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I really liked my previous Canon printer. A lot!
I don't particularly like the all-in-one that I replaced it with when the feed broke on the old one after many years. It's actually the scanning software that bugs the heck out of me. Do NOT like it. I'm glad I still have my flatbed scanner to hook up to the laptop. I much prefer it.
I will continue to use Canon printers.
...The ink is reasonable in price
...The print quality is great
...All my photo stuff is Canon and so they play nice together
My features of choice when I choose to replace this printer are:
...Printer only, not an all-in one
...Wireless printer
...Canon for sure. There's some good prices right now at Canon online.
General suggestions that apply to any printer: Don't buy the cheapest model. Check the prices on the ink cartridges for the printers you're looking at.
I also love Canon printers. I currently have a Canon Pixma MX360 which I'm sure is discontinued, because it's several years old. There are probably similar newer models available. It has worked flawlessly every day since I got it. I use it quite a bit for regular black and white printing, scanning and copying for my household home office needs.
I also use it for all my card scanning for cards in the gallery, to print sentiments, and to print photos on occasion.
What I like the most about it is that there is an outside paper feed in the rear, so you can print on cardstock. The paper just goes through the printer flat and doesn't have to curl around a roller inside - so no paper jams ever!
The one I have came from Walmart and was very inexpensive, I think about $70. If you can find one with an outside paper feed, I think you will be pleased.
__________________ Bugga in OK
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." Dalai Lama
General suggestions that apply to any printer: Don't buy the cheapest model. Check the prices on the ink cartridges for the printers you're looking at.
This! always always check to see how much the ink is going to cost. My friend but a printer last year, it was a GREAT deal, yeah the ink cost more than the printer!
I have an Epson Workforce Pro for about 3 or 4 years now, it takes card stock, it prints well, fingers crossed it is still going, it suits my needs but I am not a big 'printer'
A friend of mine, who prints a lot of flyers, introduced me to the continuous ink supply system idea, a way cheaper solution than always buying the ink cartridges. If you've never heard of it, like I hadn't, google it, there's lots of info. I went with inksystems, but then before I could use it, my lovely printer died, so I can't tell you how it compares to the printing I did for cardmaking. I'm stubborn enough that I still have my printer and the ink system, and hope someday to find someone who will repair the printer since the new one I have is allergic to CS and I'm not about to go get yet another printer. anyway ... you don't have to keep buying those expensive (and throw away, hello landfill) cartridges if you don't want to.
__________________ If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don't. ~ Jimmy Carter
If you do a lot of printing, a continuous ink supply printer is the only way to go. If you print your own background cardstock, it will be worth every penny to go that route. It took a little tweaking before I figured mine out to get the results I wanted. I finally realized if I wanted photo quality, I had to use "heavy" photo stock (I use gloss and matte both). And it cuts with my dies just fine. My printer will be a year old in March and I've only used about half the ink supply. I don't even give it a second thought anymore.....just hit the print button and go for it. Mine is an Epson ET-2650. Since I digitally color most of my flowers and leaves to die cut, I do print a lot of 110 lb cardstock pages. I have never bought background cardstock. Just print it.
But I would definitely recommend a continuous ink printer.
__________________ BlueFeather An old cowgirl with a young heart!
If you're in the market for a laser printer, the Brother I have is a little workhorse. I get toner at Sam's for $45-$48. And one toner cartridge will print up to 2600 pages.
If you're in the market for a COLOR laser printer, although I love my Canon, I wouldn't recommend it. For the simple reason that it has 4 toner cartridges, and they range in price from $115-$130 each. I got a fantastic deal on it, plus 4 new cartridges, because it's the one I used at work; they were replacing all the printers with a network printer.
__________________ Linda E
Caution: You are entering an artistic zone. This is not clutter - this is creating. These are not pajamas - it's my work uniform.
