Analysis | Printer ink is a scam. Here’s how to spend less.

I use my HP printer infrequently enough that every time I booted up my inkjet, I had to put it through a printer head cleaning cycle. I'd be surprised if I got more than 20 sheets of paper for each cartridge do to the wasted ink, and the dang thing malfunctioned frequently even after cleaning (streaks, blots, complaining about missing colors when printing b/w, etc).

After switching to a Brother mono laser, I haven't had to do any maintenance in 3 years and it's still on the original toner cart which it came with.

This is the way.

Print at work.

If you can't, print at an office supply store.

Seriously, how much do you need to print?

I love my mono laser printer. It's an older Canon I got from a retired lawyer, so it has probably printed a million pages already for all I know. Haven't had to futz with it since I popped in a new toner cartridge that was ~$40. If I need to print color, I go to the local copy store, but that's rare anyways. Been recommending the same for all my friends and family.

IMHO, inkjet printers as a whole are a scam. That is, unless you buy a really high end one for professional photo printing.

From 15 years of experience in IT, and with home printing:

Many inkjet printer manufacturers will refuse to print if you insert non-oem cartridges. Just because one model will allow you to dismiss a warning doesn't mean they all will. I've seen people waste a lot of money doing this.

The ink injections are also tricky. What I've seen is that the ink ends up leaking all over the inside of your printer, or worse, the printer will refuse to print it because it knows it's been tampered with.

Also, unless you have a specific use case for an inkjet (design work, photo prints, etc), just get a cheap laser. Or if you don't print that much, just throw your documents on a flash drive and go to your local office supply store. Or library.

As for re-manufactured cartridges, especially for laser: stay away. I've seen them time and time and time and time again burst in the printer and spill toner all over the place. This kills the machine. So the $50 you might save on a cartridge will end up costing you hundreds or thousands in the long run.

The whole damned industry is predatory, built for lock-in, and designed to fuck you over. It really sucks. But there's no reliable way around it.

I have a Brother laser printer that works fine since undergrad. $100, almost 15 years ago. Good colors still, but it came with this thing where you have to block it at the firewall from the Internet so it doesn't spy on you (something about reporting to Amazon servers?) and it will pretend that your toner is low on purpose, but you can cover up the sensor with electrical tape and it works fine. Prints with Linux, BSD.

I also have a Canon inkjet. I was on a trip and needed a printer and ... $25 dollars out of pocket, I ended up with a device that has scanning and color printing and works with Linux. Five years later and it still works, although the aftermarket cartridges I use are $33, more than the printer itself cost. There's no DRM making me buy just Canon ink. Works with Linux.

After reading that Epson was getting out of the laser printer business altogether for environmental reasons, I called BS on it. Likely a reason for them to sell nothing but DRM'd junk inkjets that are even more wasteful because they break every other year.

But the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Laser printers are also horrible for the environment. The fusers and toner cartridges cannot be recycled and the toner itself is nothing but microplastic that never breaks down.

I hope to never buy a printer again. Fuck that anymore, It's the 21st century, I have a PDF editor and a tablet.

There are also lots of knock off cartridges for most laser printers too.

I have a brother laser printer copier - it works with budget cartridges that cost around $25.

I’ve got a Canon Pixima 5000 series. My family tends to print a good percentage in color (because thankfully I don’t have to print many documents in this day and age). It uses individual color cartridges (C, M, Y, K and a second large K), so if one goes out you just replace that color. I generally pick up the off brand refills on Amazon for fairly cheap. Last time I got a 5 pack of sets for $20. It’s lasted us 2 years at this point. The ink carts are literally JUST ink and a foam block. No electronics or drm like HP. Highly recommend.

One caveat: there were some reports of health effects of inhaling toner fumes, so make sure wherever you keep your laser printer is reasonably ventilated.

Another for the get a laser printer train, I got a Xerox color laser printer 8 years ago for a ridiculously good deal (like $130). I finally had to replace the original toner last year, and it took my off brand cartridges just fine at a cost of like $50 for the full set of four. Came with Linux drivers even! Having color is nice too, means I don't have to think about using another printer. We keep my boyfriend's inkjet printer around solely for scanning things at this point.

