Hi Folks (apologies for any cross-posts you may receive),
I'm looking for a cheap and cheerful printer which I can take with me to other places which may not have print facilities (I don't want to subject my excellent HP Laserjet to shocks and vibrations ... !).
I've come across the Lexmark Z708 inkjet, apparently available at PC World for £29.99 (in-store). Not that I like inkjets, since the cartridge price leads to high running costs in the long term (it looks as though Lexmark cartridges, even black and white, cost over $20, i.e. nearly as much as the printer in this case). However, the price is right ... !
Does anyone have any experience of using the Lexmark 708, who can
a) Comment on its quality and performance
b) Comment on usability with Linux? (USB connection, by the way, which should not be a problem in principle).
I haven't been able to suss out from websites what printer language it uses, for instance, so don't know whether ghostscript would be able to convert PS output to drive this printer.
With thanks, and best wishes to all, Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972 Date: 14-Jun-04 Time: 09:14:43 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 09:14:43AM +0100, Ted Harding wrote:
<snip/>
I've come across the Lexmark Z708 inkjet, apparently available at PC World for ?29.99 (in-store). Not that I like inkjets, since the cartridge price leads to high running costs in the long term (it looks as though Lexmark cartridges, even black and white, cost over $20, i.e. nearly as much as the printer in this case). However, the price is right ... !
Know that feeling far too well. Infact, someone I knew just went and bought a new printer because it was cheaper than replacing the cartridges.
Does anyone have any experience of using the Lexmark 708, who can
a) Comment on its quality and performance
b) Comment on usability with Linux? (USB connection, by the way, which should not be a problem in principle).
Can't comment on that, but I've a nice little Epson C42UX Usb printer sitting here that just works, so USB should definately not be a problem :)
I haven't been able to suss out from websites what printer language it uses, for instance, so don't know whether ghostscript would be able to convert PS output to drive this printer.
Not sure what language it uses either, but *there is* a driver on Lexmarks site for RPM based distros. It's linked from: http://users.cybercity.dk/~dko12479/
Personally, I'd go for something that was slightly more open, and could be attacked more readily (or already had support in default distribution). It's probably worth your while taking a look at http://www.linuxprinting.org/ and finding a cheapy from the list of supported printers ;)
With thanks, and best wishes to all, Ted.
Cheers,
On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 09:49:14AM +0100, Brett Parker wrote:
On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 09:14:43AM +0100, Ted Harding wrote:
<snip/>
I've come across the Lexmark Z708 inkjet, apparently available at PC World for ?29.99 (in-store). Not that I like inkjets, since the cartridge price leads to high running costs in the long term (it looks as though Lexmark cartridges, even black and white, cost over $20, i.e. nearly as much as the printer in this case). However, the price is right ... !
Know that feeling far too well. Infact, someone I knew just went and bought a new printer because it was cheaper than replacing the cartridges.
Lexmark printers are generally crap I wouldn't even consider buying one, also Brett your friend may have done themselves a mis-service as most new printers now only come with half filled ink cartridges or toners. (Of course if they were replacing an ancient printer then that wasn't necessarily a bad idea but I tend to use compatible cartridges on old printers because it doesn't matter if the cartridges clog up the print head and break the printer) Anyhow Ted, what kind of printer are you after? does it have to be inkjet?
Can't comment on that, but I've a nice little Epson C42UX Usb printer sitting here that just works, so USB should definately not be a problem :)
Epson stuff works nicely, I have a nice Epson Photo 900 on top of my desk that I paid 75 quid for from PCWorld (which uses USB) and I also just bought a Samsung ML-1510 laser printer which also uses usb for 50 quid delivered from http://www.office-world.co.uk to replace my dead laser (although it doesn't include a usb cable and officeworld charge 13 quid each for them! so I recommend buying a few usb cables from Ebuyer for 93p each+shipping (even with express next day shipping that would be about 7.50! and you get a free 32MB usb memory key if you mail in a form from the samsung website) but the toner cart you get with it is apparently only good for 1000 pages (but you can refill them if you want ;)) and the replacement toners are also 50 quid but good for 3000 pages. Oh, and this is a fairly small and portable printer which I guess would be handy if you want to move it around lots.
Oh and the box for the Samsung ML-1510 has a picture of Tux on it and specifically says it supports Linux as does the printing demo page and the manual also mentions Linux etc. also Samsung have released GPL drivers in the past so I figure they are quite a good company to support.
