[Wrao]

I dislike using windows. It usually makes me frustrated, especially if I'm using a cheaper computer where it'll be slow and clunky all around. But, all in all, I can usually tolerate using windows, because, even if it is being a pain in the ass, it's still fairly manageable, and if all else fails you can just play freecell. Printers however...

I not only dislike using printers, I avoid them at all costs. They have got to be the worst piece of modern computing technology ever. I can't even begin to comprehend the magnitude of problems and inefficiencies that printers seem to revel in. I don't know what it is. I have tried countless printers from every company, every time we get a new printer around I'm always stoked because maybe this one will finally 'just work'. But it's almost never that easy.

Even the multi thousand dollar super printers at kinko's were giving me guff last night while I pulled my hair out trying to print about 50 pages of bullshit for a worthless summer class.

Sigh...

I'm sure some people will chime in with their "I've used my same printer for 15 years, it has never failed me, it's still on its first ink cartridge too, you just suck", and well, sure, I probably do suck... but not any more than printers!!

It almost seems like it's a racket by the printer companies. They make their money on ink, drivers are all woefully proprietary and limited, or bloated and confusing(with horrendous support pages and inefficient installations...if you can even get that far), the printers themselves are given away for free quite often and they are cheaply built and they break easily, and even if they don't break easily, they still seem to manage to make mistakes or otherwise fuck up. Networking printers is a chore and it's awful and I don't ever want to go through that frustration again.

All these things... it's a synergistic shit stew.

Gripe gripe gripe... anyway, that's the gripe. Share printer gripes, or tell me to shut up or whatever.

Side note: USB keychain drives have got to be the best computing technology ever made.

[atomicbartbeans]

The Epson piece of shit that came with my iBook has memory chips in the cartridges that track how much printing has been done be each cartridge (every time it prints something, the counter is deducted a few notches), and the printer will flat-out refuse to attempt a job if it thinks one or more cartridges is empty, regardless of how much ink is actually in the cartridge. As a result of this little timer chip on each cartridge, they cost several dollars more per mL than those for other printers. It's like DRM for fucking ink.

Hell, it won't even attempt a grayscale printing job unless all four cartridges are installed and working, even if it *only* uses the black cartridge for the job.

If I wanted to refill the cartridges, I'd have to spring for a somewhat pricey "chip resetter".

[Banana]

Somewhat I found this oddly approritate....

The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Epson as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes,

[Mugge]

Yeah printers... Grrr! Though I must admit that my old Canon N670U scanner takes the cake, as having the most awful driver ever!

Originally Posted by Wrao (...) Side note: USB keychain drives have got to be the best computing technology ever made.

Yep. Especially if you are into industrial espionage.

[Engine Joe]

I loathe printers, too.

I suspect they still suck more than just about any other common piece of modern computing technology that has been around and evolving for 20+ years simply because unlike other aspects of computing, there are a lot of mechanical moving parts - and there really is no way to get around that. The more moving parts, the higher the failure rate... and printers are for the most part chock full of 'em.

Still, Epson printers - in my experience over the last twenty years or so - are amongst the worst. I won't go near one these days.

[thegeriatric]

Have used Epson, Canon, and HP printers all have their problems. So i agree with you, and USB keychain drives are great. I just hope that one day somebody will create a printer that does the job and doesn't cost a fortune in ink to run.

[leachboy]

I haven't owned a working printer since my Stylewriter II died several years ago. I don't think any of the last three computers that I've owned have ever had a printer hooked directly to them. I keep toying with the idea of buying a decent laser printer, but I get by just using the one at work.

[almost2mac]

Originally Posted by Wrao Printers however... I not only dislike using printers, I avoid them at all costs. They have got to be the worst piece of modern computing technology ever. I can't even begin to comprehend the magnitude of problems and inefficiencies that printers seem to revel in. I don't know what it is. I have tried countless printers from every company, every time we get a new printer around I'm always stoked because maybe this one will finally 'just work'. But it's almost never that easy.

