inkican
55647
1662
16
MV edit - using this moment in the sunshine to remind you that something cool is happening starting on Monday. Details here https://imgur.com/gallery/wEFCQ3p
Feb 21, 2025 4:21 PM
inkican
55647
1662
16
MV edit - using this moment in the sunshine to remind you that something cool is happening starting on Monday. Details here https://imgur.com/gallery/wEFCQ3p
thedoorman42
Do you know how fucking expensive tractor paper is?
AyatollahBahloni
And they were fun to program pin-by-pin on my Osborne Executive running CP/M.
Isorikk
Given the resolution that printer has, yes, a little obsolete
supermario182
I wish I still had one of these
drizztx
I have an HP Laserjet 6P in my home office with more than 500k page count. Generic toner cartridges are $30, but print up to 10k pages.
badgesweedontneednostinkingbadges
It's never going to tell you it's out of magenta.
happywalker
had a customer who had a room with up to 4 dot matrix printers in it running 24x7
Colanah
That is such a nostalgic sound. Thank you for sharing this with the audio. My cat didn't appreciate it, but I did.
Rayfire3535
Wow, that sound takes me back.
tarask
I remember one time I was showing a newbie around the office. He noticed that our big Canon, Sharp and Ricoh multifunction printers looked pristine and then he asked why the old HP Laserjet 4000 was so yellow. I told him it's because that one never breaks and still works perfectly fine.
EverythingYourMotherWarnedYouAbout
I have been complaining about the printer/ink issue since the 90s....
theAught
In the end it will be roaches and Oki Data printers
somethingsomethingwittyhere
In the 24th century, humanity will have mastered cold fusion, interstellar travel and colonised the entire galaxy. You could jump into a portal and instantly be transported lightyears away. But the passenger manifest will still be printed in an OKI dot matrix printer.
treknor
an Oki micorline .. that is 24 needle printer .. a pretty good one.
MSsucks
Noisy, slow, motherf&ckers is what they were.
Ifekinlovesauerkraut
You forgot about the nightmares of having to work in an office with three of them running almost non-stop.
merxman
Eh, we always had several Canon IPGs going printing packaging mock-ups and whatnot, I would have taken some dot matrix in a heartbeat.
TheseAreNotTheVotesYouAreLookingFor
The tech is still valid. The design is being used by Cricut crafting machines with the print head replaced with a blade to cut patterns.
Fentex
My sister (who's business equipment I set up) has just had to retire her venerable HP 4GL after thirty odd years of use because of some incompatibility or cartridge unavailability (I forget exactly why) has made me sad after hearing news of HP's appalling modern 'help' policies of not answering phones for fifteen minutes - to encourage people to use online help bots (or whatever). Used to be a good company, now it should never be used by any one.
NotSleepingNow
I used to do HP phone support in 2002-2005 in Canada. Even then we were dealing with HP support transitioning overseas/going to shit back then, where Mumbai'd frequently dump calls back into our queue because of poor training/little English. Often we'd not even have reference photos of products we were supporting, let alone actual products for TS. We did our best, 2-3 hour calls going past end of shift were regular. What a life.
nioman86
I have an ancient HP something printer. Bought it used for 5€. First I thought it was out of ink but no, just dry. Started working fine after a few prints. So far I have ran out of paper twice so I have printed at least 600 pages. Opened it up and the ink cartridge is the size of a subway bread. This machine is eternal. No drivers on windows so I have to use linux.
Zuegma197777
I've come across so many vintage printers in garage sales or goodwills... It's a 50/50 game. So far I had luck with a small hp I paid $4... N $10 kit for injecting my ink cartridges.
cosonfused
This is somewhat relevant. If you ever have a perfectly working scanner but Windows says no, Vuescan sells a universal scanner driver that supports thousands of models, including VERY old scanners. And for printers, PrintFab sells a universal printer driver.
