[NBLUG/talk] color printer recommendation needed

Cal Herrmann calz at eskimo.com
Mon Feb 9 14:58:01 PST 2004


I have been happy with Canon and Epson, though I don't like the Epson-only ink 
coding in the new models.  I am also happy with my Brother, which also takes 
(some) digital camera cards; some but not all Linux drivers are available, 
see:
	http://solutions.brother.com/linux/index.html
for the list and downloading.
Cal
On Monday 09 February 2004 12:20 pm, Bob Blick wrote:
> Jim Bianchi said:
> > 	Speed isn't all that much of a factor (within reason). I'd like to
> > be able to print images to at least 8x10 but 11x16 would be much better.
> > Ideas? Cost? What drivers are needed and from where can they be had?
>
> If you are serious about printing, or even if you're not, and you want an
> inkjet printer, Epson is the only brand to get.
>
> If you do a lot of prints you'll want to get a "continuous inking system"
> to reduce your unit cost. The ink resides in bottles outside the printer
> with small hoses to the printhead. Quite often on eBay you can pick up a
> printer already set up that way, if not, the kits are cheap enough and
> easy to install. Your choice of inks is great with these systems - you
> have a choice of archival inks as well.
>
> Even if you're not serious about printing, Epson and Canon are the only
> printers with reasonable ink cost, due to the availability of third-party
> inks, something you will not find with HP or Lexmark.
>
> I have an Epson Stylus 860 and a Stylus Photo EX - both immediately
> recognized by SuSE and print beautifully. Neither of those printers can be
> used with continuous inking, however. I believe the Epson Stylus 1520 is
> the earliest printer that can be used that way. It is a wide carriage
> printer (paper to 16 x 24, printable area 13.5 x 22) and even without
> continuous inking it's cheap to feed - third party cartridges are under
> $4, and it prints better than my Photo EX. You can probably pick one up on
> eBay or craigslist for under $100.
>
> All new printers use "chipped" cartridges, in an attempt to lock you into
> the manufacturer's cartridges (and also to force an "expiration date" on
> the cartridge). This has been successful except on Epson and Canon -
> although there are third-party cartridges for these, they are a couple of
> bucks more, still a good deal at $6 each. The continuous inking systems
> use an "always full" chip.
>
> Cheerful regards,
>
> Bob
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> talk mailing list
> talk at nblug.org
> http://nblug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk




More information about the talk mailing list