Question Printing with color - two printers, or one?

[King_V]

So, I currently have a black-and-white laser printer/scanner/copier/fax. It's aging, and the latest drivers are Windows 7 era, but it works fine. Works in Linux as well, although the drivers for scanning don't work in Linux.

I've refilled the toner, but it's not dark as new.

With the age of the cartridge, and that the drum has never been changed, I'm thinking that rather than getting a new toner cartridge and drum, to put that money toward a new printer.

I need printing/scanning/copying. I don't need faxing/telephony.

BUT... my girlfriend needs color printing. Right now she's relying on an HP inkjet (with copying, scanning, etc). She needs to be able to print pictures, photos, and so on with fairly accurate color matching. ie: if a child is asked to identify "blue" in a picture, the blue really needs to look blue. She only needs to print in color, but does not need to copy in color.

Since she's planning in moving in, we don't really want two multifunction machines in the house.

So . . what do you suggest:

1 - A multifunction color laser?
2 - A multifunction b&w laser, with a separate color inkjet that does print-only?

I'm trying to weigh the differences in cost, both overall and maintenance/per-page costs.

Any advice in this area would be very helpful - thanks in advance!

 

[Ralston18]

Budget?

Also FYI:

https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-printers

 

[ex_bubblehead]

From a cost per page standpoint laser always beats inkjet. Color laser will be more than adequate to the stated task. While the cost per toner cartridge is greater than that of inkjet, the overall cost per page is far less, as a laser cartridge lasts for thousands of pages, whereas inkjet only a few hundred at most. Not to mention the constant clogs if the inkjet isn't used every day, and the constant auto head purging that occurs and uses ink at a prodigious rate.

 

[King_V]

Budget?

Also FYI:

https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-printers

I'd probably say about $700-ish would be the max, but I don't really know what the normal price range of color lasers would be. That said, I'm checking out the link now.

From a cost per page standpoint laser always beats inkjet. Color laser will be more than adequate to the stated task. While the cost per toner cartridge is greater than that of inkjet, the overall cost per page is far less, as a laser cartridge lasts for thousands of pages, whereas inkjet only a few hundred at most. Not to mention the constant clogs if the inkjet isn't used every day, and the constant auto head purging that occurs and uses ink at a prodigious rate.

Yeah, I figured that B&W, cost per page was WAY less for laser, and I'm getting this for the long term. Color-pages, I thought I'd read that the cpp was closer, but don't hold me to that.

Knowing that the color laser will be more than adequate is good to know.

 

[King_V]

Welp, a belated thanks for the input, but, the problem sort of solved itself.

Ultimately, the gf decided to just move her printer to my place. HP OfficeJet 9010, an all-in-one color inkjet.

It does the job pretty well, and has surprised me by showing that it can handle fine lines far better than the inkjets of old, and gave my aging laser printer a run for its money.

So, that's going to be the machine for now.

Also, during various research, seeing the move to Ink Tank style printers is promising, and even some (ok, only HP as far as I know, with the "Neverstop" series) going for laser printers with toner tanks.

They just get refilled from bottles. No ink cartridges or toner cartridges. My next printer, a couple of years down the road, might be way more interesting.

The only downside for the HP Neverstop lasers is that they're manual duplex. Ugh. Still, in a few years... I'm really looking forward to seeing how the move away from ink and toner cartridges goes.

But, for now, the gf's printer is the go-to machine.