Printer/Ink longevity

[Jay]

Greetings, I am considering buying a new printer. A consideration is
replacement ink prices. It seems that Cannon ink is generally cheaper than
the others, with HP the most expensive. Do the HP cartridges last longer?
It would seem that could justify the higher price. Otherwise, if you get
the same performance, it seems foolish not to go with the Cannon.

Jaybo

 

[Kevin]

Have you looked at printing cost comparisons as published in magazines like
PC World, PC Magazine and Computer Shopper Magazine? An ink jet is fine for
photo printing but incredibly expensive for text printing. You can buy a
new laser printer for less than $200.00 to do your text printing and get
roughly 5000 pages per cartridge. That's a lot of text.

 

[One Million Pictures]

Greetings, I am considering buying a new printer. A consideration is
replacement ink prices. It seems that Cannon ink is generally cheaper than
the others, with HP the most expensive. Do the HP cartridges last longer?
It would seem that could justify the higher price. Otherwise, if you get
the same performance, it seems foolish not to go with the Cannon.

Jaybo

No idea which printer you refer to but I have a HP designjet 130. Big fella
prints 24" wide. Imagine how much ink it takes to print a 36" long by 24"
wide photo? Not as much as you think. I also have an epson r310 printer.

I printed 65 A4 pages on the Epson r310 and ran out of 4 ink colours. $100
worth of ink. I've printed no less than 40 posters 24" x 36" on the HP and
just now replaced the light magenta and light cyan tanks. In Australia the
Epson carts cost $25 each. The HP ones $42 each. Do the math, HP is cheaper
by a mile! The A4 HP photo printer uses the same dye inks as my designjet so
it too should be cheap to run, despite the cost of the ink. Canon printer
are nice and fast, pity their prints are not fast too (colour fast).

Kiah

 

[pete]

Greetings, I am considering buying a new printer. A consideration is
replacement ink prices. It seems that Cannon ink is generally cheaper than
the others, with HP the most expensive. Do the HP cartridges last longer?
It would seem that could justify the higher price. Otherwise, if you get
the same performance, it seems foolish not to go with the Cannon.

Will a car with a 20 gallon petrol tank go farther than a lorry with a 40 gallon
diesel tank?
Work out a cost per page printed, not per size/price of cartridge for different
printer makes!

 

[Richard]

Will a car with a 20 gallon petrol tank go farther than a lorry with a 40 gallon
diesel tank?
Work out a cost per page printed, not per size/price of cartridge for different
printer makes!

Exactly so. In most tests that I have seen comparing similar 8.5 x 11
photo printers from each manufacturer and using OEM ink and paper,
this is the order from least expensive to most:

1. Canon
2. Epson
3. HP
4. Lexmark

The ranking for long lasting photo prints would be:

1. Epson
2. HP
3. Canon


If cost is your _only_ consideration then Canon is your clear choice.
If cost and long lasting prints are equal considerations then Epson is
your clear choice.
There are many actual test reports available online for those wanting
to research cost, quality, and longevity. I would suggest reading
_many_ sources and making up your own mind as to what is important to
you. Once you narrow your choices ask the manufacturer to send you a
sample photo to help you choose.
If a good looking photo were your only criterion then any one of the
better 6 or more ink printers from the top three would probably not
disappoint you.


Richard

 

[PJx]

Greetings, I am considering buying a new printer. A consideration is
replacement ink prices. It seems that Cannon ink is generally cheaper than
the others, with HP the most expensive. Do the HP cartridges last longer?
It would seem that could justify the higher price. Otherwise, if you get
the same performance, it seems foolish not to go with the Cannon.

Jaybo

Which one has a new print head included in each cartridge?

PJ

 

[Safetymom123]

Which company builds their print heads to last and not be thrown away each
time?

Epson

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Every printer manufacturer has designed their printers around different
markets, at least to some extent.

Epson, for instance, uses permanent heads, and has developed over the
years a design that allows for a larger variety of ink to work with
their printers, and in part, as a result, the art and photographic
market has been drawn to their products. They also produce a great
variety of paper types, and third party inks and papers even further
flesh out the options.

Canon redesigned their printers a few years back and made a lot of
improvements to them. They use a semi-permanent head, but recent spotty
reports have arisen that suggest the head life may be more limited than
originally expected, and the heads may not be available at reasonable
costs. They are fast printers and ink refills are easy to make, but the
inks, at least so far, need to be dye colorant type, and the Canon inks
have been shown to have poor fading characteristics, making them a poor
choice for artwork or long term images. There may be some new inks
coming onto the market and new papers to lessen that issue.

HP integrates most of the their heads within the cartridge, meaning the
head is replaced each time you buy and replace the cartridge. This
obviously can add to cost of the cartridge unit, but for some people it
offers quality control and peace of mind that should the head in the
cartridge fail for whatever reason, a new one is as close as the next
cartridge. Current HP inks seem to have a longer fade resistance than
current Canon inks. HP captures a lot of the office and school market
due to the simplicity of using their printers, and most offices do not
personally refill their ink cartridges.

There are also loyalties clients develop to certain brands due to their
personal experiences, which might lead someone to wish to buy one brand
over another, issues like durability, customer service, and so on.

It is not as cut and dried as you might consider it and history has
changed things. While Epson's output was by far much superior to all
other color inkjet printers several years back, the differences between
major brands are subtle at best today.

Art

 

[PJx]

Which one has a print head that clogs and you have to throw away the
whole printer instead of just replacing the cartridge?

Epson.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Although I agree with you that for monochrome printing laser printers
are more economical, I think you'll find the printers that offer low
acquisition cost (under $200 for instance), usually do not come with
5000 sheet at 5% toner cartridge yields anymore. Maybe 3000 sheets, or
even less, but rarely 5000 sheets at 5%.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

HP and Lexmark current models use a cartridge with an integrated head
for most models they manufacture for the consumer market.

Art

 

[Anoni Moose]

Richard wrote:

If cost is your _only_ consideration then Canon is your clear choice.
If cost and long lasting prints are equal considerations then Epson is
your clear choice.

I think to be fair, this is true if one says that "longest"
lasting prints are important. Canon (and HP) can produce
long lasting prints (with appropriate ink and papers) just
not AS long as Epson's. It's not that Epson's are long
and the rest short -- it's more "long" and "longer".

Mike

P.S. - And Epson has dye-based inks that probably are similar
to Canon and other dye-based ink printers. Above
comments are about Epson's pigment-ink printers
specifically. It's a matter of particular printer/ink/
paper combinations. All have ones with short lives if
a poor combo is picked. Some printers also print
a LOT faster than others, and to some that could be
something important.

 

[Jay]

Thank you. This is the sort of synopsis I was looking for.

 

[Bob Headrick]

Which company builds their print heads to last and not be thrown away each
time?

Epson

Actually HP, Canon and Epson all have models with semi-permanent or permanent
printheads. For HP see models such as the Business Inkjet 1200 series at
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF02a/18972-236251-236261.html.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, not speaking for my employer HP