Some of you should try ink tank printers. Low ink prices and lots of ink in each refill. They come out of the box with thousands of pages worth if ink! Only problem is they sometimes get clogged.

Absolutely, I got inkjet printers for years between ~1990 and ~2010, ink is expensive, dry, smear, etc. I bought a Samsung color laser wifi printer in 2012, more than 10 years ago, I changed toners a few times, it still work perfectly fine. I'll never again go to inkjet.

I bought an used color laser printer meant for business. Drivers made by manufacturer for Linux and Windows are bad as always, but CUPS for Linux works really well.

I wish there was a right-to-repair and privacy friendly printer, which required only Creative Commons drivers in Windows, and no bs, poorly made drivers + control software as always. Luckily rgb is becoming standardised.

Maybe I'm naive, but what's holding everyone back from living a paperless life or at least attempt to? Other than printing out the occasional return labels for Amazon stuff I return (they offer label free drop offs now), I can't think of anything else I would use it for as most things have gone digital.

If you have a small space and don’t print a lot, I love my thermal printer. It’s the size of a sturdy, old-fashioned 3-hole-punch. Portable and battery-operated. There is no ink. The special paper’s kind of expensive, but it doesn’t dry out or send you codes saying you can’t print when it obviously can. And they make BPA-free thermal paper now.

Lasers are definitely a great option, but we got a printer with liquid ink and it's been great. Much cheaper than proprietary cartridges and they don't go stale if you don't print anything for a few weeks.

Been on the laser printer bandwagon for almost 10 years. Bought a mono Samsung and it's been my ride or die ever since. I think I've gone through two toners in that time, maybe 3. My only regret is not getting a color one but that'll be my upgrade if this one ever dies.

I have been using laser for so long, while so many people use ink. I could always understand it if you needed to print photos on photo paper genuine photo quality, but laser - both monochrome and color, has always served me well. I could never understand why people went with ink, except maybe people so tech illiterate they just went to the store and bought what they were recommended (by a sales representative who knows they make a much higher markup in the long nrun by selling inkjets).

In 2005 I bought an inexpensive black-and-white HP laser jet for $99. To this day it still prints flawlessly after sitting idle for months or years. The toner never “dries out” or goes bad. Nor have I ever once needed to print in color. If I ever do, I’ll go to a print shop.

I think I’m on my 3rd toner cartridge since 2005. Highly recommend.

I bought a Brother color laser printer in 2020 after deciding I was fed up with buying ink cartridges. The Staples guy was annoyed I wasn't buying toner cartridges also. He said "These starter cartridges don't have much toner. You'll need a new one before you know it!". I told him I'd take my chances and come back if needed. Three years later, I print regularly and haven't replaced anything at all yet. I would have bought a number of ink cartridges over the last few years. Great investment as far as I'm concerned.

I bought a cheap Canon inkjet and have started refilling it with cheap off-brand ink. It's not particularly as good as the original ink, but for my purposes it works great.

Commercial printer here. I have 60" wide printers of pigment, latex and UV inks currently and can answer whatever questions you might have about this industry. I but 700ml cartridges for the aqueous and latex inks, and 1L bottles for UV pour over. Feel free to AMA. :)

Hell yes! Love my laser printer. I have paper to last a lifetime, and I have no qualms about printing stuff out because I can alwasy recycle the paper (make more paper, art projectsz scrap/scratch).

Honestly people, if you don't have one, go to your local Staples or Office Depot (or lets be honest, Amazon) and get yourself one.

I know so many people who do not even own a printer, which is insane. Driving out to Kinkos or FedEx to print out a few pages is dumb. They can be found in thrift stores, and ink or toner can be had for a fraction of the price if you go third-party.

As a former tech associate at Staples; I can easily attest to how annoyed my bosses were that I always pushed people to buy laser printers.

Their reasoning was simple; the bosses hated the volume at which we sold toner; and literally nothing else...once I had paired all of their problem customers with drama-free laser printers that would stay in operation for at least 5 years.

Nobody who bothered to ask my professional opinion on printers and actually took it seriously bought anything but a Laser Printer. Many of the shitty DRM riddled Inkjets actually collected dust on those shelves unless they were sold by someone more clueless than I.