LivingDeadX
“Where’s the profit in that?” - Shareholders Boards, everywhere
KHzSineWave
Here's my Laserjet 5M from 1994 that I saved, I had to rebuild the fuser since it'd been abused but other than that its worked perfectly, a little slow but dependable. And the print quality is better than my much more modern Samsung laser printer.
abraxasfury
If I remember correctly, you either needed tractor-feed paper or to load each sheet individually
kmikl
you can still get tractor feed paper, btw.
phtsl
Last time I got it, it was crazy pricy. Like 25 bucks for 1000 sheets. This was about 20 years ago so I bet it's more now
phtsl
Yes I know we hate Amazon but they have 1000 sheets for 36 bucks
Cindex1337
You need to get it from a supply company. The last place I did IT work for that was still using it said it was about half the price of retail price of paper, and just a touch more than they paid for regular paper from their supplier.
kmikl
I think our Printer fleet bought about 2000 boxes of 3500 sheets for $1.95 CAD from our supplier... this was in November. I think we're going to make it to the end of fiscal with that.
kmikl
Sorry, $1.95 each.
quietwalker
I have a magic HP 4L printer from 1993. I say magic, because I have at times used it to print out multiple 400 page manuals (usually D&D 3.5 ones), and yet I have only purchased something like 3 cartridges (the last being a 3'd party one because they don't make real ones any more) in my entire life, and retired it in 2010-ish, still printing strong. I'd estimate I got well over 20k pages per cartridge, more than 5x the expected output, and we're talking full color pages converted to greyscale.
quietwalker
TurnsOut42WasASlightMiscalculation
We had some older HP b/w laser printers at my old job that were tanks. Our IT guy bought three used and they were the primary general-use printers for the entire office. (Had others for color and final reports sent to clients.) We only stopped using them when we could no longer get some part.
DrragonflyGrrl
That is super impressive :D
13andido
and don't forget, it sings... or beatboxs?
RowanUnderwood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8I6qt_Z0Cg
13andido
sammyismycat
Is this the one you could make "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" banners out of? 😁 Ahhh, good times, in Jr. High.
DrragonflyGrrl
Yesss!! God that was just so cool back then :D cheesy balloon graphics and all!!
sammyismycat
Absolutely! 🎈
DrragonflyGrrl
*clip art ;)
sammyismycat
Man oh man, the height of technology!
pm1001
Shout-out to Windows (I know I am sticking my neck out). Still supporting the printer after all these years
kahlas
Windows dosen't "support" them. It's the people writing the drivers that support them. Windows just still supports the code that allows the drivers to work. Which I know nothing about how that code works but I'm sure is supported by Windows because of how many legacy devices require it and they wouldn't make the sale to businesses and people with such legacy hardware.
aducksayswhat
It's almost difficult for windows to stop supporting it, they'd have to drop parallel port support by any method. Mostly because they're so simple, I think you can just do "echo hello world > LPT1"
dashers
I suspect this will just take ASCII commands over serial. There's nothing proprietary to support, just sending characters one at a time.
klaceo
Smiles in HP 3 with font cartridges
dodgese
Wow...memories
fractalsphere
HOO BOY so - in the mid-to-late 90's I was a printer repair guy and I tore so many of those apart down to the gears and motors to swap out parts. Continued with the HP 3/4Si's and the 5Si's was where I check out of that repair field. To this day I still disavow all knowledge of printers.
WhiskyBravo
I rescued a LJ3 from a corporate dumpster, took it home and cleaned it up. It still worked, but every time it printed a page it made all the lights in the house dim/flicker. And so slow and loud. Sold it at a computer sale for $30.
ArcaneConjecture
The fact that "the free market" can't deliver a non-shitty printer is an excellent refutation of much of Capitalism.
AllMaktAtTengilVarBefriare
My Epson ET-2750 is great tho
Arcanum3000
https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-pri">its-fine">https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine /gallery/svUWnIJ/comment/2445245175
ArcaneConjecture
This is some gold, right here. +1
Arcanum3000
And if you read the comments on the Verge article? More people saying things like "My Brother printer is so old that it natively supports printing hieroglyphics but it still works. I think I'll finally have to replace the toner soon."
ChernoGamma
Over a dozen years in office supply retail has taught me that the main problems with this particular market are the consumers; they consistently purchase the cheapest units on the market and don't educate themselves on simple things such as which media is appropriate to use or how page yields are calculated. They buy cheap cars and expect cheap car performance but they buy cheap printers and expect the world. There are plenty of non-shitty printers but bottom feeding won't bring them to you.
ArcaneConjecture
I count this as part of the failure of markets. This particular segment of capitalism only works if you invest hours in becoming an expert. What's SUPPOSED to happen is that the crappy stuff gets forced out of business. But instead the crap lingers, waiting for innocent buyers like me to step in it.
FlippedOut
That's the problem with single purchase items. In a Cafe, you don't go back it it sucks and they go out of business. That doesn't really work with single purchase items, you already bought it. So to avoid the issue you need to look up reviews and figure out what you need. Historically, the distributors would be knowledgeable and dissuade people from buying crap, but now we have lost that personal touch.