I love printers! I have a fetish for office supplies, so I guess that's peripheral.

Printers by their nature are mechanical beasts with lots of moving parts and therefore subject to chaos and catastrophe. I'm partial to HP as they seem to have streamlined all the unecessary sticking out parts off their printers, and done what they can to eliminate things...like the laser printer I just got does not have a seperate drum; it's changed out at the same time as the toner cartridge.

[rollercoaster375]

Originally Posted by Mugge Yeah printers... Grrr! Though I must admit that my old Canon N670U scanner takes the cake, as having the most awful driver ever!

Bah. You apparently have never used an HP driver. Gah. It's worse than installing Windows 95 software.

And then, it only prints when it wants to (Around 50% of the time). If you attempt to print more than 40 pages at a time, it'll crash the printer, which won't work for another 24 hours or so.

[Robo]

Hahaha...my dad's all-in-one printer/scanner/copier just died. He bought it at a pawn shop.

Word to the wise: Never by a printer at a pawn shop.

But anyway, we went to Office Depot to look at a new one. It's funny, because he knows nothing about printers, but he was trying to justify getting the most expensive one he could. He wanted this $400 HP and he couldn't give me any reason why a $200 one wouldn't do. He tried to make stuff up, like "the paper tray in that one won't hold enough paper" and "the cover looks flimsier" but it was just excuses. I know that printers have tons of moving parts, and I really doubt a $400 would work much better than a $200 one. Heck, they probably share many of the same parts. He wasn't going to use the memory card slots (I just recently got him to give up his FD Mavica - yes, a floppy disk camera) or anything, but he still wanted to get a nice printer, just to make himself feel good. It would be comical...if I didn't have an empty college fund.

[Wrao]

Originally Posted by almost2mac I love printers! I have a fetish for office supplies, so I guess that's peripheral. Printers by their nature are mechanical beasts with lots of moving parts and therefore subject to chaos and catastrophe. I'm partial to HP as they seem to have streamlined all the unecessary sticking out parts off their printers, and done what they can to eliminate things...like the laser printer I just got does not have a seperate drum; it's changed out at the same time as the toner cartridge.

Great, can I hire you as my printer jockey?

[digitalprimate]

Maybe they can invent "Lightscribe" paper, so that you won't have to spend a fortune on ink...

My aunt is an ink-engineer at HP by the way. Even so, I swear by Canon.

[almost2mac]

Originally Posted by Roboman Hahaha...my dad's all-in-one printer/scanner/copier just died. He bought it at a pawn shop. Word to the wise: Never by a printer at a pawn shop. But anyway, we went to Office Depot to look at a new one. It's funny, because he knows nothing about printers, but he was trying to justify getting the most expensive one he could. He wanted this $400 HP and he couldn't give me any reason why a $200 one wouldn't do. He tried to make stuff up, like "the paper tray in that one won't hold enough paper" and "the cover looks flimsier" but it was just excuses. I know that printers have tons of moving parts, and I really doubt a $400 would work much better than a $200 one.

I've been printing lots and lots of long text documents, and I was burning through inkjet cartridges like nobody's business. I just got a laser that is 19ppm and really fast...I think it's the laserjet 1022 and it's really fast. I can get 60 pages of text out in a few minutes. It starts at around $200 and I'd highly recommend it.

[digitalprimate]

The only thing I value when having to buy a printer is the cost of ink per page. I don't mind if the model is a bit slower or that I can't print in this or that resolution... nowadays almost all printers can deliver crisp and clear black on white. Colour is a whole other matter, but like I said - cost of ink per page is my most important criterium.

[almost2mac]

Originally Posted by digitalprimate The only thing I value when having to buy a printer is the cost of ink per page. I don't mind if the model is a bit slower or that I can't print in this or that resolution... nowadays almost all printers can deliver crisp and clear black on white. Colour is a whole other matter, but like I said - cost of ink per page is my most important criterium.

