What printer do you recommend?

you may find the inks more expensive, im not sure if you have to buy separate carts for each tone ie black blue red yellow but they average about £8 per cart thats about £32 as opposed to £18 with the kodak
i guess you would only replace each cart as it gets used which may be preferable to having to replace the whole color cart with kodak when the blue runs low for example but generally i find i dont use one color more than another except the black which is a separate cart for this reason.

mangoh said:

Due to the conflicting advice (I did read all the posts)

I came to the conclusion to buy this printer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Photosmar...productDetails

It hasn't been dispatched yet so I have time to cancel.

I followed your advice but then you really are limited to what you can buy and then the reviews make it even harder to decide. The whole photo bit is a bonus, I ordered it due to other features + reviews so inb4 someone says I didn't want a printer renowned for quality. The link I have provided has good reviews and other websites fill it with praise. Cartridges not too expensive, fairly fast, wireless and can also print from android + iOS.

Can anyone see any major drawbacks?

P.S. I strongly considered the brother printer above but its not wireless, its networked. Also I don't believe it is AirPrint compatible.

In your original post you put that it must have:
"Cheap ink cartridges for the printer that doesn't try up quick if unused for several months"

So that is why I and others recommended a laser or LED printer. They use powder in the cartridges. Inkjets use wet ink that does dry up.

If you stick with an inkjet, you MUST do a test print at least once a week!

A test print uses all 4 colours in equal measure, and will keep the ink flowing through the printhead to prevent it from drying up.

I didn't use my inkjet for 6 months and after being professionally cleaned 3 times, it is still slightly streaky even with new cartridges. I can only use it for unimportant letters and documents, not photos.

If you change your mind, the one I suggested is still within your budget, and I also posted a workaround above for how to make the printer use all the toner in the cartridges, so there is no waste.

realgem ,i havent found that to be the case with kodak, it also has the option to clean the print heads for you, i guess the printer does get used a lot in our house as we have three students and two of them art students who print a lot of pictures regularly .
we are on our second kodak printer ,the first broke just out of warranty ,when i spoke to kodak they sold us another direct and gave it to us at a discounted price and threw in several free ink carts,

boohbah said:

realgem ,i havent found that to be the case with kodak, it also has the option to clean the print heads for you, i guess the printer does get used a lot in our house as we have three students and two of them art students who print a lot of pictures regularly .
we are on our second kodak printer ,the first broke just out of warranty ,when i spoke to kodak they sold us another direct and gave it to us at a discounted price and threw in several free ink carts,

Yes, absolutely - if yours gets lots of use, then it will be fine. The OP originally said: "Cheap ink cartridges for the printer that doesn't try up quick if unused for several months". I guess they changed their mind.

I had a printhead cleaning facility on mine, but if you're not going to use the machine for months on end, then you're unlikely to switch it on just to clean it. Also doing a test print uses a lot less ink than a printhead clean.

bobkn said:

mangoh said:

Due to the conflicting advice (I did read all the posts)

I came to the conclusion to buy this printer
HP Photosmart 6520 e-All-in-One Printer: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

It hasn't been dispatched yet so I have time to cancel.

I followed your advice but then you really are limited to what you can buy and then the reviews make it even harder to decide. The whole photo bit is a bonus, I ordered it due to other features + reviews so inb4 someone says I didn't want a printer renowned for quality. The link I have provided has good reviews and other websites fill it with praise. Cartridges not too expensive, fairly fast, wireless and can also print from android + iOS.

Can anyone see any major drawbacks?

P.S. I strongly considered the brother printer above but its not wireless, its networked. Also I don't believe it is AirPrint compatible.

I haven't bought an HP printer in a few years. I liked an old inkjet (deskjet 970c), but the newer ones had extra tiny ink cartridges. There was little question about it being a profit enhancement feature. I hope they've gone away from that.

The one I have does have small ink cartridges but tbh as I print every now and then it doesn't bother me too much as a full set (black + colour = £22). My last printer = £40 and ink dried quiet quickly.

Phone Man said:

I think you make a good choice. HP makes some good printers. I have an old 932c that still works but mostly use my Brother laser since I don't need color.

Jim

Thanks and it is a fantastic printer, quick, cheap ink cartridges, scan, copy, print off wrong templates, wireless, e-print so you can print of certain smartphones + more

boohbah said:

you may find the inks more expensive, im not sure if you have to buy separate carts for each tone ie black blue red yellow but they average about £8 per cart thats about £32 as opposed to £18 with the kodak
i guess you would only replace each cart as it gets used which may be preferable to having to replace the whole color cart with kodak when the blue runs low for example but generally i find i dont use one color more than another except the black which is a separate cart for this reason.

Thanks I managed to find all the cartridges for £22 and that includes colour + black, all the required and you are correct about buying each tone seperately.

RealGem said:

mangoh said:

Due to the conflicting advice (I did read all the posts)

I came to the conclusion to buy this printer
HP Photosmart 6520 e-All-in-One Printer: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

It hasn't been dispatched yet so I have time to cancel.

I followed your advice but then you really are limited to what you can buy and then the reviews make it even harder to decide. The whole photo bit is a bonus, I ordered it due to other features + reviews so inb4 someone says I didn't want a printer renowned for quality. The link I have provided has good reviews and other websites fill it with praise. Cartridges not too expensive, fairly fast, wireless and can also print from android + iOS.

Can anyone see any major drawbacks?

P.S. I strongly considered the brother printer above but its not wireless, its networked. Also I don't believe it is AirPrint compatible.

In your original post you put that it must have:
"Cheap ink cartridges for the printer that doesn't try up quick if unused for several months"

So that is why I and others recommended a laser or LED printer. They use powder in the cartridges. Inkjets use wet ink that does dry up.

If you stick with an inkjet, you MUST do a test print at least once a week!

A test print uses all 4 colours in equal measure, and will keep the ink flowing through the printhead to prevent it from drying up.

I didn't use my inkjet for 6 months and after being professionally cleaned 3 times, it is still slightly streaky even with new cartridges. I can only use it for unimportant letters and documents, not photos.

If you change your mind, the one I suggested is still within your budget, and I also posted a workaround above for how to make the printer use all the toner in the cartridges, so there is no waste.

I couldn't find a good laser or LED printer, the reviews kept bringing it down where as the one I ordered seemed fairly consistent. I am happy with the printer I ordered as explained above. Thanks for the advice and I will indeed print/test print once a week.

Do you recommend a test print over a normal print, is there a difference?

Also if my printer has a clean print head function do you think that is the best option as opposed to test print/normal print?

I don't want to over do anything.

mangoh said:

Do you recommend a test print over a normal print, is there a difference?

A Test Print usually uses all four colors equally.

Example:


If you print an ordinary photo of caucasian faces for example, the skin tones will use more magenta and yellow but hardly any cyan.

The second reason is it also uses a lot less ink.

mangoh said:

Also if my printer has a clean print head function do you think that is the best option as opposed to test print/normal print?

A Test print will normally use less ink. The clean print head function is for when the test print is not satisfactory.

So if the test print is going to be ok, it would be wasteful to clean the printhead first, without doing a test print beforehand.

Also a test print takes seconds. A printhead clean takes minutes.