Fiddlers Green

Sadly, my Lexmark Z55 printer has stopped working. It is time to purchase a new printer. Are there any recommendations? I will be printing mostly card models and text documents.

Howzit

I use one of the cheaper Canon inkjet printers, new cartridges are dirt cheap and the colour quality is pretty decent.

Niki

How much do ya wanna spend?

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I counld'nt think of a really cool catch phrase.

No more than $150.00.

Choice of printer should begin with asking yourself "What am I primarily going to use it for?" there's no sense wasting money on features you'll seldom use: for example--if printing high quality photo's is not high on your list--you shouldn't waste money on five or six color printers--they're more costly, and the cartridges are likewise. Make sure the printer's supplies are well stocked by local merchants. No one wants an "orphan printer" that has to have cartridges special ordered. Large formats are probably not a good option: Most cardstock comes in standard size--larger heavy weights are difficult to find. Expect a printer to last several years--they wear out. I'd go to a local computer store and talk to a knowledgeable salesperson.....note I said knowledgeable. You're better off going to a dedicated computer store than a big box, like Circuit City or Best Buy....it may cost you a few dollars more--but to have a person who truly understands the products is worth the added cost.

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-Rob-

Currently working on: see avatar

I agree with Rob. You get what you pay for. I use an Epson Photo R200 up in Illinois. I like that it literally has "fuel gauges" to show how much ink is still in a cartridge and when it needs to be replaced. It does use six cartridges but you don't have to replace them ALL at once. Here in Ft. Myers I use a HP832 and it also works fine. I use 100# paper in both.
Dick

Don't get a Dell. I did, and i'm dissapointed. the expensive ink cartridges are only available through Dell themselves, and are smaller than a Hewlett packard cartridge costing less, as well as being much more readily available, as HP cartridges are sold in stores. Installing the Dell's drive into my computer deleted all other printer drives, so now I can't even go back to using my HP, much as I want to. Dell's customer service sucks, too. try getting a human being, I dare you! the only reason I don't defenestrate this piece of junk is that, while the printer is nothing to write home about, the scanner is pretty decent, which is this toy's one saving grace.

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I'm not wierd! I'm normality impaired!

Those bundled accesories that come with some computer systems are usually nothing to write home about. When I bought my old Gateway, some years back--it was advertised as coming with printer, speakers and some other stuff. Found out I could opt out of all the peripherals, including monitor --since I already had quality stuff--for credit--which I applied to a larger hard drive and increased memory. Also save a bit on the shipping.

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-Rob-

Currently working on: see avatar

i am sticking with HP.....it has been problem free ver since i bought it....(knock on wood).. ...i hope i didnt just jinx myself....

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Laterz
Possm_23
Never say anything you wouldnt think out loud!
Take your time leavin.....but hurry back!!!!
Every tub has to sit on its own bottom!!!!

I love my HP as well. It's a PSC unit that does a great job.

possm- You should be okay as long as it was really wood you knocked on, and not that fake stuff

At this very moment I'm looking at the USB and power cables draped over my HP C3180 combo printer/scanner/copier/fax. I spent quite a while yesterday uninstalling it so I can reinstall it today.

The problem? The scanner function periodically forgets that it has been installed and won't let me do anything else until I load up the software disc and feed it a file that it wants! ARRRGGGG! I wouldn't recommend this model to anyone. I really liked my older HP better until, after 6 or 7 years some plastic parts gave out.

But when it works, it does a beautiful job of everything, and it only cost $75.

I will still recommend HP printers to everyone, as NO brand of printer is perfect, especially the under $100 models. If I had room for it, I'd buy one of the more expensive, but bigger HPs.

Bob

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I'm not an old fool, but I'm taking a correspondence course to become one.

i guess iam gonna have to reneg....until this weekend i used an Hp printer...the wife went and bought a new printer....its a Kodak 5100 copy/scan/photo copier........the biggest thing was the cost of the ink cartriges. 9 and 15 bucks.....printer was less than $100....i copied off a couple of pages of the gigant on my old printer then a cpl on the Kodak ....a world of difference...... ...let you know more after we have used it for awhile....but i am keepin my HP around for a while...just to be on the safe side.

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Laterz
Possm_23
Never say anything you wouldnt think out loud!
Take your time leavin.....but hurry back!!!!
Every tub has to sit on its own bottom!!!!

I take back everything I said before about my HP C3180!!!!! It is one of the biggest pieces of junk I ever paid good money for!

I got it reinstalled last week and it worked fine until today when it decided I needed to install a photograph editing program (which was already installed) before I could print a text file in B&W! So--------

I uninstalled it again and tried for about 3 hours to reinstall it. One of the weird things was that it decided it wouldn't work unless the USB cable was plugged directly into the computer, not into the hub it was connected to before. At the moment, its working, but after Christmas I'm off to Office Depot and Best Buy {maybe even Wally World} and see what I can find on sale in a Canon (or maybe a Kodak)!

[Part of the problem is that this is a Photosmart all in one, not just a plain old all in one printer. It doesn't do a particularly good job of printing photos, either.]

#@^&$**!!!!!!!!!!

Bob

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I'm not an old fool, but I'm taking a correspondence course to become one.

Hey, Possm,

After spending hours on the web looking at printer specs, I really like the looks (and price) of that Kodak printer.

Tell us though, can you reduce a PDF page by percentage, or do you have to calculate the size of a page to print to get to, say, WSAM=67%.

Bob

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I'm not an old fool, but I'm taking a correspondence course to become one.

hmmmmmm....i'm not sure about the reducing....i havent had a lot of time to play with it or check out the settings...... ......sorry

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Laterz
Possm_23
Never say anything you wouldnt think out loud!
Take your time leavin.....but hurry back!!!!
Every tub has to sit on its own bottom!!!!