AllMaktAtTengilVarBefriare
It doesn’t take hours, i just googled reviews and forums for like 20 minutes before buying mine. Spend a bit of time before spending your money.
Arcanum3000
Part of the reason for that is because is that most of the major players in the market have used predatory design to skew the definition of "cheap" to something only sustainable by coupling the shittiest printers possible with an obligation to buy ink at extortionate prices. It's like if Chevy sold a new car for $4000 but changing the oil required replacing ALL the fluids AND the tires with official Chevy supplies for $5000 every time.
isetprettygirlsonfire
You're just not buying the right printers
dohcohv
There are still good printers out there. The cheapest inkjet printers by HP are absolute garbage, but a lot of people buy them because they are cheap then they think that their crappy experience applies to all printers.
isetprettygirlsonfire
Those are basically a freebie to lock you onto buying overpriced ink cartridges. Laser printers is where it's at.
Colopty
Specifically laser printers not by HP. That company is vile.
ToasterDent
Until last few days, HP Europe keep support calls on hold for 15-minutes even if a rep was available, hoping they would hang up. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/misguided-hp-customer-support-approach-included-forced-15-minute-call-wait-times/
isetprettygirlsonfire
Yes, I'm a brother brother
raitchison
I have a lot of experience with dot matrix printers like this. They do their job well but they are no replacement for modern printers.
kahlas
99% of what I've printed in my lifetime has been plain text in black. I wish I had never "upgraded" from my old dot matrix. I spent 15 years upgrading and buying new types of printers to fix the issues they all had that the dot matrix didn't such as needing odd color inks. About 6 years ago when I moved I didn't even bother bringing my expensive 6 year old laser printer I bought for going to college in my 30's.
sabrinadiesatdawn
95% of my printing is recipes. Dot matrix printers are absolutely sufficient for my needs
astrangehop
99 percent of my printing needs are monochrome in black and white
MeowWoof
you're still better off with, say, an Apple LaserJet II then you would be with a 1985 dot matrix printer.
kmikl
I have the same, but honestly, the reason dot matrix was canned is because they were loud.
raitchison
Also, that release handle isn't there to prevent paper jams as much as to fix them, which you have to do quite a lot.
JackIsLacking
Yes but, I'm always out of cyan ink.... I dont even know when I use cyan ink since all I do is print black and white. But I'm always running out of it somehow. Modern printers are beyond frustrating.
RARusk
"Fuck you, low on cyan."
KilroyLichking
there is a setting where you force K only by going to the print driver settings and selecting force grayscale. Otherwise it will use blends of all colors to make black
emu314159127001
no, this is on printers with separate black cart
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
You mean cheap consumer level inkjets. Modern laser printers work just fine and are excellent for all tasks except for printing photos in actual photo quality, or poster-sized prints.
emu314159127001
it's for secret markings that ID your printer
raitchison
They still make simple black and white laser printers and they are overall fairly reliable and relatively economical to operate.
Also, my company relied on a dot matrix printer for a major part of our business until just a few years ago (printing on multi-part forms) and let me tell you I don't miss having to deal with that.
DrragonflyGrrl
Do the dot matrix ones still screech at you like they used to??
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Color laser printers work great too if you don't expect photo quality images. If you mostly print letters you only have to change the black cartridge on the regular. The price of toner cartridges might seem high but they can last the average home user for years. And unless ink cartridges they don't dry out and clog.
Wolfshead009
This. I got tired of having ink clogs so I switched to a color laser (Brother). Not cheap, but always ready and prints a LOT.
MeowWoof
Dot matrix printers don't have ink cartridges, they have ribbons. The release handle is to clear paper jams. It only holds one piece of separated printer paper as it's designed for continuous feed paper. It only prints around 100-180 characters/second depending on quality. You'd need "parallel port" to "modern computer" conversion solution. I'm not entirely sure it can print graphics. Is it still usable for some things? Sure. Is it obsolete? Absolutely.
bad1080
and let's not forget about the noise it makes for the entire 3.5mins it takes to print a single page
33WhiskeyTX
Sigh... I know they can print graphics because I am old enough that as a young lad I have gazed at the glory of an R rated dot-matrix image.
DukeDarkwood
Which one?![]()
Bigdragon12
That first photo took me back.
