[frank_t]

I want to get a hp 5550 but all i hear is about how much it eats up the ink....i only want to print BW but if it is only going to print a few pages then ask for more ink it can forget about me geting it!
I still don't know what brand or printer to go for....too many pro, cons in too many printers. and os x doesn't help that at all!
So all i can say is HELP what should i do?
Frank_t /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Nobody]

Frank, if you are only going to print bw then check out the epson c42ux, it is a very cheap printer and the inks are under $20 to replace. I've had nothing but bad quality from my HP printer. If you want to spend a little more for quality, get an epson c82.

[frank_t]

Well i'm not going to print only BW but most of it would be in bw text....the canon S520 looks good but i hear it's not to flash on text...... /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Frank_t

[Nobody]

I hear ya Frank, I'm going through the same thing!

[Scott2]

On the HP 5550 you can buy a separate ink cartridge for B&W printing. It is somewhat of a nuisance to manually switch cartridges back and forth, but if your color printing is only occasional I would not worry about this inconvenience.
On the downside, it seems that everyone is moving to cheap printers with sky high priced cartridges. Cannon seems to have the cheapest cartridges but Epson seems to attract the most discount third party suppliers.

[rockinphotog]

FYI, third party color cartridges suck on anything other than plain paper. even then, the colors are never accurate. The blacks are decent, though.

[jbouklas]

EPSON SUCKS!
-Jim

[rockinphotog]

In reply to:

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EPSON SUCKS!

---

Obviously someone with a grudge. That doesn't mean that they don't make good products, they probably just don't offer OSX support for something you bought three years ago, and now you'll hate them forever. I've heard it too many times.
But you know, they are the industry leader in photo inkjet printers for a good reason. They make the best ones (The 1280,2200, all the wide format models) you could never find an argument against that.

[Martian]

Get a laser printer. In the long run, they are the cheaper than inkjet printers.

[Azzgunther]

I feel that the quality of my HP deskjet 5550 is impressive. No artifacts or other such strangeness. I've not had it long, though, so ink durability isn't something I know about yet.

[WDL]

If it's mainly b&w text, you should definitely go laser.
Check out Samsung lasers - 600 dpi at unbelievably low
prices ($200 U.S. approx) - getting rave reviews. Make sure
they're the models that are Mac compatible.
My Apple LaserWriter Select 360 cost me $1200 eight years
ago! If mine ever dies, the next one will be the Samsung.
WDL

[Scott2]

I agree about laser printers, I still use my personal laserwriter NT when doing big jobs, it must be about 11 or 12 years old! The toner lasts forever, partially due to the absence of photo printing, but nevertheless beats the pants off of dinky jet ink cartridges.

[Philbert]

The timing of this couldn't be better. WDL - you must have bought your 360 at the same place as I did! Same price and same time frame! Have you replaced the cartridge recently? Mine is just now giving up the ghost. Actually, the wiper is shot and prints have a big ugly black stripe. New cartridges (not remanufactured) had new wipers but from what I hear, refilled ones may or may not have the wipers refurbed. Just wondering if you've found a good source.
I don't think a laser will work for Frank though, as he sometimes wants to print color.
Phil

[Nobody]

!I bought a HP 5550 to print out my wedding photos. (Shot digitally and supplied to me on a CD.) The thing prints out beautiful album quality photos and it's got all the bells and whistles.
Yes, it is an ink sucking son-of-a-mother-pussbucket but there are some upsides to that...
It has three carts... Black, C/M/Y and a Photo cart. You can change them individually. For everyday work leave the Black and C/M/Y cart in place. If you mostly print B/W you won't have that much problem replacing it all the time.
New carts cost about $25 apiece.
The main reason for this is because the whole print head is contained in the cartridge. When you replace it you are getting new heads/nozles along with a new ink supply. You always get the best quality that can be had with your printer that way.
With Epson and Canon, you only replace the ink supply. The heads are inside the printer. Now, I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing but if your print heads get gunked up you'll have to buy a whole new printer instead of a new cart.
(I have only had gunked up heads ONE time on an HP because it sat for a long time. I replaced the carts and it was fine again.)
Aside from that, everything about the 5550 has been good for me.
The thing has auto-alignment. Every time you replace the cartridges, the printer automatically does a test pattern page. Somehow, it actually senses the patterns on the page as it prints and can TELL whether the heads are out of alignment. If/when it does, it automatically adjusts! You don' t ever have to go into the printer utility application to do it manually. (Which one of these sets of marks are lined up? A... B... C... D... 1... 2... 3... -- You know the drill! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif )
Also, it auto-senses paper quality and adjusts ink density (or whatever) to match the paper. If you print on plain white paper and then switch to photo paper, you (almost) never have to go in and tell it you switched. There are these little blue lights that flash inside the printer and somehow reflect off the paper or something like that. It's really neat to watch this printer in action the first time.
I have liked almost everything about this printer. The only other thing I can think of is that the ink smells funky! Yes, the printer starts to literally stink after it's been printing for a couple of minutes. The whole area starts to smell like a combination of stale popcorn and used motor oil! After the ink dries on the page the smell goes away but the first time I smelled it, I was afraid something was wrong with the printer!
Hey HP! What the heck is IN that ink that makes it smell? /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif