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Author Topic: B&W Printing Suggestions
Nate Lehrke
Master Film Handler

Posts: 396
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Oct 2002


 - posted 04-23-2007 02:16 PM      Profile for Nate Lehrke   Email Nate Lehrke   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Anyone have a suggestion for a printer. This would be a work printer; we print about 700-1000 pages a day and want to keep the toner costs kinda low. We print large PDF's and the spooling is driving us nuts! Currently we are using a HP Laserjet P2015dn and we seem to go thru 2-3 toners a week and a 100 page PDF seems to take 7 minutes. I think my company prefers HP but I was hoping to get any suggestions.

Thanks!

Whoops, Youre right thats not really high output. Subject changed.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002


 - posted 04-23-2007 02:30 PM      Profile for Stephen Furley   Email Stephen Furley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
700-1000 pages a day is still quite low volume; you should be looking at something more than the small home type laser printers, but you certainly don't need a high volume one.

I would say HP laser printers are pretty good; we have a number of them, some now about seven years old, and still going strong. Most of our several hundred laser printers are Brother, as is my home one, but this is for reasons of cost; the HP ones are better.

The larger, faster, high volume printers tend to be cheaper per print to run, so it might be worth going for something slightly bigger than your current usage would require, it also gives you room to expand if your print volume increases in the future.

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Rick Raskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1100
From: Manassas Virginia
Registered: Jan 2003


 - posted 04-23-2007 03:07 PM      Profile for Rick Raskin   Email Rick Raskin   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have an HP LaserJet 4. Its a real workhorse, can be obtained fairly cheap online and you can also get refill cartridges inexpensively. A printer shop I deal with said to avoid the LaserJet 5.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002


 - posted 04-23-2007 03:57 PM      Profile for Stephen Furley   Email Stephen Furley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Some of the later printers use 'smart' cartridges with chips in them; it's an attempt by the makers to stop use of any but 'genuine cartridges in them.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 04-23-2007 04:23 PM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I agree with the Laserjet 4... its a real tough printer. The only drawback is that laserjets are quite slow... especially older ones. I'm not sure that a 4 can print 1000 pages in one day.... [Confused] .

Mark

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999


 - posted 04-23-2007 04:59 PM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We've been using a Laserjet 4M since about 1993 (When they were new) and it keeps going strong....it prints about 4ppm though. So in a day you could get up to 5,760 pages and it would HOT!. I think it is in the 20,000 pages/month or less category of printers.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 04-23-2007 06:19 PM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Rick Raskin
A printer shop I deal with said to avoid the LaserJet 5
I have had a LaserJet 5 for a long time and it's great. Never a problem.

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Cody Martin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 214
From: Edinburgh, IN, USA
Registered: Jun 2004


 - posted 04-23-2007 06:25 PM      Profile for Cody Martin   Author's Homepage   Email Cody Martin   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
May want to look into a leased printer with someone like Xerox. At the nonprofit we have a phaser 1700 color laser print. Decent speed, but for us the best part is that the supplies are replaced under contract. We pay ~80 per month.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001


 - posted 04-23-2007 09:02 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Perhaps if you're only going to do black and white printing and stick with that very strictly then using a consumer grade laser printer might be reasonably cost effective.

Still, you should check out the cost differences per page with leasing a more industrial networked copier/laser printer.

We have a Konica/Minolta color copier with built-in EFI Fiery RIP in our office. The machine is pretty expensive, but it's actually cheaper to use than paying hundreds of dollars all the time replacing toner cartridges in a number of consumer grade printers around the shop. The machine also works a lot better than any consumer grade printer as well. Much faster printing, sorting, folding, stapling, etc.

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Marc Hansen
Film Handler

Posts: 93
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: Dec 2000


 - posted 04-23-2007 11:46 PM      Profile for Marc Hansen   Email Marc Hansen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I'm running 3 Laserjet 4's at my store, bulletproof! They speed up if you add more memory. Usually less than $100 with shipping from ebay.

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