DukeDarkwood
Spaceballs is, and ever shall be, one of the all-time classic comedies.... but Reboot will always hold a special place in my heart. That show was amazing, on every level. Casting, scripts, stories, setting, characters, visuals.... it was perfect.
clarkWhogotsanity
They are still used a lot in dealership financial departments and really any place that needs to use multi layer carbon copy paper
Kommadore
I work for the state (WI) and we still use a dot matrix printer that is attached to one of our instruments. We are in the process of phasing it out this year and I'll miss the almost musical tones it created while taking about 2 minutes to print a simple report.
busterfixxitt
Suddenly remembering the gunshot sound of daisy wheel printers.
arajad
Did you ever see an old Teletype machine? I've heard it described as "driving a nail by picking up the house and banging it on the hammer," and that's not far from the truth.
Wolfshead009
Obsolete or obsolescent?
Spidey209
ASCII ART tiddies for the win!
NonFungibleUsername
(.Y.)
Richter12x2
The ribbons are cheap because you replace them a LOT more frequently
SomeGuy389
I bought an HP JetDirect for precisely this purpose years ago. Essentially a parallel port to Ethernet adapter.
GeorgeCostabaplaps
Mother fucking get out your markers and color that ANSI Art!
Zuegma197777
╱|、
(˚ˎ 。7
|、˜〵
じしˍ,)ノ
ionicseraph
The airport I work at, every gate station in our international terminal has a dot matrix printer that's probably older than I am (34, not too old not too young). I remember my dad taking me to his work in the early 90s and seeing the same printers
Cindex1337
I'm 32 and have worked on printers older than me lol. At one point I added a serial card to a PC so I could run Win7 in a virtual machine and passed the port into it. Then shared that printer over an internal only network to the Win10 machine so it could print to it. The one I had absolutely would not work in Win10, or even an x64 operating system. But sharing it worked!
cepacolusmaximus
also, EeeeeeéeeeeeeeeNK, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMP, eeeeEEEEEEeeeeet ...
antigene
They are still used for prescriptions by some doctors in Germany. (Since last year we have the "E-Rezept", but that doesn't work for all kinds of medications)
crateo
Germany, the only place where a nurse would ask you to fax her your vaccination certificate
mystik42
They can totally print graphics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5kG3E5Jolg
MeowWoof
So I know that dot matrix printers exist that can print graphics, I just couldn't find evidence that this one could. Also, that CPS speed I mentioned above was for text files using the printer's built in fonts. If you tried to print a word document or a PDF with this it would have to print it as a graphic, you'd get something around that 2 minutes/page speed from your video, and it would look like crap when it was done. Plus if the ribbon ran dry on page 3 it would keep going.
mystik42
I've been around long enough to have seen a few things, and you are very right on all those points. They *COULD* print graphics, but not very well. I've seen a few dot-matrix printers in active use, and actually had to locate a new replacement for one as recently as 2016. They are workhorses, and if you are still doing carbon copy, or tractor-fed stock is still what you need to be using, they get the job done.
MeowWoof
Sure, for specific cases it's still fine, but suggesting that it's superior to modern printers (as the meme does) is absurd.
Colopty
Outdated is probably more accurate than obsolete.
sturmhauke
Obsolete doesn't mean completely non-functional. But you can't use an old printer like that with a modern computer without extra work. When was the last time you saw a 36-pin parallel port as standard equipment?
Omicron416
USB-to-Parallel adapters are a thing, you know.
sturmhauke
Yes, that's an example of an extra step you need to worry about.
InnerBushman
News flash: USB to LPT converters exist.
Bigdragon12
You're not gonna believe this, but the place I work with gov contracting does.
yoyo42
A lot of PCs still have serial ports. Older printers often had both options and for the sort of thing that can print serial is plenty fast enough.
popeyeNL
There are a lot of old systems still running. Where I work we have a system running on Dos with a matrix printer to receive and print weather forecasts.
Darooks
Yes it's not obsolete as long as you use it with other obsolete equipment like a DOS machine with a pots line.
sturmhauke
"It's not obsolete if it's all obsolete." Seriously? Words don't just mean whatever the hell you feel like from one instant to the next.
yoyo42
I fixed a specialist measuring machine once. Turned out it had a dedicated PC inside running DOS 6.22 (no updates because it has no external connections) and a dot matrix printer for its only output - nothing digital. The printer had failed after over 20 years and with no control over the software I had to track down an Epson LQ compatible serial port printer, not cheap but it gave that machine and extra five years of life while they planned an upgrade!
kahlas
99% of what I've printed in my lifetime is plain text. For this a dot matrix printer is 100% sufficient and capable. The only thing it can't handle well is printing images. I bought a parallel to USB conversion cable 14 years ago for 10 dollars to use an old joystick for games that work better with a joystick. Inflation has hit the conversion cable market and you'd pay around 15 dollars today. Speed of printing has never been a real world issue.