I haven't been able to suss out from websites what printer language it uses, for instance, so don't know whether ghostscript would be able to convert PS output to drive this printer.
Personally, I'd go for something that was slightly more open, and could be attacked more readily (or already had support in default distribution). It's probably worth your while taking a look at http://www.linuxprinting.org/ and finding a cheapy from the list of supported printers ;)
As Brett says try looking at here specifically http://www.linuxprinting.org/suggested.html
That page suggests
"There are few good free software drivers for Canon and Lexmark inkjets. Do not buy one and expect success."
So I think I would use a 50 metre barge pole on that Lexmark ;)
Adam
On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 10:53:41AM +0100, adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
<snip/>
Brett your friend may have done themselves a mis-service as most new printers now only come with half filled ink cartridges or toners. (Of course if they were replacing an ancient printer then that wasn't necessarily a bad idea but I tend to use compatible cartridges on old printers because it doesn't matter if the cartridges clog up the print head and break the printer) Anyhow Ted, what kind of printer are you after? does it have to be inkjet?
I know that :) He apparently doesn't, and generally, it's only ~ third filled with new printers... He did replace the printer with an all in one jobby though, so it's not all bad.
Compatible carts are going to be used in it RSN, as we're being given the poor old thing, and the compat carts are ~ 20 quid for 4 black + 4 colour, so that'll do... there's not a hell of a lot of printing going on there, so they'll last "some time". As for clogging up printheads, feh, who cares, I find that I've broken the printer well before the point where the printheads are knackered ;)
<snip/>
On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 11:01:59AM +0100, Brett Parker wrote:
Compatible carts are going to be used in it RSN, as we're being given the poor old thing, and the compat carts are ~ 20 quid for 4 black + 4 colour, so that'll do... there's not a hell of a lot of printing going on there, so they'll last "some time". As for clogging up printheads, feh, who cares, I find that I've broken the printer well before the point where the printheads are knackered ;)
I have seen compatible carts leak all over the print mechanism which was quite funny on a friends (brand new 200 quid) printer :) but the best way of fixing a clogged print head is isopropyl alcohol (no, you can't drink it, well you can but it will probably kill you) if you spray copious amounts of this stuff into the print head it *will* clean it and you should have a working printer again. Although the other way to avoid blocked print heads is to make sure you run a page containing lots of different colours through your printer every week.
Adam
adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
I have a nice Epson Photo 900 on top of my desk that I paid 75 quid for from PCWorld (which uses USB)
Now that's a good printer. I've used about 5 of those and they've always been brilliant. Except the one which someone had jammed a mars bar wrapper in between the rollers...
Brett Parker wrote:
Can't comment on that, but I've a nice little Epson C42UX Usb printer sitting here that just works
Funny, I have one of those and it's crap :) (awful print quality) It does work in Linux though...
I also have an HP Deskjet 710C which is much better quality, works in Linux but they probably don't sell those any more and it was quite expensive so probably not what you're looking for.
On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 05:37:36PM +0100, Ben Francis wrote:
Brett Parker wrote:
Can't comment on that, but I've a nice little Epson C42UX Usb printer sitting here that just works
Funny, I have one of those and it's crap :) (awful print quality) It does work in Linux though...
Ahh - now there's several drivers for it, picking the wrong one results in crap print quality... selecting the right one results in much *much* better print quality. It's not a bad printer, and fairly cheap to run, the tools "just work" (mtink), and I haven't had any problems with it.
It works rather nicely with cups and gimp print, so, who cares :)
(oh, and I don't particularly like HP inkjets, IME they eat ink, and have a short life span)
Cheers,
The message XFMail.040614091443.Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk from (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk contains these words:
I've come across the Lexmark Z708 inkjet, apparently available at PC World for £29.99 (in-store). Not that I like inkjets, since the cartridge price leads to high running costs in the long term (it looks as though Lexmark cartridges, even black and white, cost over $20, i.e. nearly as much as the printer in this case). However, the price is right ... !
I've no experience of Lexmark printers, but there's only one of which I've heard good reports. Unfortunately, the one you mention isn't it.
The remainder of reports have ranged from lukewarm to incandescant - all on the negative side.
There is a booth in the entrance to the Mall in Norwich which sells cheap (from about £3.50) cartridges - most of which are new, but HP and one other (which I forget) are refilled and relabelled.
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adam＠thebowery.co.uk -
Anthony Anson -
Ben Francis -
Brett Parker -
Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk