HankScorpio

Decent, modern inkjet with dedicated black and proper paper will do you much better IMHO. The text output is very crisp plus you've got colour options. Spped will also be pretty good.
I've had several epsons but now can't see past my canon, zips through stuff like you wouldn't believe.

Laser is very restrictive with expensive consumables (if you can't nick them from your office). I had one for about a month and it just p!ssed me off no end. Ended up giving it away.

Just my 2c

MDBinaWagon

I went from inkjet to cheap laser a few years ago, and it's one of the best things I've done. Toner has cost me less than ink used to, there's no smudging, and the speed is so much better.
When I was looking at new dvd players and amplifiers, I thought nothing of downloading and printing off the manuals for possible buys when they where available, but there's no way I would have had the patience to print them with an inkjet.

Martin.

douglasb

Disagree about "expensive consumables". I have an ancient laser for which a toner cartridge costs around £50. This lasts between 3000 - 5000 pages (depends on how much graphics I'm printing). At between 1.6p and 1p per page, that's a great deal cheaper than inkjet cartridges.

Quick comparison of cartridge costs. Even the best inkjet in this review works out at 3.88p per B&W page, so lasers are definitely cheaper to run for black and white.

I'll accept though that if the toner cartridge includes the drum and charge corona and you get a scratch on the drum or the corona wire breaks, then the whole cartridge is shagged - even if it has just done 100 prints.

It also isn't colour.

I think your idea of a cheap laser for B&W plus an inkjet for colour sounds like the best idea. 600dpi should be fine for most purposes.

Doug

Nick

Hi Dave

You don't need 2 printers for the purpose you mention. A laser printer is best for high volume printing. I'd suggest a Canon i865 or i965. Use good paper - I use IQ Selection which is excellent paper. The Canon i865 is on the current PC Pro A list. Go for the i965 if you want very fast colour printing. (I've got a i950 - older model.

HankScorpio

Valid points by all but that i865 looks like a good choice Nick, max 23ppm as opposed to the 12 for the HP laser.
Also has good colour so rather than compromising with cheap laser/cheap inkjet, you get a decent inkjet for 30 quid more. The desk space would be an issue in our house as well!!

(I'm anti-HP laser anyway as I used to service the ****** things in a previous life!)

Nick

Hi Hank

HP lasers aren't all bad, I have an HP4 that's lasted FOREVER!

andyr

I, well my wife actually, is looking for a printer that will print decent quality colour at a decent rate - the quoted PPM speed is at the lowest print quality remember so if you have to set it to the highest quality then the PPM may drop by to about a 10th ie from 20 to 2 !
We're still trying to decide but at the mo' the Samsung CLP-500 laser looks a good bet as it has duplex capability and 250 sheet capacity. We looked at an inkjet, think it was an HP, at around £149, and whilst it seemed ok spec-wise when we thought more about the quality we'd need to print at plus the speed at that it was a no-no.
Looking through a manual for another HP it quoted 14PPM headline speed but 0.8 at the highest quality !!!

HankScorpio

In my head, I know that the HP's are good quality kit, we've got over 1400 at work and generally they're good.
It's just that part of my IT "apprenticeship" involved replacing fuser rollers, pick up rubbers and the 14 tooth cog at the back of the fuser that would disintegrate over time.. {shudder}. Tainted me forever

Something else someone just said to me... if you're looking at high volume runs, the print/copy bureaux are supposed to be good. but not having used them, I can't reallly comment on that!