I definitely go through long enough printing dry spells that an ink jet is a nonstarter but laser cartridges last for a few years.
I got a cheap ($35) compact B&W Canon laserjet in 2012. Didn’t end up setting it up until January this year. The toner is still fine.
Toner generally doesn’t go bad, especially if unopened. Open ink goes bad way to quick for me. I love my Xerox color laser. Best printer I’ve owned. Very inexpensive to run. Phaser 6510.
The only time I’ve needed to print is for returning items. The other stuff you mention is all stuff I don’t print for.
Any forms I’ve been able to fax (which I do entirely electronically) or email. All the events I know of either give out paper tickets or allow you to use your smart phone–not that I’ve attended any during the pandemic. And that phone is also where I would put notes to myself. And, if I need to leave a note like you would for the Staples guy, I’ve always just hand written them.
Heck, if it weren’t for the company’s requirements, I could return my PSU without a printer. UPS will just scan my package label from my phone, apparently. It’s just that the company says I have to include a copy of the email.
Assuming it comes with toner, is unlikely to break down in 10 years or so, and compact doesn’t mean it can’t handle full sized paper—then that’s actually something I could see getting if you almost never print. That’s the price I’ve seen only for inkjets, and thus the sweetspot where I could see also using it for unnecessary printing.
I especially would consider such since it’s unclear when it will be safe to go out again.
With the printer I have, I can buy a new toner cartridge online for about ten bucks, but apparently the official Canon replacement cartridges cost about $75.
My Commodore 64 didn’t have a printer, but my first IBM computer did: a dot matrix that got really faint.
I ordered a knockoff from Amazon and it did not work. Somehow my printer can tell, and insisted the toner cartridge was empty.
I do fussy needlework and need to copy and print the charts over and over so I can have a fresh one after I pick out a bunch of wrong stitches.
I mark each stitch on the chart, so when I screw it up, I need a new chart. Don’t bother telling me about those new fangled pencils with erasers, I use INK like any confident person would do. Hence the need for a new chart when I have to start over.
I have a color laser printer, which I use maybe once a fortnight. I went hiking Sunday, and printed out the park map beforehand.
Brian
I voted “yes”, just like the vast majority. It’s an HP Laserjet which was cheap and is very reliable. I don’t quite understand the basis of the question, where the word “still” implies that printers are now somehow obsolete. They aren’t. I print out forms, legal documents, articles, labels, theater tickets, business letters, maps and directions, and any number of other things. A few of those things can be done on a smartphone, some can but not conveniently, but many cannot. Typewriters may have gone the way of the dinosaur but paper documents have not.
Incidentally, there was an old adage back in the early days of laser printers that either loading paper was easy but replacing the toner cartridge was a PITA, or vice versa, but there was no printer where both were easy. That has long ceased to be true. Both jobs are now trivially easy on good modern laser printers.
I also had a Canon inkjet color printer for a while which was OK, and could produce reasonable photos on any paper, and pretty good ones on expensive photo-grade glossy paper, but the cartridges needed replacing often and were expensive, and were subject to clogging and other issues.
I would be happy to hand-write it if Staples weren’t explicit about using their form.
I mean, maybe a handwritten note would work. I have a printer, so I haven’t had to test that.
Forms for my town need to be returned in hardcopy.
Speaking of which, I’m a little shocked that you are still faxing. I thought faxing was obsolete. I occasionally get a fax, because medical record rules are also out-of-date, and allow faxing in situations where the medical provider hasn’t established a secure drop-box (patient portal) approach. But that’s the ONLY reason I’ve gotten a fax in at least a decade. And the last time I sent a fax was a weird international thing, also years ago.
(I’ve tried grocery lists on my phone. I’ve done it both in dedicated apps and in a google doc. Paper is easier to use and works better. Mostly we use handwritten lists, but what with covid, I had a long list and wanted to sort it by store aisle, and it was handy to use the computer.)
You can’t just install any toner cartridge in a printer. Most name brand printers look for a chip on the replacement cartridge. If it isn’t there, as you found out, it won’t work.
