Well, I finally had ENOUGH with inkjet printers. For >15 years I used a HP Laserjet, until they stopped supporting it with updated drivers. I print approx 1500 pages a year.
Since then I've had a succession of inkjet colour printers. All have 'died' in some way or another within 3 years, and the most recent one barely managed 2 years. Failures usually involved terminally blocked jets, persistently mangling paper causing jams etc, but the most recent one decided that it didn't even like pukka Epson cartridges. I tried every remedy I could find on the net to no avail, except getting it repaired, so it was time to get yet another printer.
This is not to mention the fact that inkjet printer cartridges don't last very long, and the dammed thing wouldn't even print monochrome (using grayscale setting) if it decided that one of the colour cartridges needed replacing.
This time I thought "I'll go back to Laser Printers" Tried to find a Colour Laser that would fit in the limited space on my study desk, but only found one, and that one didn't have drivers for MacOS Mojave. So, I've bought a Brother HL-L2350 monochrome laser, having decided that I didn't really need colour at all, and if desperate I can persuade one of my daughters to print that for me.
I went to the local PCWorld, only to find that they don't stock Laser Printers in store anymore! But went to their website and found the above mentioned printer there, for the princely sum of £79.99. SOLD! It's a remarkably quick little printer, small footprint, and excellent print quality (main use is printing out my own transcriptions of music to guitar format)
Don't know why I didn't do this a long time ago. It will certainly save me money on disposables.
Posted on: 25 October 2018 by ChrisSU
When computers in offices started to become commonplace, we were promised the ‘paper free office’. What actually happened was the opposite, and I dread to think how many millions of trees have been felled as a result. Now that storage and network technology has matured, online and local digital document storage is pretty much always an option, and I can think of no justification for printing large quantities of paper.
Posted on: 25 October 2018 by Beachcomber
I'm not entirely convinced that the increase in paper use was because of computers. It would be interesting to know by how much it would have increased without computers (due to increased business activity, population etc.)
Posted on: 25 October 2018 by Dungassin
When computers in offices started to become commonplace, we were promised the ‘paper free office’. What actually happened was the opposite, and I dread to think how many millions of trees have been felled as a result. Now that storage and network technology has matured, online and local digital document storage is pretty much always an option, and I can think of no justification for printing large quantities of paper.
My printing consists of sheet music (much easier than reading PDFs off a computer screen, although I do that if on holiday in UK). Much of this is either guitar music to which I have added TAB, or pieces transcribed from another instrument (usually piano)
Other than that it's things like boarding passes, theatre tickets, and (very occasionally) a relevant bit of a manual for a piece of equipment I own.
I have also proof read books and theses written by my family. Much easier to do this to printed copy, as I often found that if I tried to do it just on screen I would miss errors more easily.
I don't print our photos etc. I leave that to a 'proper' photo place. Alas, SWMBO likes to print about half of what she takes.
Posted on: 25 October 2018 by Simon-in-Suffolk
I'm not entirely convinced that the increase in paper use was because of computers. It would be interesting to know by how much it would have increased without computers (due to increased business activity, population etc.)
I agree, when I started my career in the late 80s we had quite a large amount of daily circulars and post delivered to my desk post point via paper.. and databases were usually paper directories... Our word processors on IBM PCs (or clones) were used to type and prepare memos and documents and everything was printed out, usually multiple times ... there was a huge amount of paper usage, duplication, photocopying etc etc.. and large amount of storage for thick lever arched folders. These word processors and spreadsheet systems were discrete and not network connected so paper was required to share information (and occasionally the floppy disk) . We did have a mainframe computer account each accessed via a shared serial terminal .. and we had an All-in-1 email and doc preparation via a serial terminal, but it wasn’t that user friendly and other than sending X.400 email outside the organisation was not used that much... in short there was massive paper usage. Our PCs then became Ethernet network connected, with serial terminal emulators for those All-in-1 apps, and then our email moved to internet SMTP based email and we moved to Microsoft Windows and web browsers (Netscape and the like) started to become mainstream around 1994 ... paper usage started to drop significantly .. and all these years later paper is very much a minority other than formal document/proposal preparation, certain publications, and printing out to study and digest when detailed analysis is required...... and those post points now are usually a lot smaller and are shared for a whole floor rather than a group of desks.. but I would say less than 5% of my documents are printed.
