improve the shades of grey by using other colors. This
is quite natural since the point of using them is to print quality
photos.

However, if one wants to use the printer for other things, which is
also natural, such as low-cost B/W printing, then one has to ensure
that the printer comes with at least one plain media mode (not the
highest or even medium quality one, in most cases) that prints only
using black ink. Then one uses that.

There is a whole range of Canon printers dealing with this problem by
shipping with two cartridges: black and color. One can then select
black-only cartridge and print all one's work only in black. Refilling
either cartridge is also trivial.
--
Gernot Hassenpflug
  #5  
Old August 25th 12, 07:20 AM posted to alt.home.repair,comp.periphs.printers,rec.photo.digital
Ashton Crusher
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3
Default What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at home from non OEM toner?

On 23 Aug 2012 13:11:32 +0900, Gernot Hassenpflug
wrote:

Ashton Crusher writes:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:22:09 +0000 (UTC), "J.G."
wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:08:43 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:

Yeah, when I was working I went thru several color laser printers with
the idea they would be able to do color photos better then the
"expensive" inkjet process.

I'm slowly coming to the following hard-won realization,
much to my chagrin, regarding printing color photos at home:

0. B&W laser writers (such as my HP 3200m) are trivial & cheap to refill
1. Most color laser writers are also trivial & cheap to refill.
2. However, color laser writers stink at printing pictures at home!

Given that, we are FORCED to look at ink-based printers:
0. IMHO, all ink-based printers from HP are to be avoided at all costs!
1. Kodak/Canon/Dell ink-based printers 'may' be a viable alternative.
2. The key is to buy the printer based on the ease of "replacing" the ink!

Drat! Color lasers, which are the subject of this task, are slowly
dropping off the radar screen ... and the dreaded ink-based printers
are rising up, again.

Why is finding a decent printer to print photos at home at a decent
price such a miserable process?


Last time I needed to buy a new AIO Inkie I was going to avoid HP. I
read all the reviews I could find, compared features and user
satisfaction, plus looked at reported problems. I Finally settled on
a Canon that sounded REALLY good from the reviews. After getting it I
was VERY disappointed in it's print quality for text and photos, it
just did not match the quality on simple run of the mill daily
printing that I was used to from my old defunct (my fault) HP. Some
users had mentioned it's lengthy startup time for the first page but
it didn't sound too bad so I still bought it. Start up time turned
out to be a HUGE pain in the butt. If it sat for more then a few
minutes it seemingly parked it's print heads and then when you went to
print again there was all sorts of start up racket and delay while it
brought the heads out of cold storage. Then I discovered that in what
it considered normal mixed color and b/w printing it used a mix of all
the color inks to produce the "black" which came out more like a dark
charcoal. So its prints looked lousy and used up all the color ink!!
I took it back and returned to an HP AIO. Good luck with your
search!!


Yes, many of the Canon inkjets which, after all, are made for
photo-printing, improve the shades of grey by using other colors. This
is quite natural since the point of using them is to print quality
photos.

However, if one wants to use the printer for other things, which is
also natural, such as low-cost B/W printing, then one has to ensure
that the printer comes with at least one plain media mode (not the
highest or even medium quality one, in most cases) that prints only
using black ink. Then one uses that.

There is a whole range of Canon printers dealing with this problem by
shipping with two cartridges: black and color. One can then select
black-only cartridge and print all one's work only in black. Refilling
either cartridge is also trivial.


The single Canon I tried did have both black and color carts. Yet it
insisted on using the color mix for black unless you did something to
force it to use the black - I forget the details now. You could work
around it but it was a pain to deal with and simply wasn't a problem
with the HP. The thing that surprised me most was that so many
reviewers raved about its print quality and it was clearly, at least
to my eye, inferior to HP for the 90% of the printing I do. When
doing 4x6 color on glossy photo paper it did fine but no better then
the HP.
  #6  
Old August 27th 12, 04:22 AM posted to alt.home.repair,comp.periphs.printers,rec.photo.digital
Gernot Hassenpflug
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3
Default What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at home from non OEM toner?

Ashton Crusher writes:

On 23 Aug 2012 13:11:32 +0900, Gernot Hassenpflug
wrote:


/../

There is a whole range of Canon printers dealing with this problem by
shipping with two cartridges: black and color. One can then select
black-only cartridge and print all one's work only in black. Refilling
either cartridge is also trivial.


The single Canon I tried did have both black and color carts. Yet it
insisted on using the color mix for black unless you did something to
force it to use the black - I forget the details now. You could work


Er, of course. You have to select the black cartridge. The printer is
not a mind-reader! This ability is what is special. In the other range
of models, which have 4 or more separate ink tanks, you also usually
have one or more black-only modes for plain media in the mono mode
selection, but it is not guaranteed: they might all use other inks as
well, that is controlled in the firmware.

With the range I described above, you can select black cartridge only
in the driver.

around it but it was a pain to deal with and simply wasn't a problem
with the HP. The thing that surprised me most was that so many
reviewers raved about its print quality and it was clearly, at least
to my eye, inferior to HP for the 90% of the printing I do. When
doing 4x6 color on glossy photo paper it did fine but no better then
the HP.


It is up to the printer manufacturer to determine what quality to give
for mono modes. Some use only black ink, some use other inks as well
for high-quality mono modes, and black only for lower qualit mono
modes. You can't rely on the next model having the same specs there.
--
Gernot Hassenpflug
  #7  
Old August 27th 12, 05:06 PM posted to alt.home.repair,comp.periphs.printers,rec.photo.digital
Wolfgang Weisselberg
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Posts: 5,285
Default What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at homefrom non OEM toner?

Ashton Crusher wrote:

[mixing colours to reach black]

The single Canon I tried did have both black and color carts. Yet it
insisted on using the color mix for black unless you did something to
force it to use the black - I forget the details now. You could work
around it but it was a pain to deal with and simply wasn't a problem
with the HP.


Did you ever look at the HP greys and blacks with a loupe?

And how do you correct for colour tints? Believing that every
black ink will be colour cast free under every light, in every
density, on every paper ...

The thing that surprised me most was that so many
reviewers raved about its print quality and it was clearly, at least
to my eye, inferior to HP for the 90% of the printing I do.


Hmmm, that looks like you did something wrong.
Or used the wrong printer for the task.
Or used the wrong ink.
Or used the wrong paper.

When
doing 4x6 color on glossy photo paper it did fine but no better then
the HP.


What else did you print? Text on recycled paper?

-Wolfgang
 




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