Recommendations for budget four colour inkjet printer

Anyone recommend a good budget inkjet printer that has four ink cartridges.
My old HP 693C has just about given up the ghost - I've knelt on the floor
feeding pages one at time once too often as well as fighting with the head
which seems to love slamming itself on the left hand side.

I don't do much printing and it's mainly black and white but I would like to
print out the occasional glossy photo. I like the idea of a four colour
cartridge as they will make better use of colour. That said, as I don't tend
to print colour that often, I'd be worried about the colour cartridges
drying out :-)

Thanks, Rob.

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 14:40:13 GMT, "Rob Nicholson"
wrote:

Anyone recommend a good budget inkjet printer that has four ink cartridges.
My old HP 693C has just about given up the ghost - I've knelt on the floor
feeding pages one at time once too often as well as fighting with the head
which seems to love slamming itself on the left hand side.

I don't do much printing and it's mainly black and white but I would like to
print out the occasional glossy photo. I like the idea of a four colour
cartridge as they will make better use of colour. That said, as I don't tend
to print colour that often, I'd be worried about the colour cartridges
drying out :-)

Thanks, Rob.

Since you do not print much color, you might want to stick with the HP
printers that have the cartridge-on-head color tanks. While they have
three colors in one, it might be better to deal with that, instead of
possibly clogging up the head of an Epson or Canon printer by not
using it often enough. Make sure you spend enough on the printer to
get one that takes the large 56/57 or 96/97 cartridges, I believe the
first HP standalone that does so is a $100 Deskjet model. Just read
the little brochures at the store. With these, you can even get a
third tank (Black, and Photo Cyan and Photo Magenta), so you can do
even higher quality photo printing if you decide to start printing
more someday. If you go for one of the $40-80 models, you'll lose the
savings in a few months due to ink costs unless you refill (and you
have to refill constantly due to the tiny tanks).

If you'd rather have the separate tanks, you are better off looking at
a Canon iP4200 (or a 4000 if you're interested in refilling, the 4200
/is/ refillable but has chips which can be annoying). The best part
about these printers is you have a large pigmented black tank for all
your text and draft graphics printing, and a dye black tank for your
photos.

Epson's 4-color printers are all Durabrite pigment ink, which will be
a guaranteed clog if you don't do enough printing with them. You could
use refillable cartridges and dyebased ink instead, Epson chips are
resettable, or you can get auto-reset chips.

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Computer services, custom metal etching,
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printers that have the cartridge-on-head color tanks. While they have
three colors in one, it might be better to deal with that, instead of

That is a possibility - I've managed this long with a three-colour
cartridge.

If you'd rather have the separate tanks, you are better off looking at
a Canon iP4200 (or a 4000 if you're interested in refilling, the 4200
/is/ refillable but has chips which can be annoying). The best part
about these printers is you have a large pigmented black tank for all
your text and draft graphics printing, and a dye black tank for your
photos.

The Canon printer does look good. I've never had much success with refilling
the HP 693C :-(

Epson's 4-color printers are all Durabrite pigment ink, which will be
a guaranteed clog if you don't do enough printing with them. You could
use refillable cartridges and dyebased ink instead, Epson chips are
resettable, or you can get auto-reset chips.

Thanks for this - this is just the kind of useful information I was after.

Cheers, Rob.

"Rob Nicholson" wrote in message
...
Anyone recommend a good budget inkjet printer that has four ink
cartridges.
[snip]
I don't do much printing and it's mainly black and white but I would
like to print out the occasional glossy photo. I like the idea of a
four colour cartridge as they will make better use of colour. That
said, as I don't tend to print colour that often, I'd be worried about
the colour cartridges drying out :-)

Most printers with separate ink and printheads run automatic cleaning
cycles to keep the heads clean. They will do this for both black and
color, even if the only black is printed. If you only print color once
a week you may find that most (as in 50%) of the color ink is
devoured in servicing. HP's recent Photosmart 8250 is different, it
recirculates the servicing ink rather than dumping it in a sponge in the
bottom of the printer. All the printers with separate ink cartridges
for each color will require that you have ink available in all
cartridges, even if you are only going to print in black.

