Shopping suggestions for new printers!

This info is dated 2014.08.11.

A nice feature of the new Epson's, hp has this too(on many printers), is that you can set them up for printing from the web. That means you can just email the printer what you want it to print and it will. On a local network, many of the newer phones will just print directly as well. Depending on just how much you are going to print, I usually recommend a small hp laser jet, like the ones at the bottom of this email, AND an ink jet from Epson. The reason being that if you are printing a lot of pages that are just black and white, the laserjet will do that faster and cheaper, but there are going to be times where you need that color and nobody does it better than Epson. The cost will be more upfront, but in the end this will save you on ink and or toner.

The only Epson's on this page I would not get are the WF-7110, and the white ones at the bottom of that page. The main reason not the get the white ones is the price. More than you need. It looks to me as if Epson has taken away the lowest Work Force printers so they are basically starting at the mid-range. I feel if you are going to get a printer in this league, then it should have the touch screen so a lot of the copy functions can just be done right on the printer itself. I also like that the rest of the printers that have document feeders which means that the scanner bed doesn't get a bunch of finger prints on it just to make copies. I looked around a bit found the 3640 at OfficeMax / Office Depot with free shipping.

Epson Connect http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/epson-connect/wireless-printing.do

WF-3640 http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/655795/Epson-WorkForce-WF-3640-All-In/

HP LaserJet Pro P1102w Printer http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Printers/HP-LaserJet/CE658A?HP-LaserJet-Pro-P1102w-Printer http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/400372/HP-LaserJet-Pro-P1102w-Monochrome-Laser/

HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn Printer http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Printers/HP-LaserJet/CE749A?HP-LaserJet-Pro-P1606dn-Printer *http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=hewlett-packard+pro+p1606dn&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=25722461957&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16601198321492782619&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_5ct0rejozt_b

* I have Amazon Prime and the price might be a bit lower there.

The older info. You'll see that a lot of the info is the same!

VicLovan.com - Shopping suggestions for new printers 2007.

Shopping suggestions for new printers!

Right now (2008.01.20) the only printers that I really recommend for the home are from hp and Epson. Canon has made improvements over the years but unless you are doing a lot of photo printing I wouldn't consider them for the day to day needs. For most people the hp printers are the best choice for all around printing with a lot of documents and for photos as well. If you are doing a lot of photo printing then the Epson’s are a great choice. They use less ink and have better photo results. They are a bit 'needy' in that you need to print something in color at least every 2-3 weeks or the heads may need cleaning. That's one place that the hp's excel at, in that they will take more abuse than most others. For the office, hp and Xerox.

INK - for most printers, the biggest cost is the ink. As far as I'm concerned, all of them cost too much. In about late 2008 or 2009 we should see the next big revolution in ink price and print speed. For now we'll have to still shop smart, and that means looking not only at the cost of the printer and the cost of the ink usage. Epson leads in this area with the most efficient and hp right behind. Look for printers that use multiple ink cartridges. Not just black and color, but one each for color, minimum of 3 colors plus black.

Laser - Black toner only

HP 1018, 1020, or 1022 Monochrome LaserJet Printer - black and white only printing and will print very quickly even though they are the lowest in the hp line up, they are my favorites. If you're in an office and print a lot, consider the more expensive machines to save on toner cost, speed, and reliability.

Laser - color

For these printers you need to take test files with you to see what the results will be. Color laser printers probably won't ever make prints as nice as Ink Jets. That said, some are pretty good, check out Xerox or the big hp and Epson’s. I've seen a couple of the color laser printers in action and they're pretty good but you won't be printing photos to frame with them. You may well print very nice reports and do it with speed with this class of printer.

All-In-One - For these, the prices can be almost as much as a computer but they are very capable machines with print, scan, and copy features and some even have fax. The current favorite and not just mine is the "hp L7680". It's expensive but does about everything you could want having to do with printing. That isn't the only choice and there are several others that are very good. In the All-In-One printers you really want to stay away from the lowest level machines as they usually don't print as well, or as fast, and may use more ink. Many of these look like a large shoe box. I wouldn't buy this type of all in one with my money. Also look to see if the scanner part of the machine will hold legal sized documents. That's not an issue often but when you need it, it really matters.

Ink Jet - I'm a bit biased in this since I print a lot of photos. I use an Epson R200 which is out of date the new version is R260. Not only will this print very good photos, fine for daily use printing, but it will also print directly onto printable DVDs and CDs. That means that once you burn your favorite mix CD or backup DVD, whatever, instead of printing a CD label and trying to stick on the disk so that it's even, you just put the disk in the printer and it prints the label right onto the disk. It takes a few minutes to dry (longer than paper) and you can safely put the disk into a car CD player without worrying about the label coming off and jamming up your deck. Back to the photo printing, the photos that I print come out every bit as good as the photo mat and I can print those big, glossy, 8x10s that cost so much for just over $1.00 per page. Also the Epson ink has a very long life expectancy (Epson claims 200 years depending on your media and how it's stored). How's that for an ad? OK, OK, you can also find other very good printers from hp and even a few from canon, in fact if you are mostly just printing papers and may have the tendency to not print anything for up to a month, then I would recommend getting an hp starting in the 6000 series.

Epson - http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/Printers.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=0

Epson Stylus Photo R260

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63059188 hp - all printers - http://www.shopping.hp.com/printers?jumpid=re_R329_prodexp/hhoslp/ipg/printers HP Photosmart D7160 Printer - Here Xerox - yes really, don't count them out because of the big name.

Black and White - http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/laser-printers/enus.html Color - http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/color-printers/enus.html Canon - http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=117