[HM] Re: Printer advice

[Duane Murphy]

--- At Thu, 23 Jan 2003 23:13:19 -0500, Renita Williams wrote:

>Duane,
>
>I'll never buy another Epson.  The problems I experienced with the one 
>I had sends my blood pressure sky high just thinking about.  Don't do 
>it, don't do it.
>
>Anyway, having said that--I have never owned that model.  This is just 
>my opinion. I am sure other's will disagree.

As Nevin has pointed out there is consistent disagreement about printers
and manufacturers. I have been watching printers and listening to
people's opinions for a while. I think there is a pattern.

The printer industry goes through cycles. As old technology stagnates
printers become a commodity and printer manufacturers work hard at
developing printers that are cheap. That's when you get junk. Other times
there is new technology or some other driving factor that makes printers
worthwhile and manufacturers build better printers.

A few years ago, as Nevin said 2000-2001, I think that printers were in a
slump. I know I would not have bought any printers I saw at that time.
They were cheaply built and feature free. Print quality was not that good
and breakdowns were common. 

Today, printers are very popular. I believe this is do to inexpensive
digital cameras. This gives everyone the ability to print photos at home.
So printers today look to have a higher quality and produce better
pictures than just a few years ago. 

I wont argue that people have had printers that are no good; so have I
(including Epson). But I think every company goes through changes. All of
the popular printer manufacturers have been inconsistent. At this point
in the printer time line, I happen to like Epson. On the other hand, my
sister-in-law just bought an HP all-in-one. But her needs and
requirements were different than mine.

In any case, with the Internet, its pretty easy to look at the printers
that are available. Do some research decide what features you like and
what features you require. Look at a few models from each manufacturer,
then look around for reviews. MacWorld and MacAddict often do printer
comparisons. I usually start there.

The list of common manufacturers include Epson, HP, Cannon and now
apparently LexMark. There is also Xerox and Brother, but those are mostly
laser printers.

Can others add some manufactures?

 ...Duane