Technology

It’s also worth checking your local library which might offer some basic printing services. Could work out cheaper

Also, nothing the Google llm said was in any way specific to brother. I'm wondering if that's by design and they made it brand-agnostic to appease advertisers.

I've never needed photos urgently, so I'm glad to just have a professional printing company print the photos for me using high quality photo paper and printing equipment. It's going to beat the quality of a regular consumer inkjet any day of the week.

I'll take it one step further: if you don't print much at all, you should use a print service.

Yes, I bought a Brother because of convenience. Just realize that you're going to spend a lot more money for that convenience.

They came up with a "solution" for the drying problem. You need to keep the printer on forever so it doesn't let it dry.

Yup, I've had a previous model (HL-2170W) since like 2006. The nic is dying now, but the printer works fine.

Brother printers are the only brand anyone should buy.

I'd agree with the exception of artists who sell their printed work (ex: photographers, graphic designers). They're not only making money from their prints but also printing in color frequently enough that the cartridge doesn't dry out.

We have three of them at my office. I am certain we exceed the duty cycle they were designed for by several times. The one at the front desk has been bitching about needing an imaging drum replacement for I think three years at this point, and it still prints just fine. I'll put a new drum in it when the existing one stops working.

Anyone have a recommendation for a small color laser printer? Like shoebox size.

My place is pretty small, and I don’t have much desk or shelf space. It doesn’t make sense for me to waste desk space on something that I use 1-3 times a year.

I’ve been using one of these tiny HPs. The ink is a fucking racket, and I’d love a laser alternative. This size is great. I can fold the trays and throw it in a drawer. It’s only 16 x 5.5 x 7in.

Edit: Found one. It the HP LaserJet Pro M15w

My Brother was giving a toner end of life message and refusing to print.

I took the toner end cap off via two screws and reset the gear toggle, and now it prints again.

Cool story.

What makes you say Brother printers are bad? I've had no complaints with them at all.

Or you can just go to your local library or office supply store and print in color. My library is $0.25 for color prints, $0.10 for B&W. B&W is almost always good enough (we mostly print coloring pages, word searches, and stuff like that), and the quality of the prints are way better than any inkjet I've seen.

I also have a B&W Brother printer, and I finally needed to replace the toner after almost 10 years. I bought it when doing a ton of government paperwork, and then random printouts for a weekly community volunteer project. I got something like 3k prints. My new toner cartridge should do 25-30k prints, so I'll probably never need to replace it. It's a multi-function device, and I used the scanner a ton during COVID at-home schooling, and I've never really had an issue with it (I've printed from Windows, macOS, and Linux, all w/o issues).

We also have a small, portable photo printer that my wife can use from her phone, which is really handy for family get-togethers. We can go from "I'd like a print" to "here you go" in like 2 min, and it's small enough to take in the car with us.

Epson Ecotank is definitely the least bad option of the non laser printers. Mine still clogs more than I like but it's the first inkjet I've been able to live with. And that's including the canon ink tank which clogged weekly.

Until HP figures out how to brick it remotely when your credit card expires.

Because the article itself says at some point, maybe multiple times: "whichever Brother printer you want"

For whatever reason, it's intentional (the text says "A blurry photo of a Brother laser printer.") Maybe just saying any Brother is fine as long as it's a Brother?