I’m re-enrolling in College, & I need a printer.
I need–
[ul]
[li]Low Cost For Ink/Toner[/li][li]Color[/li][li]Small in size[/li][li]less than $250.[/li][li]Reliable[/li][/ul]
Recommendations?
I’d go with a Brother or an Epson. You can get reliable ink refills from LD Products online.
My HP is serving me pretty well although the ink can be pricey as it doesn’t like any of the generics. But if I were to get a new printer, I’d look at the price of ink first. That’s where the printer manufacturers get you. I’d look at the ink, then look for a reliable printer model that fits the ink. Hopefully, “cheap ink” and “reliable printer” aren’t mutually exclusive.
ETA: Good luck in college! I’m considering that again myself.
Read product reviews before buying. HP is no longer the top dog for multi-function printers, but perhaps some of the more basic models will work.
Happy with my Epson multi-function. Scanning is the berries! With a scanner, you can really lighten your load, and begin to approach a “paperless office” environment.
I’m curious as to what you need a color printer for.
Actually, I’m curious as to what you’ll be printing in general. I can think of things you might legitimately need or want a printer for, but I can also think of things you don’t need one for. For example, when I was in college, I handed in hard copies of the papers I wrote, but nowadays I think many colleges want you to submit things electronically, partly so it can be run through the plagiarism detection software.
I’m taking a college course in ARC/GIS technology.
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/
There will be maps.
Complex ones.
Cool. 
Even though you’ll be making maps, your school may still want you to submit them electronically. (And actually, I’ll bet that some of the maps will need to printed on large sheets, perhaps using a plotter. But the school may have the hardware for that.) Have you checked with the department to see what sort of printer they recommend you use?
That’s a thought.
I can’t imagine the hassle of owning a home printer again, even as a student. Save your files on a thumb drive, or in the cloud somewhere, and print them at Kinkos. Or on campus, there’s probably a lab with printers available. Our local community college charges 15c a page.
I am not a geographer, but I can’t imagine any application of ARC GIS that wouldn’t be using a plotter. 8.5 x 11 is for documents not maps.
My personal experience with school has been that it is best to wait and see what resources you really do need before spending precious finances on expensive hardware and books.
I’m sick and tired of inkjet printers. I’ve been through 4 of them in around 10 years, and I think I’ve printed a total of about 40 pages between all 4 of them. Inkjets waste incredible amounts of ink and if you don’t use it all the time, the cartridges dry out.
I’ve always loved HP LaserJets so I bought this HP LaserJet Pro 200 M251nw Wireless Color Printer.
It’s not really photographic quality like inkjets, but it doesn’t barf out a ton of ink each time you fire it up, and the toner doesn’t dry out. The toner is much more color fast than inkjet. I really like it and recommend it highly. I usually just print in grayscale and only print in color when necessary.
If I need something photographic quality I just go to Costco.
Last time I bought a computer, I asked the guy who built it for advice on printers. He said, “It doesn’t matter. They are all cheap pieces of junk.”
yes but there are websites to find out the cost per page…
Roughly, the cost per page goes down as capital price goes up,eg a $5000 does 100,000 pages cheaper than a $1500 printer.
But newer printer models are better than old ones, so it can be wrong to buy one over another because of features, when its a full featured old model … particular at the low end, you want to be sure you are buying a new model with low cost per page. ( cartridge price (total)/ pages of ink cartridge life… )
Given you’re printing maps, perhaps a large-format printer is what you require? Good luck getting one of those in your price range.
I know Brother do A3 inkjet printers in your price range.
This.
Patience is wisdom, & the course starts in the Fall.
What do you mean, “This”? That’s usually what posters say when they agree to the advice given in a thread. But you were the one asking, so are you saying that you agree with the advice you were given? If you already knew that was the answer, why did you ask?
I’ve had various iterations of the Canon PIXMA printer for the last 10 years and been very happy with them.