[Barrykgerdes]

I use a HP C5280 as it is the cheapest printer that will print on CD's and I can use the scanner as a backup to my old Genius scanner. Cost works out at about 50 cents per disk for ink but photo printing can be about 10 times the price of the local print shops. I very seldom use it for normal document printing. I also found that rarely used inkjets tend to deliver only about 1/10 of their listed capacity. The reason for this is the head cleaning operation that occurs after the printer has been idle for some time uses an immense amount of ink.

I use a Minolta Magicolor laser for normal printing. The cost of supplies and depreciation on the laser printer works out at 12.5 cents per page. I print out manuals on the the laser and bind them with heavy duty staples. I am on my third set of cartridges after about 10000 sheets. A set of cartridges cost around $300 from the discounters (7 cents per sheet). The drum supposedly does 45000 copies but mine ran out at about 10000. I discovered the drum usage also includes warm up operations which with intermitent operation will greatly reduce its listed life. The default print setting is colour. If you are only printing in B/W make sure you set it to B/W. It prints quicker, saves colour toner and drum life and of course prints much quicker.

HOWEVER when my drum passed its use by number the printer would not work at all. Most annoying because I was in the middle of a print run with no spare drum. Preliminary inspection of the drum showed nothing obvious as a counting device but closer inspection revealed a small fuse under a couple of contacts. It was O/C. I exchanged it for a new one out of my fuse box and I now have a fully operational printer again with no degradation in quality.

My laser printer cost $1000 when I bought it. You can now get colour lasers for less than $200.

Here is a sample of the manuals I print (50 years out of copyright)

Barry