MeowWoof
So first I have to ask if you've ever actually used one. Because when you say "plain text" do you realize this really means "an ASCII file like what's output from notepad", not "a printer friendly web page" or "a text PDF file" or "a formatted text page like Word outputs" because a dot matrix printer has to print everything that isn't a plain text file as a graphic, at a "too shitty to look good" dpi that still takes 2 minutes/page to print.
kahlas
Or maybe you should have read what I wrote and realised I'm not out here printing out web pages. Instead of implying I don't know what I'm talking about because web pages are a PITA to print on a dot matrix printer. If I need to print out a web page for some reason I haven't encountered yet in my 46 years of life. I'm going to use the printer friendly option. I'm also not going to care about the images printing out nicely.
MeowWoof
So I did read what you wrote, and I did ask followup questions to try and figure out if you knew what the fuck you were talking about, primarily because I have no idea what you're printing that's in a plain text format and most people think that "plain text" means "no pictures" when it actually means "the font and size are chosen by the printer and all other formatting except for bold/italic/underline is lost". Heck, even emails aren't usually plain text anymore.
kahlas
Plain text as in just letters and numbers.
MrsMeltingCrayons
Yeah, colloquially plain text means "I didn't add any graphics and printed it straight from Word" but it's way more limited. I'm pretty sure bold/italics/underlining is lost as well. I was trying to think of modern uses for plain text but many technical fields use symbols and you can't represent Δ in ASCII (for example). I'm sure there's a very narrow situation where someone uses almost solely plain text but the rest of us live in 2025.
RooGryphon
They absolutely can do gfx. . It's very noisy and very slow however and it eats ribbon
thedoorman42
I use one every single day and I hate the fucking thing with a passion. And the paper. Why is the paper so fucking expensive?
highstream
Dot matrix printers are not obsolete. They still have uses in mechanic shops or other places where there is lots of dust in the air.
thedoorman42
I use one every single day.
natabus
Not true of the model in the post, but there were dot matrix printers that used document feeders for typical non-track typing paper. They just had all the same feed problems as the modern equivalents. Also, my Dot matrix was so old it used a SERIAL port, which means there's a trivial hardware conversion to USB. BUT GAWD THEY WERE LOUD.
happy615339
My father had a TRS-80 Model 1 with dual external Diskette Drives. He got a dot-matrix printer. I got a lifetime supply of paper from my internship with a paper company. In 1983, my newlywed wife was the only grad student with a computer with database, wordprocessor, and spreadsheets. At work, the NASA secretaries had WANG wordprocessors. In the summer o
happy615339
In summer 1984, at my new job, we got IBM-PC XT's with hard drives and floppy discs.
natabus
Ah! A TRS-80! I had the (closely related) Coco II.
happy615339
Well, I'm impressed with the Coco!
TheChunguskaEvent
I don't have any siblings but I have an 18 year old Brother. No color. No duplex. But absolutely no bullshit.
DrragonflyGrrl
Oh wow, we had one JUST like that!! Thank you for me memories :D
METROlD
I got a Xerox b210 in 2019. Single sided, black and white only. Its solid. The only thing: Don't connect it to your wifi. Just plug it in with a cable. It cant remember a wifi connection to save its little printer life. One could complain that thats a bad thing, but seriously, just plug your damn printer in and stop being a little bitch about it. In 6 years it hasn't even jammed once and I give it nothing but onion peels and post it notes to print on. I have replaced its ink cartridge once.
TheChunguskaEvent
omg I have a whole thing about needless wifi on printers. We inherited a *useless* Epson inket printer from my MIL. As far as I could tell, the only thing it was capable of was connecting to Wifi. No real printing to speak of, only Wifi. If it wasn't connected to Wifi it wanted to be connected to Wifi. Please, connect to Wifi. Please, sir. Don't forget.
zimirken
I remember trying to print stencils for a model on our old Laserjet back in the day. The print kept failing until we figured out that we needed to send one page at a time because the printer didn't have enough memory for all four pages at the same time.
at1cad
There's a memory I didn't need unlocked
Tootsie1
I had an HP3000 at the office. It was old in 2007. I could print reports for hours, no jams, no issues. I'm payroll, my office was just outside the mill, employees constantly tracking dirt in. They wanted to replace it with something newer. I said they could have it over my dead body. The security office, next door, had gotten a new one, and then they had to start sending my files to print for them.
hyptosis
These boys don't play around, i still use these. My friends ask if they can make a print, and how much I need for it? And I'm like 'bitch, print 50, that cartridge is from 1998 it's fine'
Gingercatsarerockstars
I remember supporting those, or should I say not supporting since they just worked.
