Advice on color printer

[pdq]

Billybob wrote:
For quality photo printing you still need to use inkjet printers on inkjet paper.

...or have Walgreen's do it for 12 cents a print...

[weapon]

For Photos canon is the only one I use.The software has a small footprint and does not take over your systems. In 7 years they have never clogged. I did have one break recently but they are always on sale for near the price of a new set of ink cartridges.

[freeradical]

If all you want to make are 4x6 prints, you can get dye-sub printers for under $100.

Of course there will be the consumables issue.

The prices for these printers are nuts when you want bigger pictures.

[space-time]

Are dye-sub printers better than inkjets? Do prints last longer? No clogged nozzles? Any brand you recommend?

[jdc]

I agree with several of the different posts -- to sum up

Lasers consumables can kill the cost to use. Photo printing is blah.

Photos -- I send them out. Costco is my preferred place, but any store should work great.

What I think you need is an inkjet with generic cart capability. I own a Brother J835DW like space mentioned. Wireless, duplex and works with iPhones/iPads. I just bought 16 generic carts for it -- 4 black and 2 of each color for $11. 80 cents per cart. Ive already used them before, they work great. I tell my kids to print whatever they want as much as they want.

835 is are no more, replaced by the 870 and 875. They also have generic carts, and $1.50 each, so still a great deal.

Ive seen the 870 for $115.

[space-time]

jdc which brand of generics do you usually buy? If you buy on amazon, from which vendor?

[freeradical]

space-time wrote:
Are dye-sub printers better than inkjets? Do prints last longer? No clogged nozzles? Any brand you recommend?

Better? It depends on what you're printing. They're excellent for photographs.

The prints are archival.

There are no nozzles in a dye-sub printer.

I've never owned one, but I've often considered getting one. The thing that's held me back is that I've never seen one that produces 5x7 prints that has a reasonable price.

[jdc]

I get them from meritline -- this was the deal I got:

Meritline offers two Brother LC75-Compatible Inkjet Cartridge 4-Packs (8 cartridges total) for $11.95. (Select "2 Sets" under "Buy More Save More".) Coupon code "MLCB27DN" cuts it to $5.95. With free shipping, that's 74 cents per cartridge, a buck under our June mention, and the lowest total price we could find for this quantity by $1. It includes two each of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges.

I guess it was 74¢ per cart, and the total was $11.95 -- I ordered 2 sets of 8.

http://www.meritline.com/brother-lc75-in...g5Y0FBQUE4&source=dealnews&strcoup=MLCB27DN&dealid=79501

[sekker]

I won't do inkjet anymore. Far too much maintenance, and I have had countless Epson and two higher-end HP models fail completely (the HP twice, the first AND its warranty replacement).

I went with a Brother color laserprinter, works fine for all but photo prints.

We don't print photos much anymore - we share via email or Dropbox most times now - but we print at a commercial location when we do need the higher quality prints.

The only time this mattered recently was for my daughter's last science fair project.

[mrlynn]

I had to replace our junky Brother all-in-one inkjet with another printer that would do faxes. I decided to get a color laser AIO, because I wanted a color printer, but don't use one often enough to keep ink carts from clogging up. So I finally settled on this HP:

HP LaserJet Pro 200 color MFP Printer (M276nw)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008ABLJC4/ref=...oding=UTF8&colid=2TLY4J7ZNQ7J5&coliid=I1WJ2VA8Y9KSL4

It's now down to $290.79 (I paid about $340 last May). It's a big, black beast, but so far it works well, and we're still on the starter toner carts. Works will as a copier, too (has a document feeder).

/Mr Lynn

PS FYI, my daughter is home-schooling her two older boys (5 and almost 7); she just a bought a "full year math curriculum" from this place:

http://www.mathmammoth.com

She bought grades 1 and 2, and got grade 3 as a bonus.