
Why All Printers Suck, Even the Best Ones - shawndumas
http://thewirecutter.com/2016/04/why-all-printers-suck-even-the-best-ones/
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dang
According to Alan Kay, the first laser printer developed at PARC printed 600
dpi at one page per second. (Think about that! The very first one was that
powerful.) The catch was, it operated synchronously and couldn't go any
_slower_ than one page per second either. The Alto didn't have enough memory
for a single page at that resolution and the printer wouldn't allow for any
buffering, so they had to get clever and added special hardware to the Alto
that solved the problem. But I'm not sure how it solved the problem.

~~~
vog
Interesting story. Do you have any source for that?

~~~
dang
He visited YC last week and told the story.

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djaychela
Not the best article I've ever read - yes, Printers can be a PITA, but I think
that's inevitable because they are complex electromechanical devices which are
required to be very cheap. And in many cases almost disposable - something
which is a real crime. Got given a Laserjet 400Pro the other day, purely
because it had a label stuck in the paper path so had been written off. I've
fixed it (zero cost other than time), but I'd be surprised if I could get £30
for it, despite it working perfectly. Printers must be a serious environmental
nightmare.

As for being happy, I must be the exception to the rule. I have a Laserjet
4000 here which has been sat on my home network since I was given it as part
of a load of IT gear I was given in 2000. It has a page count of over 70k (it
was the low mileage one of the two printers I was given at about 40k when I
got it - the other already had 130k on it!), and just works. All I've ever had
to to do it in 16 years of reasonably heavy use is to put paper in it, change
the toner once (got 3 new toners with it as well!), and buy a new paper tray
because the rollers were worn (£6). It's connected to my Ubuntu server and
works on Google Cloud print as well as a locally shared Windows printer. Its
only downside is the high (18W) standby consumption, but like my ageing
central heating boiler, I'm not going to change it just because of that.

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andybak
I very occasionally need to print things - sometimes photos (hence a laser
printer is not suitable

1\. I buy a printer

2\. I use the printer. Great

3\. Several months pass...

4\. The printer head is clogged. Occasionally I can fix it by running the
cleaning cycle. Sometimes I can take it to a shop to be cleared. GOTO 2

5\. Sometimes I throw the printer away. GOTO 1

I'm rather sick of this cycle. Surely I can't be the only person that wants a
photo printer that can cope with being used intermittently?

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: I just saw this from the article: "...though these printers
automatically perform periodic purges to keep their nozzles clean and ready to
print"

Seems like maybe I need to keep it powered on all the time so it can clean
itself. I never knew this.

Can anyone confirm if this will solve my problem reliably?

~~~
luma
> What am I doing wrong?

Buying inkjet printers. They typically don't last well without frequent use
and maintenance. Get a decent laser printer and it will last a good long time
(presuming it's a good unit to start with).

~~~
Spooky23
Laser will not print photographs.

~~~
masklinn
If you commonly need a printer but rarely print photos, you're much better off
getting a laser printer and going to a print center for the odd photograph.
Same deal if you rarely print at all, except you may just want to skip the
laser and go to the print shop for documents as well.

Lasers are relatively cheap (you can get a decent B&W laser for $100) and
don't mind either significant usage or staying in storage for a long time.

Inkjet are only suitable if you're frequently printing color (and regularly
print pictures, if you're printing color but not photographs, get a color
laser instead), and then you're probably better off getting a genuine photo
printer.

~~~
andybak
I like the immediacy of printing from home.

But it looks like I'm out of luck. Laser printers suck at photos. Inkjets clog
up or dry out if not used regularly.

And any alternative tech (is dye-sub still a thing?) is prohibitively
expensive.

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PaulHoule
The big mistake is getting SOHO hardware.

An used enterprise oriented printer is 100x better than any SOHO oriented
printer.

