doesn't help that printer ink is one of the most expensive liquids in the world and the whole business model of printer companies is based on selling overpriced ink, so much so that they sell printers at a loss and then try to block out third party cartridges
it started with low on cyan, so I did what it asked for and replaced the whole ink set, but then found out that the previous ink has dried on the ink tuner since I haven't used the printer for ~6 months and didn't feel like spending any more money on this shit.
So I got my myself a laser brother printer and it's been kicking for over 6 years now
I was in the market this year so shopping around laser color ones I noticed the reviews for even the Brother said it would brick your printer if you use 3rd party toners. So just look before you buy. I ended up buying their more expensive one because of that, but still not entirely sure its 3rd party compatible. Ill research whether thats the case when my toner needs replaced.
I have a brother laser printer. Best printer I’ve had so far. 3 years on the same toner cart; at my pace I’d have replaced the ink 2 or 3 times already.
I got a used brother that had ever only printed one toner cartridges worth of prints, for 15€. It even has wifi, definitely one of the better buys I've made. I only need to print a handful of times a year so I anticipate it'll last me for years and years.
canon ones are decent too (if thry didn't change them since i bought my iSensys MF3010, that thing still works great, except drivers. They work perfectly but are almost impossible to find on the canon website nowadays; works fine on linux too without drivers)
Yeah. The vast majority of people have no real reason to own a color printer. Black and white laser does the job and only if you need to print something like photos at home, should you even consider an inkjet.
I have a b&w laster printer, an old Kyocera relic from the mid-2000s. Got it from a previous job that was remodeling their offices. I refuse to let go of it, I don't care how many brown-outs it causes when I'm printing something (seriously, it dims the lights when it fires up).
I'll only replace it with an equally beefy color laser printer.
my lazer canon mf3010 scans just fine even without a cartridge installed at all.
I kinda like that printer actually.
no drm, no wifi, no fancy-ass touchscreens, no bullshit.
it just prints and scans.
never complains about low ink until it's so low the text is barely visible anyway.
The last printer I bought was a shitty $80 Samsung Laser Printer that still works on its original toner after 10 years. The print quality is terrible but it’s still the best deal I ever had on a printer.
As somebody who didn’t, for once, have this specific problem today, but had a printing problem nonetheless, I feel so triggered by this post.
Why the actual fuck is printing so much harder today than it was a decade ago. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills that we are halfway through 2023 and I have more printing issues than I did even 4-5 years ago, let alone back in the golden days of literally never having printing issues in the first half of my lifetime.
Expensive refills on ink/toner I can accept. It's been like that forever. What I can not accept is how useless the HP printer/scanner is without HP smart. In windows I literally cannot do anything unless I'm signed into their stupid service. In Linux I just grab generic drivers and do whatever I want. So it's obviously not baked into the printer. I can't wait to get a new one from another brand, just need one good reason to make more e-waste.
And that isn't even getting into their drivers and software. Foolish me bought a printer with a scanner and thought I'd be able to just install one little piece of software and be able to print and scan. How silly of me to forget that I to search Google to find instructions that weren't provided by HP, and download an application that the printer's instructions did not tell me to install, in order to get the it working.
I almost want this printer to die just so I can never own an HP printer again in my life.
I always like when I have to open their installer executbale in a utility like 7zip (beause they are 99% really just a self-extracting archive like zip with the actual installer inside), yank out the driver and INF files so i dont have to install some call-home telemetry nonsense to be able to print.
my parent bought a HP deskjet printer for us, but the ink is so expensive that any picture needs be small that the ink don't run out as quickly. and the software is garbage too.
This is how printers get introduced to VERY FAST crowbars.
Get a laserjet.
Whenever these plastic fucking pieces of shit misbehave, I get interested in thermal depolymerization again. I'd like to start removing microplastics from our environment, slow as it takes. I need to build an electric kiln and some way to keep the decomposition chamber inside oxygen-free...