Then you want laser, unless you really need color. The cost when you *do* replace the toner will be more, but you get a lot more mileage out of it - that's why offices use them. And they're much faster than inkjet by default since you don't have a print head continuously zapping back and forth inside the enclosure.

[Robo]

Originally Posted by almost2mac I've been printing lots and lots of long text documents, and I was burning through inkjet cartridges like nobody's business. I just got a laser that is 19ppm and really fast...I think it's the laserjet 1022 and it's really fast. I can get 60 pages of text out in a few minutes. It starts at around $200 and I'd highly recommend it.

Yeah, we were looking at laser printers, too. Thanks for the recommendation.

[dazwan]

Originally Posted by digitalprimate Maybe they can invent "Lightscribe" paper, so that you won't have to spend a fortune on ink...

But then, the special paper would cost an arm and a leg instead! They sort of already invented it anyway in thermal printers, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum had a thermal printer that printed on special roles of paper that were about as wide as a till receipt and the quality was appalling (but then, it was the 80's!).

As for regular printers, I've always tried to avoid Inkjets/bubblejets as the quality was never quite there IMO and the ink was always way too expensive for me. Give me a good mono laser over a cheap and nasty colour inkjet anyday.

BTW. I'm one of those who've had the same colour laser for the last 3 years or so (AND it's an Epson! ), never had any real issues and am still on the first set of toners that came with the printer . Print quality is excellent IMO, the only issues I have with it is size (this thing is a 2-man lift), driver support isn't as good as it could be and since I bought it, it's dropped in price by over 50%

[sCreeD]

Okay, last Thursday. A user's printer, an HP DeskJet 940c, could no longer feed paper. So I had his department buy a new one, an HP DeskJet 6940.

So it arrives and I go over to install it. Should be straightforward USB plug in and install the drivers, right? Well, the installer file fired off this extravagant, graphics-rich install process that "checked system integrity," connected to HP to see if there were newer drivers and then proceeded to install every piece of photo software on the god damned CD all without asking me or letting me customize the install or letting me simply point to the drivers manually.

Top that all off with the fact that bloody thing choked twice midway through the install... It took me an hour of multiple reboots to get the damn thing set up.

But the real criminal is the user... well all users, really. Why do people need to print web pages to read them? I wish I had a ball-peen hammer to use every time I have to unjam a printer to see a web page spool out.

It. Makes. Me. Mad. MMMMAD!

[Mugge]

Originally Posted by rollercoaster375 Bah. You apparently have never used an HP driver. Gah. It's worse than installing Windows 95 software. And then, it only prints when it wants to (Around 50% of the time). If you attempt to print more than 40 pages at a time, it'll crash the printer, which won't work for another 24 hours or so.

Actually, my last printer was a HP DeskJet 940c. And it always worked flawlessly, whether it was hooked up to my PC, Mac or Airport Express. I'm seriously thinking about getting myself a new HP scanner/printer at the moment.

I've always had a soft spot for HP.

[drewprops]

Originally Posted by sCreeD But the real criminal is the user... well all users, really. Why do people need to print web pages to read them? I wish I had a ball-peen hammer to use every time I have to unjam a printer to see a web page spool out.

I truly, honestly feel your pain.
I have worked with plenty of chimps who amaze me with their ability to screw things up.
BUT

This is also the state of mind that Apple has tried to avoid for years.
The classic "the users are the problem" mentality.

Why shouldn't the user be able to print out whatever the heck they want?
Why shouldn't it be easy?

Just this weekend I re-discovered the arcane process that allows me to specify which tray I can print to using InDesign with our networked Xerox 2240 color copier. While I understand all the problems involved with getting the software to speak to the hardware, it's still not easy enough.

But it's a lot easier than it used to be.

I hope that there are some clever folks out there who continue to push that envelope.

WRT ink prices: they seem to be the lynchpin to that entire industry right now, but I'd be curious to see the stats on the number of consumers buying into the laser printer market. I daresay that it's leapt in the last two years. I got my Mom a little Brother laserjet and it has 10,000 prints left before she has to change it. My next personal printer may in fact be a color laserjet!