Same when it comes to WiFi hardware. An $80 WiFi access point from Ubiquiti
beats the pants off a fancy $200 router, as that kind of thing always seems to
overheat and kick off all the WiFi connections or have some quirky opinions
about ARP that will cause it to kick all the wireless and wired devices off
because it doesn't like how some other device rolls -- and they don't get
called to account because people assume that the softphone doesn't work
because the softphone sucks, or that windows SMB sharing doesn't work because
windows sucks, or their ISP sucks, or the FBI is parked across the road and
messing with their WiFi with a massive directional antenna, etc.

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Scirra_Tom
Someone needs to do a Dyson on printers. Everyone knows they are all shit, and
I think a lot of people would be ready to spend money on a decent small office
one.

The whole industry is backwards and creating huge amounts of waste. All
printers I've pretty much ever seen are flimsy plastic pieces of crap with
nonsensical control panels that look ugly as hell.

~~~
BinaryIdiot
> Someone needs to do a Dyson on printers. Everyone knows they are all shit,
> and I think a lot of people would be ready to spend money on a decent small
> office one.

Maybe? Most people I know almost never print stuff anymore. It's almost worth
it to buy cheap, use rarely when necessary and that's the end of it.

3+ years ago? Hell yeah give me a nice printer that's a little pricy and I'll
buy it. I'm just not convinced there is a market for that today outside of
business and there are many good but expensive printers for business.

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MrBuddyCasino
So I did what they recommended and bought a cheap b/w laser printer, namely
the Brother HL-L2340DW.

Since that day, printing doesn't suck anymore, and my old Canon Pixma sits
unused.

~~~
berberous
I bought it too. Very happy to not have clogged ink jets anymore, but the
networking / software / UI is garbage. I just connect via USB to my laptop
rather than waste time trying to fix the wifi connection each time it stops
working.

~~~
ascagnel_
I have a Brother laser printer, and the wifi is indeed hot garbage. However,
since the printer sits near the wifi router, I was able to run a wire to it,
and it's been 100% reliable ever since. As an added bonus, as long as it has a
network connection, it still makes itself available for wireless print (via
AirPrint) and zero configuration print services on OS X, Linux, and Windows.

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junto
I've owned a Dell Color Laser 1320c for 8 years.

[http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Color-Laser-
Printer-1320c/dp/B001...](http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Color-Laser-
Printer-1320c/dp/B0012WWNAK)

I had to buy a new toner cartridge once, which cost about 70 EUR. It gets
frequent usage. It just sits on my home network and prints. I don't think it
has ever had a paper jam.

Every single ink jet printer I had beforehand was an overpriced rip-off.

This Dell one has been awesome, and it only costs $112 on Amazon at the
moment. Bargain.

~~~
barnabee
Same here with a Dell 1760nw (colour laser) - it connects to wifi and prints
from Windows, Linux and OS X without issue, cost less than £100 new, no paper
jams, and I haven't had to open the spare toner that was included with it yet.

Ink jets have all been an unreliable waste of money and time but I'd say this
one doesn't suck...

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soyiuz
I've had a HP LaserJet 1020 since 2005, when I paid around $100 for it. A
refurbished one today costs $200+, which means it actually went up in value.
It is small, fast, and works on third party cartridges that I pay 10-20$ for.
Besides dusting it once in a while, I've done zero maintenance. It runs on
Linux without any problems.

This printer is probably one of my favorite pieces of technology for the above
reasons. I should add I print around 10-20 pages per day.

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MrFoof
Still using an HP LaserJet 1200 I bought in 1999.

Uses the 75X toner cartridge, which is still in production. Costs about $50
for ~5000 sheets worth of printing (which is about 5 to 6 years). Has a USB
port, so it's networked through an Apple Airport Express. 600dpi, and does
envelopes just as well. The drivers are the old school LaserJet/JetDirect
drivers, so they'll likely be supported until the heat death of the universe.

Way back, I used to see these things in the field that have printed 15-20
times as many pages without even needing a replacement anything. I think
300-500K sheets is when they needed basic servicing.

