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Comment by varenc | Hacker News Reader

Digression: Does anyone have a printer recommendation from a manufacturer that doesn’t pull this crap?

I would love to patronize the least scummy manufacturer. Particularly I’m looking for a larger format printer that can do 11”x17” pages.

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Brother is generally good. The model I had (can't remember which) let you override the low toner warning and just print until it runs dry.

No scummy driver shenanigans, works perfectly with third party cartridges. Once you realize the value of not being treated like shit, the price of their machines is pretty reasonable. You do get what you pay for.

Xerox also seems to be less terrible, but I don't have any experience personally.

If you can find a laser printer to fit your needs, choose laser every time. If you specifically need inkjet, you will have to pay extra for a professional model. Also make sure you keep up maintenance so the heads don't clog.

Consumer printers are dirt cheap because these companies sell them at a loss and use shitty tactics to force or trick you into buying only their heinously overpriced cartridges, then buy more than you need, and eventually the printer kills itself to make you buy a new one.

Business oriented printers tend to cost a LOT more, but you get a better quality printer and less evil corporate bullshit.

I have an Epson SC-P600 that prints A3+, with excellent quality (I use it mostly for photos and digital negatives), but it's expensive to use, features questionable design choices (ink pads etc.) requires arcane driver / RIP setups for the best results etc.

A newer model is out (P700) which solves somes issues (like the matte/glossy black ink swap) but is probably more locked down (important if you plan to use for example full greyscale ink sets like the piezography ones).

I had a better experience lately with (smaller, ink bottle type) Canons, I especially like the easily user replaceable print heads. Drivers and software still terrible.

What are you goint to be printing?

Brother’s laser printers are nice. Lexmark also exists, but they’re more of a business brand, and, as such, will cost more

Sadly it seems that Brother's only 11x17 "Ledger Size" printers are inkjet... alas. But the MFC-J5855DW inkjet printer from Brother looks decent. Will look at Lexmark too!

edit: Lexmark does look very nice, but their 11x17 printer is the $3500 C925... which is a bit more printer than I need.

I went down the same rabbit hole after my epson WF-7620 ran out of ink in 9 months and only printed 100 pages at most.

Gotta have 11x17 printing and scanning for control panel drawing packages

With ink drying in heads and lasers emitting unhealthy dust, and manufacturers trying to lock them down, I'm considering a dot matrix printer as my next printer. Back to the roots. Looks like Epson is still making them, even including an ethernet port.

Dot matrix printers also produce a lot of dust. Like, an incredible amount of dust.

It's not a large format printer but I've got a Xerox B205 and it works well without any shenanigans. Original toner price looks decent to me so I haven't tried 3rd party toners for it, but the option is there and it works well.

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