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More Oh-Woe-Is-Me.
I've also been packing things and printing out stuff - instruction sheets to go with spindles, and distaffs, and distaff kits. And I have realised that it's time to get a new printer... because the old one is acting up even more than usually.
Usually, it must be said, it's only doing small annoying things. Though it has recently refused to re-calibrate decently, and that is definitely a bad thing, especially for printouts sent to customers (which should look nice and clean)... Unfortunately there is no way to properly or manually re-calibrate the thing; there may have been, we dimly remember some possibility to calibrate a printer, but that was years and about 3 Windows issues ago. Yes, the printer is at least 15 years old.
The really sad thing is that it's still working nicely apart from the calibration issue, so if that could be fixed... but it looks like it can't.
So. Add "get informed about current printer options" to the list of things to deal with. Though that will definitely not happen until after the summer break and then some. There's never a good time for things like this to happen, but right at the moment, it's really not something I can squeeze in on top of the other things that need to happen and have an actual deadline... Ideally, the outcome of the "get informed" then will be a new printer that's decently eco-friendly, does not cost an arm and a leg, and will last a long while. And if any of you have a hint in that general direction, please let me know!
Comments 4
Broadly speaking, for printers the husband (IT technician) generally recommends laser printers over inkjet ones, especially for home use. Inkjet ones tend to clog up when used occasionally because the ink dries on the jets. Colour laser printers are expensive, but black and white ones are very reasonable. If you can, take a look at what sort of printers are most common in any offices that your friends/family work in, as these tend to be workhorse printers.
However, whatever printer you choose, make sure you look into the price of ink. Currently printer companies (at least in the UK) are running a huge racket on ink prices and are increasingly adding tech that means that off-brand (i.e. generic and/or recycled/refilled) cartridges are detected by the printer and make the printer stop working. UK Consumer watchdog Which just wrote a damning report on this.
Thank you! The old one is a laser printer; it gets used regularly, though, so it should be fairly safe from clogging up. Apparently the newer inkjet printers also can be without cartridge, so less plastic waste - which sounds very good to me, and they also have quite cheap ink. The main concern I have about them is: if I print postage labels with the ink, will they be water resistant enough for safe posting? Or can I run into issues here?