Printers

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 21 January 2009, Craig White wrote:
>On Wed, 2009-01-21 at 12:43 +0000, Noel James Bridge wrote:
>> On Wed, 2009-01-21 at 11:19 +0100, Kevin Kofler wrote:
>> > I'd recommend HP, because the CUPS drivers (HPLIP) are Free Software,
>> > written by HP themselves and included in Fedora (so they work out of the
>> > box).
>>
>> ...
>>
>> > One drawback though is that HP is not the cheapest option out there
>> > (especially if you count the ink/toner prices - for example, HP inkjets
>> > have the print heads on the cartridge, which means they're less
>> > susceptible to defects, but which also means the cartridges are very
>> > expensive;
>>
>> I have a hp deskjet at home which gets light use, mostly. The integrated
>> print head has a big advantage in this situation, one which is not
>> immediately obvious. The main limitation on performance is simply that
>> the jets very gradually dry out so that the quality becomes uneven. With
>> a hp printer you replace the print head and it works as new. By contrast
>> with an Epson printer I found that this was not possible. The result is
>> that the hp printer has lasted far longer.
>
>----
>If you frequently print, the Epson is probably a superior mechanism but
>yes, if you only print once in a while, the lines and jets can get dried
>out and clog which necessitates cleaning and is at minimum a PITA and a
>waste of ink.

This was a consideration for me when I set amanda up to print a one page 
backup report every night, it keeps the black jets on my Epson clear.  
Unforch, it doesn't help the color jets, and I don't know it till I go to 
print a pix and its full of color streaks from plugged heads.  Then I still 
have to waste the ink with a cleaning cycle, sometimes 2. (mtink handles that 
well and tells me how much ink I have left too)  I think that is a large part 
of why an old C82, running the C84 Gutenprint drivers so it can do 
borderless, is still working, well enough I have sold prints from it.

I put in a request for amanda to use the colors too, and was told "patches 
welcome" which is as it should be, but I have NDI how to tell a printer to 
print this line in black, that one in magenta, and the next one in cyan and 
the borders in yellow.  But I feel I would probably waste less ink (about $75 
for all 4 cartridges) in the long run if it was blowing its noses daily with 
the amanda printout.

>This is especially a problem where I live in the desert 
>southwest where it is usually very dry (indoor relative humidity always
>under 20%).
>
>I noticed though that some of the newer HP units have gone to a
>multi-stage unit with separate print heads.
>
>Myself, I'm still using an older (now) OfficeJet 6110 and the cartridges
>are ridiculously expensive.
>
>I think Kevin was using a point of view strictly from a driver
>perspective.
>
>Craig



-- 
Cheers, Gene
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