Recommending printers for text only

[walt kuciej]

I am a newbie with this stuff. My girlfriend gave me her Gateway
computer which has windows 98 installed. I plan to use it only as a
word processor to do some writing, no photos, no color. I think of it
as a glorified typewriter. I want something that will be reliable and
economical. Probably will only need it to print 1-200 copies a month.
I know quality costs $, but I don't know what printers are quality. A
friend gave me an old HP deskjet 500c that was made in the early 90s.
He doesn't have a driver for it, but says it worked great back then.
Is it worth looking into this? TIA Walt

 

[Name]

Drivers for the 500C are provided with Windows 98, so that shouldn't be a
problem. Inkjets, at least old ones such as the 500C, don't have the best
text quality at small font sizes, and are not terribly economical (ink jet
cartridges are expensive per page).

Another option would be a cheap laser printer (e.g. Samsung ML-4500 at $99).
Better text quality, faster, and more economical.

 

[Dan G]

The Canon printers are FAST at text and cost very little to operate. For
the cost of two sets of carts for your HP, you can buy a new Canon printer,
with FULL carts, that'll print text as fast as a laser and much cheaper than
an HP.

 

[Wolf Kirchmeir]

On 7 Jul 2003 18:14:24 -0700, walt kuciej wrote:

=>I am a newbie with this stuff. My girlfriend gave me her Gateway
=>computer which has windows 98 installed. I plan to use it only as a
=>word processor to do some writing, no photos, no color. I think of it
=>as a glorified typewriter. I want something that will be reliable and
=>economical. Probably will only need it to print 1-200 copies a month.
=>I know quality costs $, but I don't know what printers are quality. A
=>friend gave me an old HP deskjet 500c that was made in the early 90s.
=>He doesn't have a driver for it, but says it worked great back then.
=>Is it worth looking into this? TIA Walt

Get a cheap but reliable laser printer. Study price and capacity of toner
cartridge -- that will be your major cost after purchase . Per page cost of
text ("5% coverage" is the rating used) should be around 1 cent.

A cheap ink-jet will cost you 5-10 cents a page -- more of you don't use the
printer often, as it will clean the print head when it starts up, and that
uses ink. I bought a cheap inkjet 1-1/2 years go - it's not even my mots-used
printer, but I've already spent three times as much on ink as the printer
cost me.

BTW, IMO your estimate of how much ot little you will print low. You will end
up printing a lot of stuff you wouldn't print without thr computer.

HTH&GL