I think I paid $600 in 1999. Not cheap, but 17 years of foolproof dead
reliable service and not even needing to install/configure drivers has made it
worth every cent.

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ucaetano
Its all our fault: when buying a printer, we usually just go for the cheapest
one, no matter what it might cost in the future. Just like when buying an
airline ticket we (usually) buy the cheapest one, not taking in account future
expenses.

A company offering an actual-priced printer, with actual-priced ink would go
out of business fast: almost nobody would buy the expensive, unsubsidized
printers.

~~~
67726e
The reason I buy a cheap piece of shit is because there is little difference
between it and the expensive piece of shit.

I currently have a $60 printer which does just fine. Previously I had a >$200
fancy HP printer, but I got rid of it when I found out it would "expire" my
ink. As someone that prints maybe a handful of concert tickets a year, that is
bullshit.

~~~
bryanlarsen
All inkjet printers "expire" their ink.

Either you leave it plugged in, and it occasionally does a nozzle cleaning
operation, using up ink each time, or you leave it unplugged, and it gets
clogged if you don't use it regularly.

Granted, it does take longer than 6 months to empty an ink jet cartridge just
through cleaning, but for an infrequently used printer, cleaning will use up a
significant portion of your ink.

~~~
67726e
Everything I've ever read put it in the realm of around one to two years, not
6 months. In my case, I didn't even own the printer for a year before it
pulled that one on me, and I purchased additional ink for it. That's just
shady practice on HP's part.

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wibbleywobbley
I stopped hating my printer after I bought a Brother laser printer for $100.

~~~
avs733
I feel like a bot but the auto tl:dr of this thread is

just buy a damn laser printer.

Sincerely, a fellow Brother laser printer owner

~~~
creshal
We did that with the 3040CN. After 30,000 pages, it wanted us to replace
"some" mechanical parts (drums, I think?) which were as expensive as the
printer itself… as was each pack of toners.

Now we're running a Ricoh gel printer. Higher print quality, more features
(duplex for free), cheap ink that doesn't dry out, comparable price for the
printer itself, and less/no parts to replace regularly. And no half-assed "you
need this undocumented 32 bit binary" wannabe CUPS driver like with Brother.
Single PPD file, done.

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mseebach
This is a crappy, click-bait article and the advice it gives is bad.

First, the politics of ink management, which is probably half the article,
have very little to do with the title, especially the "even the best ones"
part. If you plan and budget to pay for the authorised ink (and you should
plan your consumables and price them in when buying anything that uses
consumables), printers generally won't suck, especially the best ones.
TANSTAAFL.

Second, the most important point isn't being made: If your needs are such that
you think you need a cheap inkjet colour printer, think again. If you need to
print a lot, get a real, big mid-to-high-end colour laser printer (and/or a
mid-to-high-end specialised photo printer). You'll make up the initial cost on
a more sensible consumables approach. However, chances are heavily in favour
of you not actually needing this. Mail-order your photo prints or go to the
pharmacy. Have the occasional colour prints done at a copy shop (and if it's
for a client meeting, have them finish the product professionally for you
while they're at it). It's much more expensive per copy, but probably not by
much at the end of the day.

Third, get a wifi-networked Brother laser printer. They are cheap and solid
and the original toner is reasonably enough priced that I've never been
seriously tempted by third-party alternatives.

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ChuckMcM
Never tells you the "why" directly, it is easier to extract money out of you
on ink/toner in small increments than it is to get you to put out up front.

Now that a majority of the ink jet patents have expired I hope that someone
can come up with a reasonably durable open source inkjet printer where anyone
can make the proper ink for it.

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omgtehlion
What about USB cables that are not included and you know this only after
bringing the box home? )

~~~
anexprogrammer
No no. PC World - an overpriced chain here in the UK keeps USB cables by the
checkout, and in a "would you like fries with that" manner tries to upsell
every printer purchase with a USB cable.

