I echo the comments about laser printers.
I bought one 30 years ago and it worked perfectly until just recently.
Seventhing (or whatever) the laser printer.
I would suggest the HP Laserjet M110we (I have the previous model M15w, but it’s similar). It’s tiny, cheap, and wireless. Like many others, I sometimes go weeks or months without printing anything, and it never has a problem with dried-out ink or clogged nozzles. Warmup and printing are fast enough that it’s done by the time I walk to that side of my house.
Based solely on price, if you really are printing just a few times per year, it’s not really worth it. But if you value your time (i.e., don’t want to waste 15 minutes driving to Staples or whatever), it’s a good deal.
Eighth on just buying a Laser printer. I don’t print at home much at all, but when I need to, I need to. I bought a Brother wireless black and white Laserjet for <100.
Or the library or buddy option that has one is OK too. Computer security is a BIG problem with that option though (for the person printing).
And, yes, InkJets suck. Might work for a while if you print at least once a week.
Fourth or fifth here. I bought a Brother HL-5250DN laser printer about 13 years ago. I print A LOT of stuff, including comb-bound workbooks 150 pages in length, on a regular basis. So far, total cost of ownership (excluding paper, but including new off-brand toner cartridges and a new drum) has been about $17 per year. It still prints beautifully, including duplex mode. I wouldn’t drive to FedEx, UPS, Kinko’s, or an office supply place for $17 these days.
What # are we up to? I vote for the library. FedEx charges (ed?) for computer time (yanno, that 30 seconds it takes to stick your thumb drive in, open file manager, select your doc & <Right-click + print> on top of the actual cost of printing.
It’s also my understanding that using your ink jet regularly, say print a test page every week or two keeps the ink cartridges from drying out & will actually make the cartridge last longer than if you never use it.
For two sheets, I’d go with the library but I’m on team cheap laser printer for a long term solution. You can sometimes get them free from Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. I’ve had my HP laser printer for over roughly 12 years now and it has outlasted several inkjets. Mine does not support Wifi but walking to the printer is way more convenient than walking to Kinko’s.
Last time I went to FedEx there was no charge for time. Pretty much every printing place has print by e-mail now too, so no need to worry about a flash drive.
For this quantity, even the cheapest laser printer ends up costing dozens of dollars per page. ANY of the other ideas will be cheaper than that. (And this includes even the free ones that Tired_and_Cranky suggested, if you’re going to have to buy toner for it.)
It was a while ago, as in a few years. As I remember, one either needed to purchase a minimum amount of computer time or you were charged for a minimum number of minutes, which made it $4 or $5 to print one B&W page. They could very well have done away with it since then.
Since I have to go there in person to pick it up anyway, I find it easier & quicker to go to the library than setup some account, find your local store, enter payment details…& then remember those account details 4 months later when I next need to print something. I also bristle at the thought of charging literally pennies; that’s what a couple of coins are for. (Libo is 15¢ B&W, &, I think, double that for color)
Neither do I. Flash drives are now seen as a significant security risk by a lot of companies; the ad agency where I work banned their use several years ago.
How do you reach this conclusion? As I mentioned upthread, my HP laser printer is probably more than fifteen years old now, and I’ve replaced the toner cartridge exactly once (fairly recently). The print quality is perfect and it wouldn’t surprise me if the toner cartridge lasts another ten years. Even if it only lasts another five, that’s somewhere around $12.50 per year, amortizing the cost of the printer and one toner cartridge. That’s essentially free, so the cost per page calculation is basically irrelevant, taking into account convenience, cost of gas, etc. In any case, although my print volume is very low, on average it might amount to a few cents a page at most – certainly not “dozens of dollars”.
But no zeros
Japan gave us zeros.
Going to the library can cost a dozen dollars per page, if it’s six miles away and you print only a single page. The IRS estimates that operating a car costs about 58 cents per mile, at the moment. Plus, you wasted the time to go to the library.
A free printer might very well come with a toner cartridge. A cheap toner cartridge might be $30 or $40. It’s only “dozens of dollars per page” if the OP never prints more than two pages. Even if the OP has to buy a printer, there are refurb HP Laserjets on Amazon for under $100, plus toner cartridge. If the OP prints 5 pages per year for the next ten years, it will have been money well spent, and only a few dollars per page. Possibly cheaper than driving to the library and way more convenient…
I wish the OP would come back and let us know what they think of all this.
I have not been to a Kinkos in ages but surely they have a means for getting the file you want to print. I have no idea what that is but just ask them.
(I understand why they refused your thumb drive.)
With multifunction units being so affordable nowadays, having a home fax is actually pretty common. Not that we ever RECEIVE faxes there - we have inbound ones go to our work portal which emails the document to our email accounts.
We do have a laser printer (a multifunction print/scan/fax machine). We actually still have our ancient HP inkjet as well - it’s at least 20 years old, but we have not used it in at least 15. We just keep forgetting to get rid of it. I’m quite sure the cartridges have dried up and become completely useless. Laser is the way to go: higher up-front cost but much cheaper to operate.
Those were not gifts.
Laser - another vote here…
We went through about 3 inkjets Before I bought a Lexmark laser. One, the black nozzles clogged and it took me a while to diagnose the problem. Another, the print head did not dry up - pick up the printer, and your hand that touched the bottom was covered with ink.
Quite a few years ago we bought a Brother 2279 printer as a bargain - back then, it cost $99 on sale and did double sided (b&w) wired and wireless. It replaces that Lexmark laser that didn’t seem to work after a decade of service, and I was not about to spend $140 for a cartridge to see if the problem was the cartridge. The added benefit was that the cartridges for the Brother were $50. The Brother ethernet port appears to have died now, so I use it as a USB printer and share it from my main computer to all the other computers - the one shortcoming of the device.
We don’t print that much, I think I’ve bought one cartridge in about 8 years.
A few years after that, we saw a colour laser on a cheap cheap sale at Staples - HP MFP M180nw. I have yet to buy any cartridges for it, as we only use it when we need colour output. For less that $250 it’s an all-in-one, and we probably use the page scan function the most. (It’s so convenient when for example the bank says “email us a copy of this document signed” - print in b&w, sign, and scan on the MFP.)
I gather with the current supply chain problems, however, you are unlikely to find any such bargains. Anything with electronics is no longer likely to be on sale cheap. And by the way, all prices in Canadian dollars, so $100C = $80US.
I’m listening.
And I’m generally looking at local office supply places.
One is only a couple of miles away.