Do I need a color printer for college?

[vagarach]

I've done 3 years of uni so far, and never had a printer of my own, I always printed stuff on the university printers when it had to be handed in. Just for assignments, I would say you don't really need a printer.

However, if you're the kind of person who likes to read notes in hard copy form, then you will need a printer. My roommates last year both had laserjets, and printed so much stuff and so often that at the studying hours (you know, around 10-12pm) of the night you could always hear those typical printer motor noises

. More and more schools are going fully online with those online classroom deals like WebCT and ACE, and although I just read everything on my computer, most people like paper in their hands.

Oh, and I forgot. Laser printers produce absolutely crisp, sharp looking letters, and since they transfer the toner onto the page rather than spray ink into the paper fibre, for me at least, I find the output looks much more professional than inkjet.

 

[majid]

Get a B&W laser. They are very cheap, compact and have a very low cost per page.

Color lasers are very bulky because of the multiple toner cartridges required, not as cheap to operate and not capable of photo-quality results unlike inkjets.

Then again, if you want to print photos, the digital minilab at your local Costco will give you better results for less money than an inkjet with cartridges twice as expensive per milliliter than Chanel No. 5 or Dom Perignon.

 

[hugz]

for where i am we print a LOT of black and white (and no colour). You'll definately either want to get yourself a good black and white (ie laser), or prepare yourself to heavily use your college's print fascilitties. i actually print at uni approximately 100% of the time because i find it easy enough

 

[rb67]

I've survived on my college facilities. However, if I were to buy a printer, I'd get a B&W laser printer.

The main reason: the print out looks more professional and crisp. Not only will your homework look great, but the resumes you'll be printing pretty soon will NEED to look great. In my experience, laser printed documents are just so much crisper than ink jet, and this is with many photo quality ink jets.

 

[jeremynwolf]

Two more reasons for a laser:
1) They're fast - this matters a good deal when you're using it to print out articles or other assigned reading/research. It can be painful waiting for a 40 page article to print out on a slow printer.
2)While it may be that a new toner cartridge averages $75, there's no reason to replace the cartridge every time you run out of toner, and many smaller printers have cheaper cartridges. The ML-2010 I linked to above has easily refillable cartridges, so you really only need to replace the cartridge when the drum wears out, which usually takes 4 or 5 refills, and the cartridge only costs $40. The refills themselves are about $10 apiece. So, if we average that $40 across 5 fills, and add the $40 in toner the last 4 fills will cost, we get a real cost of 80/5, or $16 per fill. You get about 3000 pages out of a fill, for a per page cost of just over $.005, or half a penny. Tough to beat.

 

[RYCeT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeremynwolf /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-ML-201.../dp/B0009ZHF2W and it's worked well for me.

I also have one of those and I used the toner save function to print. It took forever before the toner needs to be replaced.

 

[Aevum]

a 2nd hand or refurbished laserjet is always a good choice, were talking 500 to 800 pages between toners, and you can always use a recycled toner (companies recalibrate the laser and reload the ink powder cart), and you get a discount for bringing in your old tuner,