It's a very long time since I was in one of their stores, but those cables
were typically £20-£25 for an unbranded with a wholesale of about 50p.

~~~
jdietrich
High street electrical retailers make almost nothing on entry-level products.
A few years ago, a PC World manager told me that their gross profit on a £300
laptop was about £9; The £45 accessories bundle offered with it earned them
£30. Without the upsold accessories and support packages, they don't have a
business model.

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awinter-py
Aha -- the other shoe drops for freemium models. Reversing your 'natural' cost
model to boost sales (printer costs more to make so should cost more to sell)
starts an arms race with the consumer and rival ink-makers.

The printers rejecting alien print cartridges reminds me of brood parasitism
with birds
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_parasite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_parasite).
Birds who co-evolve in environments where this is a problem develop defenses.

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scarface74
I have a perfectly working color laser printer from HP and they decided not to
have drivers that work with Windows 10. Why are drivers still a thing in the
Windows world?

Any printer that supports AirPrint (almost any wireless printer) will at least
give you a base level of functionality without printer specific drivers
required. The only reason that I'm keeping the printer is because it still
works with my iOS devices and I'm getting a Mac eventually.

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pingec
I bought a color laser printer - OKI C301DN and compared to all my previous
inkjets it`s a god-sent. With inkjets I had many problems with clogged heads
and electronics going bad. I guess it is partially a consequence of me not
printing regularly and using non-OEM ink.

But not with the OKI, it just works, always. I feel a little bad for using
cheap Chinese toner but the discrepancy in price towards the OEM ones is just
too large.

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Qantourisc
Personally I also blame printer-hardware renewal. How many new models do you
need ?

Using a website that has models/prices listed there are 466 new printers since
03/06/2015 with 25 brands coming down to an average of 18 new printer models
per brand.

Anyone knows why printer brands don't just make a few good models and keep
them for a long while ? (I suspect this problem is not limited to the printer
business.)

~~~
EvanPlaice
It's more difficult to track poor product quality based on consumer reviews if
the products are 'refreshed' with new models every year.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the internal components are mostly
the same between models.

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tmaly
I am still using an HP all in one printer from 2006. It has an Ethernet port
and it works with the latest macbook pros.

When my wife was doing her second degree, I used some of those ink injectors
to save on ink. They worked fine, but now I usually just end up buying the HP
brand.

I think a printer that is 10 years old and still works fine says something
about the technology.

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EvanPlaice
Many thousand pages later my Brother B&W laser printer is still going strong.

Inkjet is only reliable if the printer is used and calibrated regularly. Even
large scale plotters are switching to solid ink (ie wax ball).

This is largely a 'solved' problem but most consumers will still gravitate
toward lower price tags and purchase cheap throwaway inkjet printers.

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JohnTHaller
"And the LCD screens on these printers tend to be small and hard to navigate."

Why would you need to navigate an LCD screen on a black and white laser
printer? Most low end lasers don't even have an LCD. You use the included
utility on your computer which tells you everything you need to know about
toner level, pages printed, ECO mode, etc.

~~~
arethuza
Or, even better, the printer has a built in web interface which means you
don't have to install any vendor supplied "utilities" (which are usually
bloated and often come with unwanted crapware).

~~~
ju-st
For my HP Officejet printer you have to find the "enterprise software" package
on their support website; this installs only the necessary drivers without any
crapware.

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upstandingdude
Is this 1995? My printer just works even though I don't give it any attention
whatsoever. Yeah you wanna print that 200 pages things after not even dusting
me off for seven month? Sure, here it comes, no hick-ups expected. Its a
Brother B/W laser printer, cheapest model. It rocks!

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alex_duf
The world need an open-hardware, fixable printer. Something rock solid, you
can buy in a kit, a buy pieces to fix it. Ink should be in bottles to allow
competition on the prices.

Or as someone else has suggestion, a Dyson printer

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rwmj
My reconditioned HP LJ 5N (total cost to me so far: £50 including delivery) is
actually pretty good, assuming you don't want or need colour printing.

