On Fri, September 12, 2014 12:00 am, Chris wrote: > On 09/09/2014 01:06 AM, ken wrote: >> I've also read horror stories about the how often new ink cartridges are >> required, that basically you pay for the printer a second and third time >> buying cartridges (not to mention how often a print job is interrupted >> by a trip to buy new cartridges). Any first-hand reports on that? > > I'm using a Canon Pixma. I think Canon's advantage over HP is that you > can change ink and print head separately. So I'm using no-name ink that > clogs the print head once a year, but that's still cheaper than buying > the genuine ink. > I don't know details about Canon inkjets, but this sounds similar for the case of Epson. Epson inkjets have nice (technology wise) piezo-electric nozzles, so you don't replace them (printing head). HP inkjet printers have filament that boils ink to spit a droplet. With HP you replace ink cartridge and heads (which - the heads - are trivial thing). With Epson, you don't replace sophisticated head. However, you need to print a few pages a Month ad minimum if you have Epson. Otherwise quite likely you will have head clogged, and the head will be permanently dead. You have to replace the head which is about the same $$ wise as to replace the whole printer. If it is HP, when you notice some color doesn't print, you just replace that ink cartridge, and is solves it no matter whether the cartridge was empty or the head was clogged. I do not own or use much ink jet printers, but knowing that there are HP wide format inkjet professional printers, I would speculate that HP technology isn't in to any extent inferior compared to Epson, no matter what I feel knowing the difference in physical principles used. Just my 2c. Valeri ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++