There can be few more mundane subjects than printers but they have become
part of our everyday lives and also, for many, part of everyday
frustrations. Has any one of you reading this never had an irritating moment
induced by a printer?
Printers now seem to have changed little from printers in the 1990s except
that they are almost all on wifi and not direct cable link. Some also have
larger refillable ink tanks and some have monthly ink charge arrangements.
The basic paper feed mechanism seems as unreliably antiquated as it ever
was.
Manufacturers tempt buyers with very cheap deals on printers (which now have almost empty print cartridges - just enough for the set-up and a few tempting photos) and then charge a fortune for the ink. To make sure they get their pound of flesh, they focus all their efforts on making sure printers only work with proprietary ink cartridges.
So life with a printer for most people runs something like this:
- Buy a printer.
- Set up the printer (if you're lucky this might not raise your blood pressure).
- Honeymoon period - printer works as it should.
- Poddle along.
- Need an urgent print job.
- Printer won't cooperate.
- Waste a day trying to get it to work.
- Get the urgent job printed by a friend or a local copyshop.
- Dump the printer.
- Buy another printer.
- Repeat.
On the other hand your experience might be like this:
- Discover printer won't work.
- You're pretty handy with gadgets so you sort it.
- Start the job and printer absolutely refuses to cooperate.
- Decide printer is dead.
- It's Saturday. Urgent print job. Argos is open. Buy new printer.
- Complete job.
- Monday, ring help line for first printer.
- Get software upgrade.
- Printer back in working order.
So you (I) now have two printers. This is handy because when one printer decides to throw a wobbly the other is usually in a good mood.
I make photo cards and post cards. Mostly for my own use but also for other people (not commercially). So almost all the printing I do is photographs ie colour printing, and decorated envelopes and the cards on which the photos are mounted. So I use a great deal of ink. So I have chosen a monthly ink purchase scheme. So for a few £s per month I get an unlimited supply of ink to enable me to do all the printing I need and don't have to worry about a sudden outlay on expensive cartridges which can run into quite a hefty sum.
PS If the weather wasn't so bad I'd be in the garden and not writing posts like this.
Mine used to squirt ink into the waste tray every time I turned it on. That used more ink than actually printing. They said, well leave it switched on, but that seemed silly when used only three times a month. So I got a colour laser. It isn't perfect for photographs - I just send those away if I want any printed.
ReplyDeleteTasker, that must be one of the most immediate comments I've received. However I'm very puzzled because it says that your comment was posted at 21:11 which bear no relation to the time you posted it either in terms of hours or minutes. If it were 21:00 it would be in New Zealand but even there the minutes are the same as here and my blog runs on UK time. I've never noticed that anomaly before.
DeleteI use my printers constantly and they do produce excellent quality photographs. In theory I could produce 100 A4 photos for £3.49 a month. For me, however, the convenience of needing a photo for a card and producing it instantly is important.
I can give you Friday's Euromillions numbers if you'd like them - or Saturday's National Lottery if you'd prefer those.
DeleteJust getting mine to work when required would be good. I'd really like to print some photographs but can't remember how to do it and if the paper is still good to use after at least 5yrs. The big thing is systems have moved on and I haven't kept up. I should do an evening class but that these days is not possible and probably wont be again! It's not the machine it's User Error. Lesley
ReplyDeleteLesley, the paper will probably have deteriorated a bit even if kept in idea conditions (cool and dark). It's still worth giving it a try if it has been kept like that. Depending on your printer there may be a YouTube video.
DeleteIt's surprising that this topic did not cause you to throw a few uncharacteristic swear words into the mix. For me the worst thing about printers is the cost of replacement cartridges. Mine recently cost me exactly £50 and besides I am now becoming rather anxious that I may not be able to locate identical cartridges in the future so I could end up having to buy a new printer! I suspect that all printer and print cartridge companies are run by a cartel based in Bogota, Colombia or perhaps from the island of Sicily.
ReplyDeleteYP it's a question of marketing. The inkjet printers are sold cheaply and the profit is in the ink. However you can buy printers with inexpensive large capacity refillable ink containers. You can also do as I do and simply pay a monthly price which starts at 99p a month such as HP Instant Ink.
DeleteDid you happen to notice that Tasker's "immediate comment" is dated 12 November 2020? Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, I would say, if Mr. Shakespeare hadn't already said it 400-plus years ago.
ReplyDeleteI own a fairly inexpensive wifi printer made by Brother that has worked fine for three or four years now (I'm keeping my fingers crossed) and I buy Brother ink cartridges from Brother's website cheaper than I can get them at Office Max or Office Depo, and the merchandise is delivered to my front door. My printer is also a scanner and a fax machine but I have never figured out how to use those particular capabilities.
