[Macworld]

Post your comments for Macworld Buying Guides: Inkjet printers here

[ibeetle]

According to MacWorlds on "Get the Best Price" One can get a Re-spiffy'ed R1900 for $379.
Holy Zarquon's singing fish. If Santa comes through on the Nikon D60 this Christmas I might just find good use for $379 of it.

[stevelee]

I'm quite pleased with the R1900.
Perhaps some day I'll get a printer that does even bigger prints and does top-quality black-and-white. But the R1900 will hold me until I can afford such a printer (if ever).
A particularly good feature of the R1900 is that both black cartridges are installed at the same time, and it chooses between them according to your paper setting and options in the print dialog. No changing, cleaning cycles, and wasted ink just to go from glossy to matte paper.

[clintbradford]

I am enjoying my Lexmark X4580. Wireless Wi-Fi access to it from all around the house. Reasonable ink cartridge pricing. Speed is fine. Quality of B/W text pages is excellent. Quality of color pages is very good. Less than US$100 - INCLUDING Wi-Fi capability.

[zetal]

what happened to Canon ???
.."Guide"..??!!
this is not a guide but a one paragraph poor description of two expensive Epsons and one cheap HP.
This is a joke of a "guide".

[folklore]

Seems to me that one real benefit to an inkjet printer is a wider choice of printing media - something that's not mentioned in the article.
For example, my wife routinely prints on cotton and silk sheets that are designed for use in inkjet printers, and has used several techniques over the years to print on her own fabric.

[zetal]

interesting...I didn't know you can print on silk using inkjet..
I had Canon i860 with 3+1 cartridges, half a year ago got iP2600, just came out, was and still is ~$60. Prints ok, photos are very good, considering it has only one color and one black cartridge. The i860 was more economical because of separate cartridges.
This "buying" "guide" is a joke...3 printers..

[folklore]

zetal said:

interesting...I didn't know you can print on silk using inkjet..

Yep. Jacquard makes a couple of different types of ready-made fabric sheets. Load it just like any other paper, print, remove the paper backing, iron, and it's permanent. Very useful for textile artists. My wife has also made her own printable fabric. HP has an article describing how and there are other sources using similar methods.

Epson's DURAbrite inks seem to work best for printing on fabric for my wife, but your mileage may vary. She's heard that Epson's pigment inks - like the ones used in the R1900 - also do well. My wife uses an Epson C88, a relatively cheap 4-ink printer.

I'm sort of surprised that the article didn't mention uses other than printing traditional photos. We don't bother to print photos with the Epson C88. It's just cheaper to use any online service and we get better results. The only thing the inkjet gets used for is art projects.

[zetal]

I have read so many reviews over the years, and rarely have seen other methods of print, other than photos.
At least 90% is photos. I guess there are a lot of resources for silk printing and other media. I'm btw, also in art, photography and gemstone jewelry(it's my wife). So I do shoot a lot, but with today's printing online places, like you said, the better results are from these places. My photography is online only, different sites. The jewelry is also online and art shows, all in the North East, and in Florida Jan-March. Application are mostly online thru zapplication, so almost no printing and very little slides.

[Alan]

I used to work with two guys who had young children. Their children liked to print and since that can run into plenty of dough for ink, they discovered Canon printers.
The cartridges are dirt cheap and can be refilled with bottled ink very easily and cleanly for next to nothing. The printers they bought were Walmart cheapies, but I bought the PIXMA MP600.
I have owned probably 4 printers before, being lulled into the HP, Epson and Lexmark printers by their cheap price. Like everybody, I discovered the replacement cartridges were as much or more than the printers cost.
I have refilled the Canon cartridges many times and generally use a pair of latex gloves and have found them extremely easy to refill thanks to their clear inkwells.
To get the gloves on pour some water into them and then they slide on. Then turn your hand upside down to let the excess water drain out. Wipe with a towel and then refill. To take them off run some water into them again so they swell up and then they slide off easily.
If I am printing stuff that is for my personal use, I use paper that was printed on the other side. So I don't have to be Ebenezer S. with the printer like I was with the other brands of printers. I have printed a number of photos on Epson Glossy Photo paper and they came out superb.
The Pixma cost more, I think 200 to 300 USD (I forget exactly) and there was a rebate. (What a pain that was) However I got a wonderful scanner and photocopier to boot. I have it hooked up Bluetooth and My girlfriend and I Love it. It just keeps on tickin. Three colours and two black cartridges. One black has something to do with photos I believe.
I had a warranty issue that may have been related to a power surge, but Canon was excellent. No probs since. Probably new in Feb 2007. It's plugged through a line conditioner now.

[bobmayo]

Is there more to this in the magazine subscription/newsstand version? I agree this is sorely lacking; it's not even a shadow of the thorough testing, comparison, and reviews of Macworld and MacUser past.

I think everyone would expect a Macworld Buying Guide to live up to those standards. This is sad.

[bigpics]

zetal said:

what happened to Canon ???
.."Guide"..??!!
this is not a guide but a one paragraph poor description of two expensive Epsons and one cheap HP.
This is a joke of a "guide".

I'll join this chorus of what the hell's? and Where's Canon? Since the web is of infinite size, I guess the reason for this substitute for a "buyer's guide" can't be that it's a space filler. But I will add this:

Epson was first to the photo quality party both for photo pros and then enthusiasts. They made very nice -- if fragile and non-archival prints, offered wide carriages and would even print panaromic up to, I think, 44" wide. I owned serveral.

I also replaced several relatively soon and spent a freaking fortune on ink.

Now this was 6-8 years ago, so things may have changed -- reference Apple's standing in the computer world at the time -- but once I decided my niche was more enthusiast than big time, I switched to Canon and immediately began saving money on ink, repairs and replacements with excellent quality. My Pixma 5200R is still a workhorse, handlling draft printing of web receipts, critical text printing, matte and gloosy photos, in color and B/W, etc. with equal aplomb and freeing my notebook from yet another USB tether with its wireless capability.

And even this old news raises more points than the article!

Next time you dip this shallowly in the pool, I suggest you call it a "quick printer take for clueness noobs" rather than a "guilde."

[zetal]

sure it's sad..
how can they publish this type of crap ???
And call it "a buying guide"...!
Shame!
Whoever approved this garbage to be published, shouldn't work for MacWorld.
It's disgusting. I clicked the link from the dashboard widget, thinking it's gonna be an interesting read, expecting to see some real reviews..10 printers at least...
Well, I guess MacWorld is not a place to expect reviews for printers.
If they don't like to review printers, why not RE-PRINT a REAL reviews from other magazines ???
MacWorld UK is without doubt an incomparably better magazine, although it's double the price, but more enjoyable to read, as all UK magazines.

[Philip Michaels]

zetal said:

sure it's sad..
how can they publish this type of crap ???
And call it "a buying guide"...!
Shame!

Our intention with this series of guides was to give people a quick overview of what to consider when buying certain types of printers along with summaries to reviews of our top-rated printers from the past year or so. We were hopeful that this would give people pressed a way to make an informed buying decision along with ways to drill down deeper into more printer coverage if they so desired.

I'm sorry that you found this approach wanting and that it didn't live up to your expectations...

Quote

Whoever approved this garbage to be published, shouldn't work for MacWorld.

... and I'm even sorrier that I live in a world where people feel they can be rude, abusive, and insulting without any consequence. If you're dissatisfied with an article we've done, by all means let us know -- it only helps us improve in the future. But there's no reason to be an impolite jerk about it.

Unless that's the only way you're capable of acting, I guess.