Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ confused by printers

I've got an old HP722 printer that finally made need replacing. Its given me great service but the darn thing now has trouble grabbing paper and absolutely cannot grab photo papers. So the question is what is a good printer to buy. I am partial to HP printers. What is the difference between an inkjet and photosmart printe?. I think the basic difference is that the photosmart cameras can print directly from a digital camera. I am looking for fast output, high resolution and a parallel port connection. I don't have any spare internal USB connections though I may be able to add one (haven't looked inside the box). Any recommendations????

If you're all out of USB ports on your system, then my first suggestion would be to grab one of the USB printers that also contain a USB hub.
To be honest though I haven't seen this feature on HP printers

The only difference between and "inkjet" and a "Photosmart" printer is the name "photosmart". they are both inkjets, HP just has a fancy name for the way it lays down the ink. If you're used to HP, by all means stick with it. You've probably already got your color spaces right so why mess with it. Personally I use a HP 1220 wide format injet to do all my printing unless someone is paying me for it. Then I'll use my Epson R800. It has pigment based inks that look a little better and supposedly last 70+ years (how many "real" photos last that long?).

The HP is a better value though ... inks cheaper (although all my color is in one cartridge, I often have to replace a unit when only one color is out).

As far as USB goes ... if you have a 2 port USB card ... they do make 4 and 5 port cards tha will go in the same PCI slot ... and oh yeah ... you can chain a hub in there too ... stay away from Parallel unless ABSOLUTLY neccessary, your next computer might not have a parallel port (remember ISA slots? Find a board that has one of them).

I don't think they make parallel models anymore... they are sloooowwww. It's better to get a USB hub, cause it will make a world of difference on your printing speeds.

thanks everyone. Appreciate the response. You all helped me out. I'm going to get and HP with a separate USB2 HUB.

Just trivia:

My company uses the services of of a visiting onsite printer repair company. It seems like whenever a printer will not grab the paper (seems to be the most frequent failure in old printers), they replace two plastic rollers ($30 US) in about ten minutes but charge a flat rate labor charge ($75 US). The $105 US still makes sense for LaserJets but would not be practical for an inkjet.

FYI .. Just saw this announced .. HP will be releasing a color laser printer for less than $500 ...

I also really need a new printer... My current one has got to be at least 8 years old by now. It's been really reliable up until recently but now it's just crapped out on me. Half the time it simply won't do a thing but sit there and buzz and half the time the print quality is crap (and these cartridges are fairly unused). I've always hated printers... and I always will.

This post has been edited by TWINE006: Jun 4 2004, 01:47 AM

Usually when these companies bring out "too good to be true" prices for their printers, it's 'cause they plan to rape you on the price of the cartridges.

E.g. Cheap Lexmark injet printer $99AUD
Replacement colour cartridges - $59AUD per colour x 4 colours
Replacement Black Cartridge - $79AUD

True, very true...

Most companies sell low cost printers and re-coup their loss with high-priced ink, knowing full well third-party ink will ruin your printer - thus starting another vicious cycle. Epson is even rumored to have encoded the chips in their ink cartridges to show low or empty when it's really half full - simply becasue you didn't use that ink fast enough.

Canon is the only company I'm aware of that does not put chips in their ink cartridges and also have fair prices on thier printers and their ink. I just picked up a i960 from Amazon.com for around $150 - great printer and the ink has lasted a good long time - the cartridges are tranparent so I can actually see when I'm running low. You can also replace individual colors rather than one big cartridge. I know other companies are doing that as well, but I'm just really impressed with this Canon.

I have been nothing but very unimpressed with printers from Canon in the past.
I have had 3 of them over the years at my old job (BJC-4200, BJC-610, and BJC-5100). Each and every one of them either broke or stopped working.
The 4200 was a particularly bad piece of crap - we purchased 15 of them for our Sales Rep's to use in their home offices, and every single one of them broke (wouldn't take in the paper - not dispensing inl properly or at all etc.)
The 5100 was touted to be a "1200dpi Photo Quality Printer capable of printing on A3 paper". It worked "adequately" but nowhere near photo quality until our office updated to XP at which point there was no driver available and Canon refused to make one. The BJC-5000 driver allowed you to print - but only at 600dpi and no photo quality - it would tell you that you needed ti insert the Photo-ink cartridge even though you had already put one in.
I'll never buy Canon again and would recommend any brand except them at every opportunity.

I am impressed by the print quality from the Lexmark and HP range - not sure about the reliability of either though.

I've had bad Canon printers in the past - a one in particular sucked the big one. But their new "i" series seems to be highly rated and mine has been great.

My wife's old HP 712 is still going strong - it's a work horse. But ink is getting crazy. Over $30 for black and over $45 for color. And the third party inks don't work at all - gummed the print head right up. There went $40 for a cleaning. So $75 every few months is getting rather stupid. I've been using the Canon pretty much daily for the last three months and just last week replaced the black cartridge for $18 (Best Buy and CompUSA had the same price).