Laser Printer Recommendation Please

[The Unusual Suspect]

Recently our HP DeskJet 720C died. I'm looking for some recommendations
for a replacement.

My thoughts are to get a black & white laser printer this time - we
very rarely used the DeskJet for colour and we have a Canon i865 should
we need to print in colour or photos.

We run as two different companies which means two different sets of
headed paper. We print quotations on headed paper with terms &
conditions on the back, letters on headed paper without Ts & Cs, faxes
on green paper and use white paper for everything else. That's 6
different types of paper in all. Any suggestions on how to reduce the
need for swapping these over or making doing that easier would be
appreciated.

The DeskJet was frustratingly slow in some situations but it was really
only used by one person and was mostly adequate for their needs. Having
said that if we get a laser printer more people may end up using it (we
have five people in the office).

All our computers run Windows XP Professional SP2.

Any suggestions you can give would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance,

Richard Jenkins

 

[Edwin Pawlowski]

We run as two different companies which means two different sets of
headed paper. We print quotations on headed paper with terms &
conditions on the back, letters on headed paper without Ts & Cs, faxes
on green paper and use white paper for everything else. That's 6
different types of paper in all. Any suggestions on how to reduce the
need for swapping these over or making doing that easier would be
appreciated.

All our computers run Windows XP Professional SP2.

We have an HP1320 on our network; it was easy to set up on a hub so we can
all access it. Given the price of printers, it may make sense to have more
than one either on the network or at particular desks that use a special
paper. Even the new Deskjets are much faster than your old printer and you
still have color capability if needed.

 

[Lou]

We have an HP1320 on our network; it was easy to set up on a hub so we can
all access it. Given the price of printers, it may make sense to have more
than one either on the network or at particular desks that use a special
paper. Even the new Deskjets are much faster than your old printer and you
still have color capability if needed.

Check out Lexmark laser printers. Their inkjets suck but lasers seem OK.

Lou

 

[Warren Block]

My thoughts are to get a black & white laser printer this time - we
very rarely used the DeskJet for colour and we have a Canon i865 should
we need to print in colour or photos.

We run as two different companies which means two different sets of
headed paper. We print quotations on headed paper with terms &
conditions on the back, letters on headed paper without Ts & Cs, faxes
on green paper and use white paper for everything else. That's 6
different types of paper in all. Any suggestions on how to reduce the
need for swapping these over or making doing that easier would be
appreciated.

I only count four types of paper there, but the point remains.

Some things depend on your preprinted paper. If the preprinting is all
in black, include it in your documents and you can use plain paper
instead. (This has numerous other advantages, too.)

A printer with a duplexer can print the back sides, so you'd also
include that in your documents.

Most laser printers have a hand-loaded multipurpose tray that will hold
anywhere from one to fifty sheets of paper, and when there's paper in
that tray it overrides other trays.

Business-class printers will let you add multiple trays which can be
dedicated to a particular type of paper. Costs depend on the model of
printer, but can be $200 a tray or more.

So... it depends. What's your budget? What kind of print speed do you
want? Can you print your own letterhead? Do you need a duplexer? How
many paper trays, and what paper capacity in each? Does this need to be
a network printer?

 

[stevemackie]

I wouldn't use/buy anything but a laser printer from HP.

 

[Stanley Krute]

Howdy Unusual

I really like Brother lasers. You can get nice ones starting around $200.

In particular: You might want to look at the HL-5240. $230. Comes with a
250-sheet input tray
and a 50-sheet multi-purpose tray. You can add two optional 250-sheet paper
trays (LT-5300) for about $125 each. Add another $50-$100 for additional
memory.
So for about $550-$600 you get a laser with four different paper sources.

At that price, depending on how well business is going and how much printing
you do on each of the six paper types you mention, you could get a pair of
these,
and have all your different paper needs covered.

All of my clients (I run a small-town computer biz) are quite happy with
Brothers that I've gotten for them. The Brother B/W laser multi-function
machines
are also quite excellent, in my experience.

-- stan

 

[Splork]

Recently our HP DeskJet 720C died. I'm looking for some recommendations
for a replacement.

My thoughts are to get a black & white laser printer this time - we
very rarely used the DeskJet for colour and we have a Canon i865 should
we need to print in colour or photos.

We run as two different companies which means two different sets of
headed paper. We print quotations on headed paper with terms &
conditions on the back, letters on headed paper without Ts & Cs, faxes
on green paper and use white paper for everything else. That's 6
different types of paper in all. Any suggestions on how to reduce the
need for swapping these over or making doing that easier would be
appreciated.

The DeskJet was frustratingly slow in some situations but it was really
only used by one person and was mostly adequate for their needs. Having
said that if we get a laser printer more people may end up using it (we
have five people in the office).

All our computers run Windows XP Professional SP2.

Any suggestions you can give would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance,

Richard Jenkins

Some of the older (built like a tank) HP Laserjets would be good. I use a HP
4050t and it has 2 paper trays and a manual feed tray. If you can integrate
your paper heading design as a template for all your related documents you can
use plain paper and skip several paper types. I paid about $350 for mine and
have a spare (bought 2) if you are interested.

The LJ 4100 has a small problem resulting from printing on envelopes and I
"Think" the LJ 42-4500 might be good choices as well.

If you need preprinted forms for some reason, you can use the multifunction
manual feed tray or keep a spare tray loaded with the paper handy.

I personally dislike many of the newer printers as they seem a bit flimsy and
geared for greater consumables profit. My experience on these new printers is
not very broad so keep that in mind.

My 2 cents