I can tell you what NOT to get. The Epson XP-640. I've had mine for almost a year and can no longer buy the ink at Sam's Club or Costco. The cartridges are also not refillable--at least Sams/Costco won't refill them. I usually have to get it new off Amazon to get any sort of deal. The paper tray is very finicky, printing is super loud and jams all the time. In retrospect, that is probably why it was such a good deal in the first place. I'm following this thread to see what everyone else likes. I'm ready to heave this thing in the trash!
__________________ "I have cats, but they don't smoke or associate with dogs...."
Last edited by pepperann; 12-27-2017 at 09:23 PM..
Reason: add text
I received (birthday) a hp color laser printer and it is wonderful, the foiling trend is one of the reasons and my last printer required a boatload of cartridges which was very expensive, the laser cartridge while pricey will last a lot longer and cost less in the long run. The color is amazing
We have a Canon TS9020, and it’s great. Hubby particularly loves it because he can make graphics to print directly onto a cd. I’ve printed heavy cardstock without any problem using the rear paper-feed tray. The color is great, and there are a bunch of preset things to print such as graph paper, lined paper, and even coloring page options. The Canon ink itself is expensive, but we’ve had no problems with the much cheaper knockoffs. Good luck!
__________________ If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don't. ~ Jimmy Carter
This! always always check to see how much the ink is going to cost. My friend but a printer last year, it was a GREAT deal, yeah the ink cost more than the printer!
I have an Epson Workforce Pro for about 3 or 4 years now, it takes card stock, it prints well, fingers crossed it is still going, it suits my needs but I am not a big 'printer'
That. Plus some are just ink hogs. So even the cost of the cartridge tells part but not all of the story, since some printers go through them like water.
I'd add a note about Canon. They have remarkable customer service/phone support, located in Virginia. At least the last time I needed them they were there. The rep spent an hour-ish on the phone to make something work that should not have worked since my printer is old. But she had me install a driver for a different printer, change some commands and we had a work-around.
She also helped me set up my iPad to print on a little Canon Selphy.
When deciding between "important" products from different companies, I often spend a little time researching customer support, even calling and emailing to see the response.
I�d never heard of continuous ink before, but now I�m going to have to check it it. Thanks for the tip, Jeanie!
My friend who recommended them prints 1000s of flyers for a community park project fundraiser she's working on and says she thinks the ink she has will last nearly forever. She also showed me how easy it is to set up, but there are youtube videos that walk you through it as well. It isn't as easy as the printers that come now with the cis ink wells, but it's still an improvement over all the waste and cost of replacing those cartridges all the time, imho.
__________________ If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don't. ~ Jimmy Carter
Re cartridges, just a note that some stores accept empty cartridges for recycling and also give store credit. Office Depot/Office Max and Staples give $2.00 per cartridge up to 10 per month, I believe.
I had a Canon Pixma at work and the ink was very expensive because it DEMANDED that you have 3 colors + Small black + Lg black cartridges in it at all times. I Never printed with color at work and it still used the ink from those tanks.
It eventually told me that all the tanks had to be replaced, so we ordered at about $120 and the machine told me the same thing. I contacted customer service online, and really got the run around. They had No answer and we had to buy a new machine...NOT CANON.
I have an HP Deskjet 1512 at home, so I can feed the heavier paper straight through from the back. Ink refills are reasonable at Amazon. I bought at Walmart Very cheap and they had a wireless model for $20 more. I didn't need that. I think mine was about $50.
I have never had a problem with HP.
The two different black ink cartridges are used for different types of printing. The larger cartridge holds pigment ink - for text - and the smaller one dye ink - for photos, some web page blacks, and other non-standard printing. So when printing a document, the smaller dye ink isn't used. If printing a web page, both may be used.
At least in the past computer settings could be set to "gray scale" and only the larger cartridge would be used, even on web pages and non-standard printing. Since I don't ever do that I haven't checked if it's still the case.
I had a good HP printer many years ago, but dealing with HP customer service overseas because of a new but defective laptop with a 2-3 hour battery life was grueling, and took months to resolve. So I try to stay with U.S. C.S. If nothing else it's less confusing.