Some off brand cartridges either have the chip, or instruct you how to remove the chip from the old cartridge so the printer doesn’t know the difference. $75 isn’t a lot of money for a replacement cartridge. My first laser printer was an Epson. The original cartridge lasted 7 years. Then I bought a squeeze bottle of quality replacement toner that I refilled the old cartridge. Cost me $15. Now you can just take the cartridge to Walmart or Staples and have them do it for you.
My 2nd dot matrix printer was made by Alps. Surely you knew you have to change the printer ribbon when the printing gets faint? You do the same with the old manual typewriters. The ribbon is what makes the color on the page.
Ink jet printers are a waste in my opinion, and very expensive to buy ink. Had a relative who bought a $40 ink jet printer, but was spending over $300 a year on ink cartridges. To print colors, I now have an HP Multi-Function color printer. It’s a printer, scanner, and fax machine all-in-one.
My last toner purchase cost $100, but it’s worth it. It lasts years. (The first set of toner came with the printer and was only 500 pages, one third of what I bought later.)
I was a kid, with no money, and no internet access to do research, so I couldn’t have bought the right ribbon even if I had any money. I guess I could have taken it to a store, but again, no money.
I have a Brother laser printer. For whatever reason, wireless printers and I don’t get along very well, so I always expect it’s going to stop working. My previous printer (which I still have) stopped connecting to my other computer and nothing I do seems to get it back, so I’ve mostly given up on it.
I use the current one almost exclusively for printing out hardcopies of my book manuscripts for editing purposes, and occasionally to print bills or whatever for the spouse.
Used to have an inkjet and was impressed with the nice stuff it could do on the fancy shiny paper, but I used it so rarely all the ink dried up. So, no more inkjets for me.
Sure. I bought a small B&W printer many years ago. I think it’s a Dell.
I walked into Micro Center and the first salesperson who talked to me I told them I didn’t want some big fancy home office printer with full color and the scanner and the fax and the copier and the stapler and the whatever else bells and whistles they like to cram into these things that’s just something else to break, I just wanted to be able to print about a dozen total pages per year. I bought the cheapest printer they sell and it’s worked perfectly for me.
I have an HP Laserjet 3600 that I bought refurbished on eBay back in 2007. I’ve replaced the black toner cartridge only once. I don’t use it often, but unlike an inkjet, it’s always ready to print.
I’ve got an HP OfficeJet 8600 that does print/scan/copy/fax (and yes it’s hooked up to a phone line for faxes). It’s pretty great.
I’ve used it a lot this year to print out shipping labels for my eBay/Poshmark sales. I also use it to print out stuff for city council meetings which are now via video, and it’s much easier to have print outs to write on than to flip back and forth between documents on the screen. Oh I also print out the occasional recipe. Tickets (when required). Stuff like that.
I use my printer quite a bit. Some examples: My son’s piano teacher sends me sheet music by email, which I have to print out so he can play it. I’m on the board of my HOA and occasionally there’s a document to print out and sign. My wife is a teacher and she prints lots of stuff for her classroom at home.
Tax season is the one time when my printer gets used a lot. Most thing that I used to print (recipes, park maps) I now just view in electronic form on my phone. But tax related records are the one thing I still want to have a hard copy of. Copies of my 1040 form after completing my return via tax software are the biggie, of course, but I also print out confirmation emails after I make a charitable so I have a record of that and can remember to deduct it.
Our “remember to deduct it” is electronic. But paper is a very stable medium for long-term storage, and in addition to our electronic tax records, we always make a paper backup.
This is what the OP made me think of. A lot of younger folks just have the coupon on their phone and they show it to the cashier to scan. No need to cut down trees for that. I think we had boarding passes on our phones but took paper copies because we don’t have that kind of faith. Of course that application isn’t accepted everywhere but going paperless is a goal for some. Do you need a photo printed or are you happy being able to call it up on your phone? Do you have to have that paperback book? Some are happy to stop using the paper.