For your use, and assuming you buy a new printer every ten years or so
and want an economical printer that will last, I would recommend a
DeskJet 6940, see
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...B1H&catLevel=2.
Compared to your DJ 693 the print speed will be much much faster, and
the print quality much better.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

Bob Headrick wrote:

"Rob Nicholson" wrote in message
...
Anyone recommend a good budget inkjet printer that has four ink
cartridges.
[snip]
I don't do much printing and it's mainly black and white but I would
like to print out the occasional glossy photo. I like the idea of a
four colour cartridge as they will make better use of colour. That
said, as I don't tend to print colour that often, I'd be worried
about the colour cartridges drying out :-)

Most printers with separate ink and printheads run automatic cleaning
cycles to keep the heads clean. They will do this for both black and
color, even if the only black is printed. If you only print color
once a week you may find that most (as in 50%) of the color ink is
devoured in servicing. HP's recent Photosmart 8250 is different, it
recirculates the servicing ink rather than dumping it in a sponge in
the bottom of the printer. All the printers with separate ink
cartridges for each color will require that you have ink available in
all cartridges, even if you are only going to print in black.

For your use, and assuming you buy a new printer every ten years or so
and want an economical printer that will last, I would recommend a
DeskJet 6940, see
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...B1H&catLevel=2.
Compared to your DJ 693 the print speed will be much much faster, and
the print quality much better.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

Wouldn't awalk to the next photostation be cheaper when he only rarely
prints glossy photos?

- ft

"FTR" wrote in message
...

Wouldn't awalk to the next photostation be cheaper when he only
rarely prints glossy photos?

Not necessarily. With the Photo Value packs (see http://www.hp.com,
search for "Photo Value Pack 95") you can get paper and ink for the
DeskJet 6940 for $0.24/print.

- Bob Headrick

DeskJet 6940, see

Thanks for the recommendation. The price looks good (here in the UK) and I
see it's got a network interface which is a nice extra.

Cheers, Rob.

Rob Nicholson wrote:
DeskJet 6940, see


Thanks for the recommendation. The price looks good (here in the UK) and I
see it's got a network interface which is a nice extra.

Cheers, Rob.



If you want to compare prices: the specialised German printer website &
forum druckerchannel.de is an excellent site which compares, among other
test results, prices per page in colour & b&w: they don't publish seller
info but the results of their proper tests
http://www.druckerchannel.de/ranking...e=tinte_office
The content is self-explaining, even in German. If you want to sort the
results table by the price of a text page in b&w you have to click on
Sortieren in the "Kosten Text" column.

The HP 5440 is the most expensive (10,2 ct € per page), the HP Officejet
Pro K550 TDN the least expensive (1,6ct € per page)

HP6940 sold for 130€ costs 3,4 ct per page, the Canon Pixma iP5200 for
the same price of the printer 2,9 ct. The HP is slightly faster but fare
more expensive when it gets to printer in colour, and produces less
resolution, with 4 instead of 5 inks.

Hope this helps
- ft

I don't know if it is due to price wars or other factors in developing
marketplace in our area, but 4 x 6" real silver halide color prints from
digital files are available at $.12 CAN each quite regularly here.

It is rare I print that size image these days.
Art



Bob Headrick wrote:


"FTR" wrote in message
...

Wouldn't awalk to the next photostation be cheaper when he only
rarely prints glossy photos?


Not necessarily. With the Photo Value packs (see http://www.hp.com,
search for "Photo Value Pack 95") you can get paper and ink for the
DeskJet 6940 for $0.24/print.

- Bob Headrick

"FTR" wrote in message
...

HP6940 sold for 130€ costs 3,4 ct per page, the Canon Pixma iP5200 for
the same price of the printer 2,9 ct. The HP is slightly faster but
fare more expensive when it gets to printer in colour, and produces
less resolution, with 4 instead of 5 inks.

A few corrections he

- The cost per page data can be misleading. The page yield tests are
typically done with the printer printing continuously until the supplies
run out. This method of testing minimizes the amount of ink used for
servicing. the DeskJet printer uses much less ink in servicing,
especially in low duty cycle printing. It is something like "City" vs.
"Highway" mileage ratings for cars. The original poster was a low duty
cycle user, where printer servicing overhead will be a significant
factor in ink costs.

- Resolution has nothing to do with the number of inks. More inks may
provide wider gamut and/or smoother tones. That aside, printer
resolution these days is really a marketing number, with inflated
numbers that have very little to do with print quality.

- The HP can print with 6 inks with the optional photo cartridge.

Bob Headrick, MS MP Printing/Imaging