Color Laser Printers - Educate Me.

[Skippman]

I'm getting to the point where I should be ready to remodel my home office soon and one of the things that's popped up is how many printers I have. Currently I have a HP LaserJet 1100 and a Cannon Pixma MP530 inkjet/photo printer. Since I'm getting rid of my equipment racks I've decided I need to go with a all-in-one solution to my color printing needs.

Now the Cannon is a FANTASTIC photo printer but I find myself using it less than I expected I would. Simple fact is I view most of my photo's on my computer. Those I REALLY need to print out it's almost cheaper to go to Walgreens and pay 15 cents a print to get them done. To that end I've decided I'm going to replace both my black and white laser printer and my photo printer with a color laser printer as most of my printing is text anyway. My only experience with thermal based printing has been dye sublimation printers like those from Tektronix in the past.

Here's my short list of features I'd "like" to have.
Ethernet or Wireless capability
Vista and Windows 7 compatability
At least a 100pg hopper
2 sided printing


Features I don't care about.
Scanning
Faxing

Does anyone have any experience with these kinds of printers? How do they do on normal page printing? How about photo's?

[Tech_Greek]

The quality of Laser Jet Color Printers is actually better than a normal Inkjet printer and you can buy photo paper for your LaserJet printer as well.

HP's are pretty nice, good driver support, good accessories.
Brothers are the more preferred choice for business people - don't ask me why, it's just one of those trends.

Personally, if I were going to buy a NICE laser all in one, a dell (Lexmark) or hp would be my choice purely based from a parts perspective as they are more widely available.

[Major_A]

Make sure the model you pick is on http://www.inkforsale.net. My old Canon S630 was $3 for color (3 total color cartridges) and $2 for black and they use USPS so the shipping isn't a deal breaker. Canon's ink costs roughly $45 to replace all four cartridges.

[stev]

Make sure you get a color laser jet that can default to gray-scale when the a color is used up vs. not printing anything at all while asking to replace the cartridge.

We have an HP 1018. It's not color, but sure beats the cost of those tiny inkjet cartridges.

[Skippman]

That's what I was curious about. Would the color laser be as sharp as an ink jet printer. I've not seen any good articles comparing the two, it's always laser vs. laser or inkjet vs inkjet. I don't print very many color documents or photos and inkjet printers tend to dry out before I get my use out of them. I'm hoping a color laser will help fix that problem.

Thanks for the recommendation on the toner cartridges. I'll definatly have to look into that.

[Tech_Greek]

That's what I was curious about. Would the color laser be as sharp as an ink jet printer. I've not seen any good articles comparing the two, it's always laser vs. laser or inkjet vs inkjet. I don't print very many color documents or photos and inkjet printers tend to dry out before I get my use out of them. I'm hoping a color laser will help fix that problem.

Thanks for the recommendation on the toner cartridges. I'll definatly have to look into that.

Color Laser gives a smoother cleaner image compared to Inkjet - in order to get the same results from Ink you have to use twice as much ink.

[Skippman]

So I guess compairing resolution to resolution is not how I should be compairing a laser printers quality to that of my inkjet?

Take for instance the HP Color LaserJet CP2025n. Per the specs on HP's website it's rated at 600x600dpi for color prints. My Canon Pixma MP530 in contrast is rated at 9600x2400dpi for color prints. That's a pretty massive diffrence? Is there some numbers game I'm not catching here?

[Tech_Greek]

So I guess compairing resolution to resolution is not how I should be compairing a laser printers quality to that of my inkjet?

Take for instance the HP Color LaserJet CP2025n. Per the specs on HP's website it's rated at 600x600dpi for color prints. My Canon Pixma MP530 in contrast is rated at 9600x2400dpi for color prints. That's a pretty massive diffrence? Is there some numbers game I'm not catching here?

DPI is purely a how much ink can I throw on the sheet of paper - contacting an actual graphics printing location would be better to ask in my opinion.

[stev]

DPi = Dot per square inch

The more dots, the more resolution. The more dots, the more ink used.

[Tech_Greek]

DPi = Dot per square inch

The more dots, the more resolution. The more dots, the more ink used.

I don't agree with people thinking that the DPi equals better pictures as I've seen two printers side by side print out pictures and the one with lesser DPi look better. (I used to work at Geek Squad and Office Depot - you manage to get free time to do these things).

[Skippman]

It's more economical to spend $800 on a printer you'll be able to use for 5 years than $200 each year to replace a printer that's worn out.

Firstly, welcome to the board! It's always good to see more people. So don't take what I'm about to say to harshly.

Your statement is unfortuantly irrelevent. I can think of no piece of computer hardware short of a keyboard, mouse, and monitor that I can use "for 5 years". With Windows life cycle averaging 3-4 years and a complete lack of backwards driver support from HP and Cannon I'm better of to buy something cheap now and replace it later. I'm still furious that my HP LaserJet 1100 isn't supported under Vista. It's just not. I've tried every driver trick in the book. So I'm very hesitant to spend $400 on a printer that I know will be obsolete in 3-4 years.

Besides, this is the OCASSIONAL photo print. Say one every 2-3 months. I print at most 30 pages per month of TXT if I even do that much. My toner cartridge on my LaserJet is still 50% full after 3 years of use.

