<p>i'm looking for a printer to bring to school in the fall.
i'd like:
-cheap. i'm a student, duh.
-small. not necessarily portable, but not heavy and one that wont take up a lot of precious space on the drive to school or in my dorm room
-black and white. i have no need for a color printer. i'll be using my printer just for papers and assignments and i highly doubt i'll be taking anything requiring color.
-inkjet vs. laser- i dont really care. cost and size are much more important to me.</p>
<p>so, any suggestions for models of printers or good websites/stores? thanks!</p>
<p>Check to see what your school provides as far as printing. Everybody at my school gets 400 pages a semester (engineers get more, something like 1,000), and there's a computer lab one floor above me. Also, if you're taking a class that requires you have mathlab privileges (or in my case, if you work there), you get free unlimited printing. One of my classes has the book publicly available as a pdf file, so I was able to get the whole thing printed for no cost.</p>
<p>yea, i realize that my school (USC) will provide some sort of printing deal, but..
i'm an all night/last minute kind of girl and i think it would be extremely handy to have a printer in my room</p>
<p>Check with your school for educational discounts. Also, HPs are excellent printers. You should be able to get a good one for under $100. A lot of students like the all-in-ones, but those are color.</p>
<p>Also, you should know that you'll probably end up just using the school's printers usually anyway--often simply because it takes work to get extra paper and toner and, if you're anything like me, you just won't have the time in your schedule to take the time to get to store for any supplies you don't absolutely need! ;-)</p>
<p>Get a laser if you do get one. About $150. Worth every penny.
The only real issue for lasers is that they get paper jams. So you might walk away for a half hour, expect a 20 apge report to be done, and find it jammed on page 2.</p>
<p>I recommend an inexpensive laser. I've had a Samsung ML-1740 since freshman year and never had any problems. Never had a paper jam. I think I paid about $130 for it. It's fast and prints text better than any inkjet could.</p>
<p>Three years of college and I've only ever printed black text, never any need for images or color. And in the event that you do, you can always find someone with an inkjet or somewhere on campus with a pretty color laser.</p>
<p>I but a POS cannon from bestbuy for my birthday. The ****** is awesome; my school's printers do not print in nearly as good of quality, and it is fast like a laser. Cartridges are only $20/bw and $25/c </p>
<p>Forget small. I got the newest Lexmark all in one X series printer. its not small, but it does color prints, scans, copies, and faxes, and has a respectable dpi ratio for only $40.</p>
<p>I went to Walmart and got an HP Deskjet 3930 for $30. I have had absolutely NO problems with it. I love that it was inexpensive and fits on my very small desk right next to my laptop. I don't think there are printers made that don't print color anymore, it seems pretty standard. You may never absolutely HAVE to have something printed in color, but it's nice to have when you want to brighten up something. </p>
<p>BTW: If you don't have a laptop and are considering a Dell, don't get a Dell printer to go with it. They ONLY use Dell ink that has to be bought online. I can't speak for others but I'm not interested in paying the purchase price and shipping fees for ink refills (not to mention have to wait a day or two for it) when I don't have to.</p>
<p>I have an HP LaserJet 1022. I bought it in July 2005 for $199. I've printed close to 4500 pages and the original toner is just going now. (I write a lot of novels and make a lot of study guides so I eat up pages). It's black and white only, is fast, fairly compact, and the toners are only $70 each for 5000 pages. Compare that to four HP inkjet cartridges that print 500 pages--they add up to $100 or so and you only get 2000 pages.</p>
<p>The only concern with this printer would be if you use Mac OS 9. Sadly it doesn't work on OS 9, forcing me to print all my stuff from OS X (which I hate). It works on Windows XP, I think 2000, not sure about earlier versions or Vista (because nothing is guaranteed there).</p>
<p>I second the Samsung ml-1740
I got it about 2 years ago and am still on the starter toner. I've had one paper jam, but that was my fault - I left the back paper-out tray half-open, but it only took me about 10 mins to fix.
Also, I got it for $15 after rebates :D</p>
<p>I don't like the OS X interface at all. It puts style over function, at least to me, a user of the Mac since 1989. An operating system shouldn't need 512MB of RAM to run smoothly no matter how stable it is or how many widgets it has.</p>
<p>Yes, OS X manages memory nicely. But it also changed an interface that was friendly, clean, and pleasing to use. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They could have put OS X's memory management scheme into the Classic OS without a problem.</p>
<p>The fact that it runs on Unix also ticks me off. Until OS X came along, I told people how a Mac doesn't depend on any underpinnings (just like Windows ran on DOS). Unix is actually uglier than DOS if you go to the terminal. Plus going to Unix hurt all of us old time Mac programmers. Even the resource editor ceased to function.</p>
<p>Also, I depend a lot on HyperCard and MacDraw II, both of which are OS 9 native programs. Classic mode is quirky at best.</p>
<p>One of my big complaints about OS X is, in fact, the printer driver. The Chooser was, to me, much friendlier. And the old print options dialog boxes were much nicer to navigate through. Even the old Print Monitor was miles ahead of Print Center.</p>
<p>And where is the customization? Even Windows 95 can be customized more than OS X. Heck, you could do more in Windows 3.1! Maybe I don't want certain fonts for my menu bars and I don't want to be limited to the colors Apple wants my Apple menu to be.</p>
<p>I'll take OS X over Vista any day, but OS 9 (and earlier...I used OS 6 today on an older Mac) to me represents the ultimate operating system. Too bad the HP LaserJet 1022 doesn't work on it.</p>
<p>USC's fees are 10 cents per page (single or double sided is the same) for black and white, and $1/page for color (not at all locations). They're both top-quality laser printouts.</p>
<p>It sounds expensive, but it depends on how you're using it. If you're printing only sparingly (i.e., black and white final drafts of papers) it can be significantly cheaper than buying a printer, and you don't have to worry about stocking up on ink/toner/paper or fixing broken printers. And you save the dorm space.</p>
<p>Plus, some labs are open 24/7, including some right next to the dorms</p>
<p>But there are advantages of getting a printer. If you do get a printer, and don't need color, then black-and-white laser is the way to go. The printouts are much sharper and professional looking than inkjet printers. Plus, inkjet printers tend to be poorly built (which is why they're so cheap) and unreliable, and ink can be really expensive. Laser printers are a bit more expensive, but they're tons more reliable and toner can be cheaper than ink.</p>
<p>i have an hp laserjet 1020 and would highly recommend it. it's a bit costly at first but is worth is..the cartridge lasts forever compared to the deskjet.</p>