# Printer recommenations?

## berkowski

So today I went to print a b&w document out of my epson c84.  I knew I was low on cyan or magenta, but being a plain document I didn't think it'd matter - until the damn thing complained about being out of ink.  That's right, for a plain text document it wouldn't print because it was out of blue.  I even tried printing it under windows, looking for a "grayscale only" checkbox to no avail.  Turns out (as from the epson FAQ itself) the printer will refuse to print ANYTHING if ANY ink is out  :Evil or Very Mad: 

I call BS.

So what I need now is a good printer that will

Print in b&w mode only - or print while out of color cartridges

Is under $200 - and that's a high limit, I'd rather spend ~150 or under.

I don't need piture perfect images, and it doesn't need to be real fast.  Hell, it doesn't even need to be a new model if I can find it easily enough.  Any suggestions?

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## Gullible Jones

Something other than a Canon i250.

(I have one of those... Not a bad printer, but it needs proprietary drivers and is a bloody pain to get working even with those.)

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## electrofreak

HP printers are pretty nice. I've never had trouble setting one up in linux either.

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## berkowski

 *electrofreak wrote:*   

> HP printers are pretty nice. I've never had trouble setting one up in linux either.

 

Any experience with the ink management on HP's?  Will it bitch about running out of pink when I try to print a report?

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## electrofreak

 *berkowski wrote:*   

>  *electrofreak wrote:*   HP printers are pretty nice. I've never had trouble setting one up in linux either. 
> 
> Any experience with the ink management on HP's?  Will it bitch about running out of pink when I try to print a report?

 

I've never had it bitch about anything. I have an older Deskjet 812C though. It just prints, if its out of ink, the only indication is that... it looks crappy when it comes out.

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## berkowski

 *electrofreak wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I've never had it bitch about anything. I have an older Deskjet 812C though. It just prints, if its out of ink, the only indication is that... it looks crappy when it comes out.

 

Thanks, I'll have a look at these then.  Most of the printing I do is just for myself anyway, if it's legible without giving me headaches, I don't really care.

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## Hafnium

I have an HP LaserJet 4 & 5si, and whenever the printer complains of low ink, or starts to print low quality print, i take out the toner cartridge and just keep tilting it back and forth several times and i can get extended use out of my toner cartridges.  i don't know if this would work with ink cartridges, or if it would make any difference.  but i think it is still worth posting.

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## berkowski

I guess I should ask if anyone's tried those ink-in-a-syringe deals?  I'm just trying to avoid paying $20 on a pink cartridge when I only want black text.

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## shruggy1987

DO NOT GET A LEXMARK z25

They claim to be Linux friendly, but they are really only RedHat/Mandrake/SUSE friendly.

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## djpharoah

im with electrofreak about HP printers..they are easiest to setup witihin gentoo..

i have 3 ones..HP 845C Deskjet, and 2x 925C deskjets...

they trully rock

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## eMPee584

... and fill level display just emerge kink.. it will show you.

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## Zuti

Be sure to check http://www.linuxprinting.org/

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## Aszrael

To solve ink-problems with myEpson-C84, I just bought a cartidge-resetter.

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## mbar

 *berkowski wrote:*   

> 
> 
> So what I need now is a good printer that will
> 
> Print in b&w mode only - or print while out of color cartridges
> ...

 

Buy one of the cheap laser printers, eg. Samsung 1520.

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## hw-tph

I have an HP LaserJet 1100A. Works very well under Linux and you can find used ones for next to nothing at online auctions.

Håkan

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## atrader42

My Samsung ML-1740 is all over the place for $70-100 after rebate. It's a pretty fast printer, and although you do have to install drivers for it to work, they're on the cd that comes with the printer. I like nearly everything about this printer, with a couple kinda minor exceptions. It's a bit noisy when it's warming up and printing, so when I need to print when my roommate is asleep, I feel kinda bad.  Also, since Samsung isn't as major of a printer manufacturer, there aren't refurbished toner cartridges all over the place like there are for HPs. Still, it's one of the cheapest lasers you'll find. If you have a bit more to spend, my family has an HP Laserjet 1012  with an instant warmup and is pretty quiet. 

Incidentally, I'm in the market for a toner replacement for my Samsung...does anyone know how good the toner refill kits in ebay are? The price is right, but it seems odd that it's that much cheaper...

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## lbrtuk

Buy a secondhand HP Laserjet 4 series. Built like a tank, very common - spare parts & knowhow readily available, and if you get a postscript & network enabled one you never have to worry about drivers.

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## berkowski

 *lbrtuk wrote:*   

> Buy a secondhand HP Laserjet 4 series. Built like a tank, very common - spare parts & knowhow readily available, and if you get a postscript & network enabled one you never have to worry about drivers.

 

Oh man. . . LJ 4's bring back bad memmories of this printer in our lab. . .

But it seems the way to go is with HP one way or another.  I hadn't realized laserjet's could be in my pricerange, but I don't know if I'm willing to sacrifice color support entirely.  Thanks for all the info though!

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Edit:  Ended up going with a HP deskjet 5740.

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