[KnightRid]

Skippman - a little off the original topic but here are some driver links for your 1100 under Vista - Vista should have them built in, you might have to use a parallel -> usb connector for it though.

http://www.xpvistasite.com/laserjet_1100_38263.htm

http://www.bioticaindia.com/hp-laserjet-1100-xp.html

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... 808536#A14

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HP LaserJet 1100 AiO (MS) 	HP has a Windows Vista driver solution available for your product. This driver will enable your product's basic functions to work. You can conveniently find this driver in your Windows Vista operating system, today.

If your printer currently uses either a PCL5, PCL6 or PostScript XP driver you may download the current XP driver from HP to provide printing functionality. Windows Vista printing is very similar to Windows XP and most print drivers supported in the XP environment for LaserJet printers may also work in the Windows Vista operating system. 

hope that helps

Mike

[Skippman]

I'll check that out tonight Mike but if it's anything like their last driver distro's it's just going to complain about my 64 bit OS.

[childishpet]

I also just realized how many printers I have lying around my house. Some do not work anymore while others were "discarded" because of ink price problems. I am now using HP, and I am happy with it. I can put it to gray-scale when I no longer have colored ink.

[Skippman]

I just realized I typo'd my printer. It's a HP LaserJet 1000, not an 1100.

[KnightRid]

I just realized I typo'd my printer. It's a HP LaserJet 1000, not an 1100.

okie dokie

UNINSTALL/REMOVE and drivers you have tried for your 1000 first and make sure it is unplugged from the computer - if it doesnt use USB, stop being cheap and buy a new printer

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OK
I've just discovered how to fix it
all you need to do is to download the Windows XP driver file for HP laserJet 1000 from HP website...it's the one named "HP LaserJet 1000 Host Based Driver"

1) Right click and unzip the exe file you've just downloaded
2) Goto Printers (Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Printers)
3) Right Click in the window and select Add a printer. The popup window should now apear
4) Click Add a local printer
5) Click Next
6) Click Have Disk
7) Browse to the location of unzipped folder you (See step 1)
8) My printer was with USB so I choose zUSB.inf (not sure about serial, u might have to choose HPLJ1000 for serial)
9) Click Open and then OK

Computer will install the printer  named hp LaserJet 1000, but it wont work

Now Connect your printer to the computer...
Vista will look for the printer driver and install the printer named hp LaserJet 1000 (Copy) which will work
You can now delete the printer named "hp LaserJet 1000" and make "hp LaserJet 1000 (Copy)" the default printer
You might wanna rename it too

Test and it should work
Worked for me atleast

from - http://social.technet.microsoft.com/For ... 3558781cb5

Mike

[DaddyRabbit]

This is more of a personal thing but while I am not blindly brand loyal I do remember brands that disappoint, and use my dollars to say so. HP will never grace my home again, while their driver support for new stuff is good getting fully functioning drivers for older stuff is impossible, but they will say "We dont support that OS with that model, we suggest that you buy a new printer (with a link to their new models). After getting that response with both XP 64bit and Vista with my not so old PSC 2175I took their advice and bought a new printer, a Samsung color laser (a CLP-300) and don't regret it a bit.

It is a cheap printer (upgraded to the CLP-315W with wireless networking http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product) and I am at 1900 pages on the toners that came with the box (roughly $180 for the toners and waste bin) and still have quite a bit to go.

Pictures don't look as vibrant as a good inkjet for "put it in the frame" photos but are pretty good and the overall cost turns out much cheaper and I agree that if I want prints I'll go another route (Wally World is cheap too ).

This printer doesn't duplex but fits the bill everywhere else.

Samsung also makes some higher priced models that do more (like duplexing). I like this printer...

[Skippman]

Hate to dredge up old topics but I still need help. Here's my situation.

I currently have two printers. A HP LaserJet 1000 and a Canon Pixma MP350 multifunction ink jet. The LaserJet works fine under anything BUT Vista 64bit. It even works fine on my Netbook running Vista 32bit. The Canon works on any version of Windows I use. The Canon was originally purchased for photo printing but hasn't been used to do that in almost a year and a half causing th toner tanks to dry out.

My live in girlfriend is in nursing school and is now starting to print more and more things. This has used up the last bit of black ink in the Canon leaving it useless. She cannot print on the LaserJet due to my desktop using 64bit Vista. So in effect we have no printer.

So I'm left with a delima.

Do I replace my working LaserJet printer with a newer, network based laser printer so that she can print text again?

Do I simply buy new ink tanks for the Canon and accept the fact that my laser printer won't print under Vista?

Or do I replace both printers with a network capable color laser printer?

[skier]

replace both printers with a network capable color laser printer?

is what i'd do, cut out some headaches, but i'd get one that doesn't force you to get a ton of bloatware, ie dont get HP

if you can afford it

[DaddyRabbit]

First off a bit of a rant, HP support for older products under new OSs SUX (IMHO)! I had a perfectly working HP PSC 2175 All In One. A month after Win XP 64bit released I contacted HP and was told that "HP doesn't support Operating Systems that have not been released yet" or some such thing. Then with Vista 32 bit I could do basic printing but no scanning. The response from HP then was "We do not support older products, we recommend that you buy a newer printer" etc. with a link to their new model lineup. I took their advice and bought a new printer, a Samsung color laser to be exact, and there will never be another HP product in my ownership.

That said, I like my Samsung CLP-300 but if i was printing a lot of pictures that required the highest of quality I wouldn't use it. Its not bad mind you but its not the greatest for high quality pictures.

Depending on budget I would either buy a good quality color laser or a decent, cheap monochrome laser and keep the Canon for picture printing. The second choice would be much cheaper in the short run but my color laser has sold me on the value of lasers vs. constantly buying ink cartridges.