Posted on: 25 October 2018 by winkyincanada
When computers in offices started to become commonplace, we were promised the ‘paper free office’. What actually happened was the opposite, and I dread to think how many millions of trees have been felled as a result. Now that storage and network technology has matured, online and local digital document storage is pretty much always an option, and I can think of no justification for printing large quantities of paper.
I have become nearly 100% paper free at the office. I go weeks without ever printing something, or even reading anything on paper. I have no filing cabinet, just a small pile of printed stuff that I will likely never look at again.
Posted on: 27 October 2018 by Guinnless
I remember when you could buy ZX Printers new. Assuming Uncle Clive could actually get it delivered to you. ?
I've still got some Fortran on paper tape as output from a teletype terminal. You kiddies with inkjet printers don't know you are born. ????
Posted on: 27 October 2018 by Corry
Well, I finally had ENOUGH with inkjet printers. For >15 years I used a HP Laserjet, until they stopped supporting it with updated drivers. I print approx 1500 pages a year.
I've had my LaserJet 1200 for at least 15 years, and it's worked almost flawlessly. Even though Windows Update throws an error with the driver update, and has been doing it for years, it continues to work fine (I'm on Windows 7). I'll keep using until it dies or I do. Did you ditch it because your operating system couldn't deal with the outdated drivers, or was there some other malfunction?
I've had a few colour inkjet printers and they've all died within a year or two. For the amount of colour printing I need, it's not worth the expense and aggravation.
Posted on: 28 October 2018 by Dungassin
To be honest, it's been so long that I can't remember exactly why I gave up on it. My memory says that it was drivers, but I could be wrong. It may have just developed a mechanical fault. IIRC It was a HP600L, and was bought when I was still using an Acorn Risc PC. That was before the advent of USB! It had a parallel connector.
Acorn RiscPC... now there's a thought. I still have fond memories of that machine. OS much nicer to use than Windoze or MacOS (IMO). Of course, I had a BBC B 32K and Archimedes before that.
I eventually needed to do a few things that the RiscPC couldn't do due to lack of software, so installed a 'PC Card', but eventually gave up and got a Windows machine (can't remember which version of OS) to run in tandem. After a while, I just packed the RiscPC in the loft and just used the Windows machine (lack of desk space being the reason).
Moved to Mac 4 years ago (or was it 5?), after a bout of nonsense trying to sort out some problem or other. Got a 27" iMac. Great for music editing (Sibelius) with its big screen and it fits nicely on my desk. Initially got it with a 'magic trackpad?' but eventually reverted to mouse. When using Sibelius, I plug in a USB mouse, because the Apple mouse is a PITA for that program.
However anyone who tries to tell me that "mac's are easier" will be given my view, which is that the Mac is just different, goes wrong just as often, so is on a par for ease of use. No intention to switch back, though.
Posted on: 28 October 2018 by Innocent Bystander
A different angle on printers - I have been a happy user of a colour laser at home for 6 years now, and when I got it I was so pleased to be shot of the annoyances of inkjet printers, that always seemed to clog up just when I needed them, and cost a fortune in ink used in self-cleaning. Mine was a Lexmark C544dn, a network printer usable by anyone in the house. It had received very good reviews, and was a remarkably low price, under £200 - though I was shocked first time i needed toner and found it cost as much as buying a new printer! I would happily replace it with the same again when it eventually gives up the ghost.
One thing of which to be aware - and from what I have seen it is a common practice, the low cost of new laser printers is often because they have low-capacity toner cartridges, so the first ones may not last very long at all. The capacity of included cartridges should be checked if comparing various models on price, while in terms of running cost it is worth researching toner cartridge cost (and associated capacities), and if you are a high volume user similarly check the capacity of replacement the drum (or whatever it is named - e.g. ‘imaging pack) and its replacement cost.
Posted on: 29 October 2018 by Dungassin
The Brother came with a 700 page cartridge. Yesterday I received a 3000 page cartridge to put on the shelf. Cost me £32.90. Shouldn't need to buy any more for a couple of years! 
Of course you mustn't forget that InkJet printers suffer the same malady. The 'startup' package of cartridges these days is usually about half exhausted by the set up process.
I was going to get a Colour Laser, but as I said earlier, I couldn't find one that would fit on my desk (apart from one which didn't have drivers for Mac Mojave)
