What would be a great printer to consider purchasing anything other than by "canon"?

Question

Ink is priced so expensive to replace, and refills are impossible with some printers, and some have computer chips on some ink tanks making refill impossible or problematic. The bubble jet printers were great...but so far I've only come up with going to multifunctional by "brother" printer/scanner/fax machine. I enjoy printing photographs mostly, but do require office printing for letters as well and XP is a requirement.

Answer 1

I think HP is pretty good. But generally most ink cartridges are expensive.

Or, you can get a laserjet printer. You'll find they use them in most offices, but they do sell personal and cheaper ones. Search for some on Amazon. They are more expensive but they don't use ink, they use toners instead. One toner can print about a thousand something pages? So you'll save money on ink in the long run (if you print a lot). However, these toners are mainly for documents and not good quality photos. And colour laserjet printers are even pricier. I have one and it's great when it comes to printing out notes and stuff from school.

I guess you should look an Amazon for these and if you don't think you'll benefit from laserjet printers, get a HP.

Answer 2

The HP AlI-In-One printers are pretty good and almost every office supply store carries their ink cartridges.

Answer 3

The two cheapest companies by cost of ink are usually Canon and Epson.  So if you don't like Canon, check out Epson.  They are great for office stuff, and I've had no problems using knock-off cartridges you can buy for a fraction of a price online.  I don't do a whole lot of photo printing though, so for that you may want to use genuine cartridges.  Still I find that these two are usually the cheapest.  So I'd find an Epson with the features you need, then check the prices for cartridges online, and if they're reasonable, go with that.

Answer 4

I have KODAK 4 in one.  I love it. very versatile. Good pictures. Ink is reasonable

Answer 5

I have a Hewlett Packard 4-in-1 that have worked for ages (i mean, 6 years) and still like the first day! I trust in this brand printers, all have been long working and ink savers.  

Answer 6

As someone who was in the computer hardware business for years (though I rarely sold printers since I couldn't compete with the crazy rebates) I have always recommended Epson. The print quality is excellent, even on plain paper. I have photos I printed on a 640 about ten years ago hanging in my office which still look good, though not as good as the ones from the CX8400 on glossy paper. The warranty is excellent. For a year, Epson will express-ship a replacement and pick up the old one. I had one customer who needed this. He called one afternoon and had the replacement two days later. Another client bought a Canon. It needed two repairs within a few months. Each time it was taken to the repair center, then picked up a few days later. This client runs a specialty printing business and this really hurt. They have since bought an Epson CX5000 and have had no down time since.

The C120 (printer only - no scanner) is on sale at Ritz Camera free after rebate but you must also buy a digital camera. The cheapest is $15. With $7 shipping you pay $22 for printer and camera.  It uses 3 colors and 2 of the SAME black cartridge.

http://www.cheapstingybargains.com/55740...

A set of 5 cartridges are $23 at http://ccs-digital.com/ink.asp

The RX595 scanner/copier/printer also prints on DVDs. It uses 5 colors plus black and has even higher photo quality. You can get it at Ritz Camera for $45 after rebate with digital camera. The printer is $130. The cheapest camera is $15 bringing the total to $145. Then there is $100 rebate and free shipping, bringing the final cost to $45. http://www.ritzcamera.com/webapp/wcs/sto...  A set of 7 cartridges (1 extra black) is $30 at http://ccs-digital.com/ink.asp