Googleās LLM got one critical fact wrong, of course. If you only need occasional color printing, an inkjet is still the wrong answer. The right answer is probably just to have Staples or your local print shop print for you, honestly. The ink dries out in disused inkjet machines and thatāll cause you no end of headaches. Or force you to buy a set of expensive cartridges just to print one damn page, because the last thing you printed was three months ago.
Color laser printers arenāt even that expensive anymore. Sure, a set of color toner cartridges may cost well north of what a set of inkjet cartridges would run you, but the difference is that the laser toner will probably last many home users a lifetime.
Itās also worth checking your local library which might offer some basic printing services. Could work out cheaper
Yup, ours is $0.10 for B&W, and $0.25 for color. Computers are free (if you have a library card, which is free), and the staff is available to help you with whatever you need. Iām guessing theyād let you print for free if you really couldnāt afford it.
So your typical school essay would be $1 or so.
Definitely look at the library. Mine allows me 20 free pages of B&W, or 10 pages of colour per month. After that itās $0.10 for B&W and $0.20 for colour. Pretty hard to justify actually buying a printer to myself at this point. Definitely not as convenient as having a unit at home, though.
They came up with a āsolutionā for the drying problem. You need to keep the printer on forever so it doesnāt let it dry.
I wish that would work. My Epson was always on and the ink kept drying. After it clogged the print head once too many times and I could not fix that in less than 10min, I just gave up on the piece of crap. I now go to a print shop to print what I need which, admittedly, nowadays is just a couple of times a year.
If you only want 6x4 photos a dye sub printer like a canon selphy isnāt a bad option, itās what I use. Kinda expensive per print but quick and the ribbons donāt dry out.
At this point, 4x6 prints at my nearest Walgreens are like fifteen cents a pop with a random coupon code and are ready within the hour. I imagine a dozen other chains are comparable.
