Inkjet or Laser Printer

[Late]

I haven't bought a printer in years. I'm not looking to print digital photos or color pie charts — essentially text with the occasional B/W graphic.

Any (affordable) recommendations from those more in the know? I use a MacBook.

Thanks for your help!

[DukeCity]

I'm sure you'll get people who are vehemently opposed to certain brands, just about every brand. But I've been using inexpensive brother laser printers (a 5000 series at home, a 2000 series at work) and I've been very pleased. Crisp b&w printing at 20-30 pages per minute. Haven't had any problems, and haven't had to change toner very often. I got them for between $100 and $150.

[Christiern]

I have 3 printers in a closet, but the following are hooked up to my Macs:

Hewlett-Packard Photosmart 8150 Excellent for printing photos

Hewlett Packard PSC 1610 All-In-One Excellent for printing photos and for light scanning

Hewlett-Packard Color Laserjet 2550 Excellent for color printing, but far too expensive when it comes to its 4 cartridges (about $80-90 each!)

Hewlett-Packard Laserjet 1200 My favorite, the one I have had the longest, the least expensive to run, etc.

So, for your needs, I definitely recommend a b&W Laser printer. The Brother were always cheaper, but I think HP has become just as affordable.

The current models are far less expensive (start at $99), look better, and probably function better. Check them out here.

[Late]

Thank you, DC and Chris.

[porcy62]

I second Chris, lasers are much cheaper then inkjets in term of autonomy.

And, if you're not using the printer for while, a laser will work better since the first page, inkjets have the problem of dried ink.

BTW I have a laser Xerox Phaser 6110 that works as 'xerox' and scanner too, actually you could have it with a fax option.

edit: Dang! I realized it's 'Out Of Print' The new one is this http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/color...-6130/enus.html

Consider that I bought it one and half year ago, I used it a lot and I didn't replaced the toner yet. My old Epson, inkjet, costed me a fortune of cartridges per year.

Inkjets really beat budget lasers on photographic paper prints, if you need great quality on this stuff.

Edited September 16, 2008 by porcy62

[Rooster_Ties]

I've got this one here at home, and we love it...

HP Color LaserJet 2600n Printer (color)

Got ours for a good bit less than the price they have listed at Amazon (where the link above goes to) -- I think we only paid $420 for it, or something like that. (We got it on sale at an Office Depot store, didn't get it on-line.)

Fast, SHARP print (even in color), really excellent for the price. Plenty of reviews to look through at the link above. Looks like people generally rate it pretty high (mostly 5's and 4's).

Edit: Yeah, I know, you said you didn't need/want color. There may be a similar HP B&W printer, and that may well be the way to go. Just wanted to give a thumbs up to this particular HP printer, and I presume similar ones would be equally good.

Edited September 16, 2008 by Rooster_Ties

[Christiern]

Those HP color laser printers do a fine job (with the right paper), but I see the high cartridge cost as a big drawback. It costs me as much to renew the cartridges as it cost me to buy the damned machine!

[Chuck Nessa]

I recommend any HP b/w laser.