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Why Is Printer Ink So Expensive? (www.digitalrightsbytes.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

I have a black-and-white Brother laser printer. My toner isn't expensive.

I also get generic copy paper. My paper isn't expensive either.

My printer also doesn't clog up if I don't print with it for six months or whatever the way inkjets do.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Only peoblem is if your environment is too humid for long periods of time, no?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yup. If I need color, I print at tree library for <$0.10/sheet. If I need pictures, I order them.

But 99% of my printing is black and white. I've printed thousands of sheets, and I only recently replaced the starter toner, and I'll probably throw out the printer to save space before I run out of toner again.

Oh, and I spent practically nothing on it. I think I paid $150 or so for the printer, another $50 or so on toner (maybe a little more), and maybe $50 on paper? I think I printed 3k pages (too lazy to check), and I should get 5000+ more without doing anything (maybe I'll buy another case of paper?). As it stands, I'm already under the library print costs... Oh, and my printer scans and copies too, which was totally essential during COVID for my kids' school.

Why are inkjets so popular? If you're going to print with and frequency, get a laser printer.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you're going to print with any infrequency get a laser printer as well. The stability of toner is the huge selling point for me. I wasted so much time on "cartridge cleaning" print cycles every time I went to print when I had an inkjet because I print so infrequently my ink cartridges would dry out (and I'm sure HP considered that a feature not a bug).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yup, we don't print very often, but when we do, we print a lot. I imagine a lot of people are similar.