Oddly, Bob, my brain must have gone AWOL. I realised that the comment had been made immediately after I'd posted it so I was looking at the time. How I missed the date I can't explain. I use my printers for scanning a lot - in particular my sketching. Did you know that in the UK the biggest users of fax machines are pharmacies to get prescriptions from doctors? Virtually no one else in the UK uses fax machines and my printers don't have that facility and they are completely wireless whereas faxes use the phone line.
DeleteI, too, use HP Instant Ink and pay monthly. I find it has been perfectly reliable in getting my ink to me before I really need it. So far my printer, has proven reliable also. Sadly, it is the computer(s) that give me grief. I literally hold my breath every time I turn the monster on waiting to see if it will play nicely with me.
ReplyDeleteJill, I can't understand why everyone doesn't do it. It's such excellent value for money and no complaining about expensive cartridges.
DeleteI bought a new printer just before Christmas and haven't yet overcome the guilt for buying a new one when the old one was still working. It just seems so wasteful but the replacement cartridges for the old one increased in cost every time I bought one and had doubled in price in the last couple of years. The new printer meets my needs but amuses me that it takes longer to think than I do and usually won't start until I stand in front of it, fingers raised to have a fiddle.
ReplyDeletePauline, I've given up feeling guilty about anything when it comes to printers. They can be the most frustrating of things. However, I would not be without them because I print so much. I've even learned how to take them apart and clean them and, so far, I've also managed to put them back together.
DeleteYears ago, I did my own photo printing as you do, Graham, and you are right in that it requires a lot of ink. I mainly did small photos that could be inserted into plastic holders and used as a bookmark. These made fun gifts for friends. I also did photo cards which were sold at craft shows, but those photos were done online as it less costly than buying inks. Now I don't do any of that and my small Brother printer is a few years old and so far going great, but the scanner is one of the slowest known.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice, my brother used to make wonderful family bookmarks because of his huge family photo collection. I still have some (very dogeared) from decades ago. My scanners are tempremental. One of them hates my MacBook with a vengeance. Fortunately the other one gets along with it fine.
DeleteYears of experiencing exactly what you wrote about have led me to the following "printer laws":
ReplyDelete1. Never buy a printer that does more than scan/print. If you purchase one of those "multi-function" machines that will make you a latte, mow your grass, and print things, you can bet that it won't work.
2. Always buy the cheapest, simplest machine available. That way when it breaks and you have to buy another, it's not such a strain on your wallet. Also, if it is fixable, the cheap machines are always easier to fix.
3. Before you buy any printer, check to see how much the replacement ink cartridges cost! Some of those ink cartridges are bloody expensive, and unless you're doing a lot of major print jobs for profit, it doesn't make any sense to pay that kind of dough. Also, I've found that the more expensive the ink cartridges are, the more quickly they run out of ink. Go figure.
Marcheline, I'm with you to an extent on 1 and 2. I don't buy cartridges individually and reckon by far the best way is to either buy a machine with refillable tanks (higher capital outlay and lower running costs) or use something like HP Instant Ink which is exceptionally inexpensive.
DeleteThanks for the tip!
DeleteGraham, I have to tell you that my printer at work talks to me! Honestly, it does. As it prints, it says, "What an attitude, what an attitude, what an attitude". Or is that just me putting lyrics to everything? 😊
ReplyDeleteKay, I think you just put lyrics to everything. I'd love to see what you sing when you get annoyed. 😂
DeleteI was a bit concerned because according to my blog list you'd not posted for a couple of weeks...so I decided to pop in to leave you a message hoping all was well with you. For whatever reason...unknown to me...this latest post wasn't showing up as being posted on my blog list.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad all is well with you, Graham.
I bought a new printer last year because my other one kicked the bucket, even though the bucket was out of reach! :)
Take good care. :)
Thank you, Lee. As it happens the weather has been such that I've been working in the garden or going for walks and have hardly poked my nose into Blogland for a week or more.
DeleteTo add to the mystery about this post not appearing in people's reading list, I have the very odd feeling of having read this post before, but even earlier than just a week ago. Like - back in November or so... (That said, I don't trust my feeling to be right, though. Time behaves very oddly sometimes.)
ReplyDeleteADDITION BY DAWN TREADER
DeleteHaving posted that, I was hit by the idea to check my email archive. As I've mentioned before, I usually get email notifications of your posts (except when those emails sometimes get sorted to spam instead). I've also saved a lot of them in my email archive rather than sent them to trash (I have tons of cloud space at yahoo). So... I went to my Eagleton Notes folder... and I found it. From 12th November 2020, see below. (Which explains the date and time of Tasker's comment.) My theory: You posted it, then for some reason (perhaps by mistake) retracted it to drafts...??
Thank you very much for solving the problem, Monica. It must have been one of my 200+ draft ideas but there must have been far less content because I wrote a lot of it just before I posted it. I never cease to be amazed by your memory and by that of several other commenters too.
Delete