[jqpabc123]

Avoid ink jet and use laser jet instead.

This solved most of the frustration for me. The upfront cost is slightly higher, the print quality is slightly decreased but the long term satisfaction is greatly enhanced.

Ink jet in any form is dead in my mind.

[Alex3917]

> The upfront cost is slightly higher, the print quality is slightly decreased but the long term satisfaction is greatly enhanced.

OK but they still stop updating the drivers after 3 years, which is the main problem. Otherwise they would last forever.

[magicalhippo]

I've had my HP LaserJet Pro P1102w, one of the cheapest laser printers I could find at the time, for about a decade without any driver issues. Same as with the previous HP lasers I've had.

[Saris]

That doesn't really matter in my experience, they're just attached as a mostly generic network printer and the driver is very basic.

[linsomniac]

Largely true. I've always spent a few more dollars on Postscript printers, because that tended to solve some headaches with printing under Linux in the past, and I think that makes it less of an issue with driver longevity. But the problem is security updates, lots of attacks use printers to gain a foothold.

[Tepix]

I received updates for my Samsung printer for more than 10 years. Now that they finally stopped supporting the latest MacOS i can still use it by printing via a Raspberry Pi.

[oneplane]

What do you expect such a driver to do? The printer is essentially just a random network device. Packets go in, paper comes out. No drivers needed.

[scarface74]

My AirPrint capable printer that I bought almost a decade ago works perfectly with the newest iPhone/Macs…

[raverbashing]

"updating the drivers" no

Good printers use PS/PCL, nobody cares about drivers, a generic one usually works

[JohnFen]

Why do driver updates matter?

[dagw]

My father in law had an old laser printer that he could not get to work under windows 10 since the drivers only support windows 7 and refuse to install.

[JohnFen]

Does it need proprietary drivers at all? I don't think I've seen a printer that does for decades, but I certainly haven't used all printers.

[dagw]

Windows 10 found no supported drivers and refused to print to it, while it worked fine with Windows 7

[rosnd]

> the print quality is slightly decreased

That's heavily understating it.

[jqpabc123]

Depends on your needs.

If I want display quality photos on heavy weight paper, I go to WalMart or Office Depot and pay for their commercial printer. For small photos embedded in business documents on plain paper, my Canon laser jet does an acceptable job and is relatively frustration free at reasonable cost. Text quality is never an issue.

Ink jet and photos are the main pain points to avoid.

[computator]

For black & white (grayscale) text, my experience has been that laser printers are just as good, or superior (esp. if your laser printer does 600dpi or higher), and they don't smudge as easily as ink jet prints.

[kurupt213]

Who makes a quality color laser?

[jqpabc123]

Canon, HP and Brother all have them. I chose a Canon for it's ability to do 2-sided duplex printing and collating in a compact design for small office use (up to 5 people).

I recommend looking for "office" instead of "home". The manufacturers seem aware of the fact that business people have low tolerance for unreliable crap.

[kurupt213]

Thanks. Good point in the commercial grade search.

[massysett]

I have a ~$400 HP with a flatbed scanner and sheet feeder, no complaints. Works well with Windows, Mac GUI apps, Mac CLI, Linux, iOS, and Chromebook. Use the generic Post Script driver for Mac CLI printing with lp, not Air Print, as the duplexer won’t work with Air Print and CLI apps (for instance I print groff PS files.) Works fine with Mac GUI apps and Air Print.

IPv6 completely locked it up. It would reboot over and over. This happened after changing my home router to one with full ipv6 support. Disabling ipv6 on the printer fixed it. It could be that subsequent firmware updates fixed this but I haven’t checked.

I use only genuine HP toner. No way I am trusting random toner from the flea market—er, Amazon.

HP Color Laser Jet MFP 281cdw

[Tepix]

Even if HP makes good printers, i would never buy a printer from them after their past behaviour. See https://www.npr.org/2021/02/17/968704526/why-printers-are-th...

[kurupt213]

I think this is what I have…that died way prematurely