Replacing a Canon printer with a Brother Laser?

[Anonymous]

Posted by Andy Stopford on 09/04/2021 20:17:59:

I have a Brother HL-3150CDW colour laser printer and I'd certainly recommend it.

… but discontinued according to Brother (warning very "live" site)

[Robin GrahamParticipant @robingraham42208]

Having got fed up with inkjets with their insatiable demands for ink and tendencies to clog up if not exercised regularly, I have just bought a Xerox B205 mono laser from printerland .

I've had it for only a couple of days but it seems like a nice machine, and a bit of a bargain at £130 including a 1500 page toner cartridge.

Good things are that it has support for WSD and AirPrint protocols, so should be OK with any recent Microsoft or Apple operating system.

I use Linux and the only bad thing I've found so far is that the Xerox Linux driver is a step or three behind the printer's capabilities. But that can be fixed!

Oh – and it prints, copies and scans well!

Might be worth a look?

Robin

Edited By Robin Graham on 10/04/2021 02:06:06

Edited By Robin Graham on 10/04/2021 02:16:25

Edited By Robin Graham on 10/04/2021 02:32:32

[Anonymous]

On the subject of Laser Colour Printers, I checked these out when the low price ones first came out and it seemed that they were OK for documents but not good for phtographs etc. So I went the inkjet route.

That was quite some years ago now though and I haven't really looked at them since. So how good are the current crop of lower-priced colour laser printers at handling graphics images … particularly photographs?

[Andy StopfordParticipant @andystopford50521]

Posted by Peter Greene on 10/04/2021 17:35:02:

On the subject of Laser Colour Printers, I checked these out when the low price ones first came out and it seemed that they were OK for documents but not good for phtographs etc. So I went the inkjet route.

That was quite some years ago now though and I haven't really looked at them since. So how good are the current crop of lower-priced colour laser printers at handling graphics images … particularly photographs?

Unfortunately the process seems to be intrinsically inferior to inkjet – the colours are muddier, and the tonal range is limited. It might help to experiment with different types and grades of paper.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I used to operate an expensive Canon colour laser years ago at work and it was very good at colour graphics but still not as good as an Inkjet for colour photos. They were passable in things like documents though.

[Anonymous]

After posting, I found this which is quite informative.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I was, and may still consider, going from ink-jet to laser printer, at least for the A3 printing I want for CAD drawings. So this thread's useful to me for gaining some comparisons.

Peter –

I think I have found a work-round, published by a supplier of both OEM and pattern / refilled inks.

The printer manufacturers can't stop you using pattern or refilled cartridges outright, but they make it hard to do so. Some at least use a very craftily-worded question whose "obvious" answer results in the software disabling the refilled or supposedly-counterfeit cartridge.

BTW _ British paper sizes aren't British. They are metric and designed by the International Standards Organisation!

Oldiron –

Thank you. I'll have a look at that.

[HOWARDTParticipant @howardt]

As I said previously I use a colour A4 for general text and in addition I have a A3+ inkjet for colour photo use. The inkjet is an Epson fitted with refillable cartridges which after the initial purchase works out reasonable per print. Inkjets aimed at photographic use have more cartridges most have eight or nine to give better tonal range when used with photo papers. I wouldn’t recommend a laser for anything more than document printing and the occasional no critical photo picture. In the past I have had an A2 Canon photo printer but when these go wrong it’s cheaper to buy another than repair and they only work with Canon cartridges at £70 per cartridge x8. Printing is a minefield take the cheapest option that you will use and get larger prints done commercially, you can get an A3 high quality photo print for nt much more than a £1 from specialist printers.

[Author]

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