Re: Most inexpensive debian friendly laserjet printer? total cost of ownership including laserink?
On Mon, May 05, 2008 at 12:58:25AM -0400, Mitchell Laks wrote:
> I tend to print out a lot of documentation on the software for
> projects that I work on. Therefore I go through alot of laserjet
> cartidges on my postscript compatible hp laserjet 1200 printer.
>
> My latest cartridge just needs to be replaced again.
>
> I am tired of paying so much money for the new laser ink cartiridges
> each time.
Do you need laser-quality for anything but the final print? I use a
non-ps (ghostscript and a printfilter take care of everything) Epson
LQ-2180 24-pin impact printer, wide platten. Good quality wide-platten
printers are easier to come by on eBay than narrow-platten. Mine cost
$100. New it would cost $1000. Epson told me that not much changes
between versions. In fact, the MTBF doesn't change much.
The wide-platten ribbons last longer for the same number of characters
and don't cost much more than the narrow. I think I paid $24 CDN for
the ribbon and its good for about 8,000 pages of plain type.
The printer has multiple paper paths: rear push, front push, top-front
push-pull, top-bottom pull, single-sheet front, single-sheet top. You
can get sheet feeders for the top to use standard copier paper, or you
can get a roll paper holder.
Changing paper paths for those that support "parking" is as simple as
pushing a load/unload button, and moving a lever. The paper will load
from the desired path automatically with the next job.
There is no paper waste between jobs; the printer has a tear-off button
which advances the paper for tear-off and then returns the paper to
top-of-form.
The printer is capable of 360x360 but gs-gpl + apsfilter only does
360x180. IIRC, gs-esp and foomatic-printfilter will do the 360x360.
I find the printer does about 6 pages per minute when doing ps
(graphics).
Doug.
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