A4 Laser printer recommendation
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A4 Laser printer recommendation
Can anyone recommend an A4 laser printer for use by a club for small to medium sized events? Or any other advice as to how to choose. My club's printer is very old and need replacing.
- srocmapper
- string
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Re: A4 Laser printer recommendation
I can't offer any recommendations, but there's been quite a lot of discussion of printers on Attackpoint over the last couple of years, so it may be worth a search there.
British Orienteering Director | Opinions expressed on here are entirely my own, and do not represent the views of British Orienteering.
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Scott - god
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Re: A4 Laser printer recommendation
Thanks, I'd never heard of attackpont before.
- srocmapper
- string
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Re: A4 Laser printer recommendation
From reading the discussion on attackpoint apparently American's don't usually use waterproof paper but still put maps in bags.
- srocmapper
- string
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Re: A4 Laser printer recommendation
We have found Kyocera printers to be good and reliable and currently have the 7240 model
- NeilC
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Re: A4 Laser printer recommendation
We replaced our club printer with a laser a year or more back. These are the considerations we had before acting on the decision:-
Generally laser is better quality than inkjet;
Waterproof paper is a lot cheaper for laser and easier to find than inkjet;
The paper/ink combinations are not cross-compatible; laser paper and ink is of a different composition from inkjet paper and ink. If you keep an inkjet going as a backup to the laser you will need two piles of stuff;
Colour printing is essential;
Inkjet printers are cheaper than laser but the ink is a lot more expensive than laser toner, so once the purchase price of the printer is disregarded the unit price per map is a lot lower with laser;
A3 is desirable for larger scale maps of decent sized areas, but it just about doubles the price of the printer;
Generally, but not absolutely, purchase price reflects quality;
A single purpose colour printer would be cheaper than one of these multi purpose devices which also do scanning etc;
Xerox, Ricoh, Lexmark, HP "Laserjet" and Brother seem to be the leading brands but, as usual, they change their model numbers from year to year;
Buying locally, over the counter, from somewhere like Currys means that we could take it back easily for a guarantee claim;
For small scale club use speed of printing isn't a priority, so slower might be cheaper;
The colours in the mapping software, OCAD and OOMapper, are optimized for laser printing;
The size of the machine and the possible need to transport it about between members houses is worth thinking about. We had heard about a club who had bought a laser printer which, when delivered, proved to be too big for two people to shift and had to sit in a corridor at somebody's work. A weight limit of 15 kilo might be worth adhering to.
It looks like, just now, a decent quality A4 movable colour laser printer might be about £400. That would constrain us a bit to A4 paper without using a professional printer. That shouldn't be a problem for "activities" and "local" Level D events.
In the end we bought a used HP Color LaserJet Pro 255dw . It's been fine. Being second hand the installed toner tanks ran out quickly but it has worked out cheaper in the long run and produces better quality maps than our old machine.
Generally laser is better quality than inkjet;
Waterproof paper is a lot cheaper for laser and easier to find than inkjet;
The paper/ink combinations are not cross-compatible; laser paper and ink is of a different composition from inkjet paper and ink. If you keep an inkjet going as a backup to the laser you will need two piles of stuff;
Colour printing is essential;
Inkjet printers are cheaper than laser but the ink is a lot more expensive than laser toner, so once the purchase price of the printer is disregarded the unit price per map is a lot lower with laser;
A3 is desirable for larger scale maps of decent sized areas, but it just about doubles the price of the printer;
Generally, but not absolutely, purchase price reflects quality;
A single purpose colour printer would be cheaper than one of these multi purpose devices which also do scanning etc;
Xerox, Ricoh, Lexmark, HP "Laserjet" and Brother seem to be the leading brands but, as usual, they change their model numbers from year to year;
Buying locally, over the counter, from somewhere like Currys means that we could take it back easily for a guarantee claim;
For small scale club use speed of printing isn't a priority, so slower might be cheaper;
The colours in the mapping software, OCAD and OOMapper, are optimized for laser printing;
The size of the machine and the possible need to transport it about between members houses is worth thinking about. We had heard about a club who had bought a laser printer which, when delivered, proved to be too big for two people to shift and had to sit in a corridor at somebody's work. A weight limit of 15 kilo might be worth adhering to.
It looks like, just now, a decent quality A4 movable colour laser printer might be about £400. That would constrain us a bit to A4 paper without using a professional printer. That shouldn't be a problem for "activities" and "local" Level D events.
In the end we bought a used HP Color LaserJet Pro 255dw . It's been fine. Being second hand the installed toner tanks ran out quickly but it has worked out cheaper in the long run and produces better quality maps than our old machine.
- Davy
- white
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Re: A4 Laser printer recommendation
Some clubs lease, rather than buy laser printers.
You pay per page, which can work out good value when you consider the amount of yellow toner you can get through.
You pay per page, which can work out good value when you consider the amount of yellow toner you can get through.
- pete.owens
- diehard
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Re: A4 Laser printer recommendation
Thanks for your replies everyone!
- srocmapper
- string
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