P.S. Cartridges don't need to be changed until empty and printing stops - not when an "ink low" message pops up.
Last edited by bjeans; 01-01-2018 at 04:34 AM..
Reason: Chrome spacing
I only ever printed text and ALL cartridges were consumed. I always used Grayscale, or whatever it was called. to save ink. It did print a bit lighter. I never printed web pages or printed in color. This is Canon.
How odd. The printer doesn't pull dye ink from the small cartridge to print straight text unless something is set wrong either the printer menu and/or computer, the page is not 100% regular text (IOW not labels, web based, etc.), or the printer is hugely malfunctioning. All that matters is you're happy with your current HP though.
My current printer (soon to be a neighbors printer, who is buying it and I'm looking at the new TS9020, still in its box, thank you very much Leah for that push! lol!) is a Canon Pixma MX922. DS picked it out for me, and also stocked me up with ink from Ink4Work. I like the separate cartridges because I like adjusting the color to my needs. The printer accepted the non-canon ink just fine, and as Beth mentioned, I could go wayyyyyyyy beyond when the printer was saying the ink was low. I have no idea what was getting pulled from what cartridge, but the color quality was fine for my purposes. My only reason for replacing it is that it's allergic to CS and am thrilled to now have one that is up to that task. As soon as this wicked cold snap has passed, I plan to order the cis ink system linked above.
The printer I had before either of these Canons was a HP PhotosmartPlus and I liked it a lot, have the cis system ready and waiting ... just need to find a way to repair the printer or donate it to some place that can make use of it in some way.
__________________ If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don't. ~ Jimmy Carter
BTW, for those of you who have a printer with a back loader or some other reason to get to the back of the printer, mine sits on a wooden lazy susan for easy access. It overlaps the lazy susan a bit and even shimmies a tiny but that's okay, just the printer dancing.
I realize no one has posted here for a while, but I am hoping some one will chime in with comments.
I currently use and Epson XP 410 all in one - originally purchased because I was told it would print cs. I can use WalMart GP 110, but nothing heavier. One of my concerns is that it will not print without replacing a cartridge when it tells me to - and the color cartridges seem to empty too fast, even though I print very little in color. Recently, it has been skipping some lines in printing, and I need to do a head cleaning in order to get decent results.
I need something to print mostly digital images and the verses on the inside of cards. However, I plan to do some work with photos and may start to print more photos - therefore, will need more color.
I also scan a lot, and do occasional copies - no fax.
One thing I am considering is an inexpensive laser printer for the black and white, and keeping the Epson for color and scans. How hard is it to switch from one to another? Is this a possible solution? Space is somewhat of a concern but not a deal killer.
Thanks...
Dorothy,
I really, really like my epsom et250. The ink comes in bottles so way cheaper. It takes pretty much all my cardstock except a couple of heavy textured ones so no biggie for me. I print everything in color now. My flowers, my backgrounds, you name it. Never think twice about running out of ink since I never have. When I want photo quality, I just pop in a photo paper from Walmart and it gives me beautiful color photos. I use that for all my house mouse designs I’ve digitally colored. Colors are very bright and crisp that way.
I do have a black and white brother laser printer too but almost never use it.
Just my opinion, so there’s that.
And I do scan quite a bit too with it. Does a good job and easy to use. I scan all my does so I can digitally color the pieces for them.....beats inking every little petal and leaf!
BlueFeather
__________________ BlueFeather An old cowgirl with a young heart!
And I do scan quite a bit too with it. Does a good job and easy to use. I scan all my does so I can digitally color the pieces for them.....beats inking every little petal and leaf!
BlueFeather
Thanks for the info. I will checkNot out that Epson.
Not sure I followed the above info.
Oops! It's an ET2650. When I typed the reply on my ipad I wasn't in my craft room....so I left out a number.
A big shout out to Blue Feather for all of her help - through many an e-mail as well as here. This SCS community is awesome - but I am sure all of you know that already!
Your favorite printer?
