<p>Given that she prefers paper and that she has a lot to print, D1 has decided it might be time to invest in a printer for her room. Any recommendations? It's going to see a lot of use, so cheap ink is important.</p>
<p>Also, wireless or not? She's not allowed to have her own router.</p>
<p>I bought a Brother laser printer with a starter cartridge that will print 700 copies. I figure that will get him through year one. I paid $59 at Office Depot. It is not color nor is it an all-in-one. I did buy the cable because it is faster than the wireless.</p>
<p>Wireless printers in a college network are a no-go from our experience… For DD1 I got a Canon 499 (MX or MP) that is light duty printer but has copier and scanner, and those two get a lot more use.</p>
<p>College would be a good time to ‘break the printed page’ habit if notes are available in digital form, a tablet is much better for most students.</p>
<p>I recommend HP for mono laser printers. Especially old ones. Mine is a 2002 and a toner costs me about $80. We print thousands of pages a year.</p>
<p>Lots of threads on this topic.</p>
<p>Get a Brother HL-2270DW wireless laser printer. </p>
<p>If she doesn’t want to use the wireless she can connect it via a USB cable but she’ll have the wireless capability for the future if she moves to an apartment in the next few years. The laser will be more cost effective and less trouble than an ink jet. This particular printer is B&W but that’s usually adequate for most printing.</p>
<p>This printer should cost somewhere in the range of $99-$150.</p>
<p>(Of course there are other brands with similar printers)</p>
<p>I agree with the mono laser printer suggestion. Also consider getting one with a duplexer, so one can make double sided print outs “automatically.” I think I got a refurbished Brother printer for <$200 on Amazon a few years ago.</p>
<p>^^ The Brother I mentioned above can print double-sided. Good suggestion since this can save cost in using less paper.</p>
<p>We got D a Brother (I think it’s the one mentioned above). I use a Brother here at home, I just don’t need to print in color all that often, if at all.</p>
<p>We also got a brother wireless because we were tired of the HP needing cartridges every couple of weeks. Our printer can print out 11 x 17 and since I teach, that feature is really handy!</p>
<p>If she can use the school’s printers, it may cost only the paper.</p>
<p>Get Brother because of the cheap supply for both laser cartridges or ink jet refills. Brother do not use chips in their replacement supply that force you to play games to fool the printer if you want to use third party supply for refills. Amazon or meritline sells very cheap third party Brother supply. I just got my kids the Brother MFC-j430 all-in-one inkjet printer and a set of ink refills with 4 blacks and 2 set of color ink refills were about $8. Similar amount of refills for HP or Canon would be more than $100.</p>
<p>I have been using third party supply for years and there usually are not any problems. Since the cost of the printer is not really that much compared to the ink cost over time, I treat the printer as the replaceable part of the process. The overriding importance is the cost of the supply.</p>