ReconditeEidolon
There are a few printers out there from the 80s-'99 that are unstoppable work horses. Okidata dotmatrix N-series (has Ethernet) allows you to access a web GUI to configure all of the settings. If you've ever tried to set one of these up with the finicky buttons, you know this is a godsend. HP LaserJets like the 4250 have a plethora of repair/cleaning kits and spare parts available. Every piece can be accessed and replaced.
Itsnothathard
I have one of these that has been printing for 21 years now with nothing but paper added.
Walfas
I have a Brother MFC-295CN, been working flawlessly for over a decade now and I don't plan on ever getting rid of it. Colour printing, copy/fax/scan/etc, network printing, and still dumb enough that you can block the ink sensor and it'll just print until it runs the cartridge dry instead of whining for more ink.
DrewtanggaurdiumLeviosa
I used a brother printer from 2004 to print over 100k packing lists and who knows how many other documents before it finally died in 2022.
sonnuvah
My brother from another brother!
JadeNB1729
You just have to load the bullshit cartridge, and that'll work just fine, too.
EwgB
I have a similar one. Unfortunately, since I print so little, dust settled on the drum, and now all prints are full of steaks.
TheChunguskaEvent
sounds delicious
EwgB
Damn autocorrect 🤣
It was supposed to be "streaks"
theoriginalgiga
Does anyone remember the hp8150dn? 150k duty cycle. Can print at 11*16 duplex and network attached. An office I worked with had 5 of them, the biggest issue I ever had was them not being used enough.
philsnow
My old brother HL-2170W worked beautifully for over a decade. It still works beautifully, but it used to, too. I got a newer brother color laser (well, LED, but we just say laser) HL-L3230CDW and it works beautifully too.
Printers are supposed to suck and these just don't. It's weird, but it's great.
Astramancer
My brother is 5 years old at this point and still works like a dream. It dozes on a cabinet until it wakes up and prints, no fuss no muss.
LaserCheese
Same here! I have a slightly different model, but the dang thing won’t quit. It’s a beast!
zer0vector
I have a similarly aged HP. Win 10/11 refuse to work with it so I have to run it via a CUPS server over IPP.
JRaven419
I used to get printers when the kids would move out of the home as adults. I'd say well off to get a brother from another mother.
buddhafw
I bought a brother printer and 4 toner cartridges 12 years ago. I still have 3 toner cartridges left. Hell, the test cartridge was only supposed to print 100 pages lasted almost a year. For 7 of those years it was in my office which I shared with the other lab instructors and we printed a lot of papers. Oh and I have no idea how old it is because it was refurbished.
ActionJohnnie
DancesWithHippos
I have a very similar, slightly younger Brother (2007) that still chugs happily away on my print jobs.
DancesWithHippos
Oh, I guess same age. Lol.
JohnSmithterms
I have that one too. Still going strong after like 15 years of fairly regular abuse with kids wanting things printed for coloring and crafts and what not. Planned obsolescence should be illegal to the point where the CEO should be put in prison.
MadamPuddifoot
Nah... We don't need to pay for them to sit in prison, we need to Luigi them.
DrragonflyGrrl
Seriously though, planned obsolescence is some horrible bullshit. And they've gotten away with it for so long that they just keep getting worse and worse with it.
alantosai
now here's a hot take i can get behind
hotrodny
You get duplex, but it must be done manual
cytherians
Yeah, I'd much prefer a laser jet printer over a dot matrix printer. The quality difference is notable.
triggrhaapi
I have a modern one that has wifi support and duplex. Still no color. The toner cartridges are 3 for 50 on Amazon.
Tom40
Theee more years and you can take him out to drink
MySpiritAnimalIsTheUnpopularOpinionPuffin
I want to see pictures too.
BobbyVegana
in Mexico it can get drunk af
Sticklebrickk
You can be the cool older brother and give him one of dad's beers
Colopty
supervillin
Lightweight shuts down after one beer...
Ignition101
Bring him to the UK and he can help me finish this bottle of gin right now.
Snooj
I have a 29 year old HP Laserjet 6p. Still sits on my desk. If I need color I use my wife's printer.
NotSleepingNow
HP Laserjets & $13 cad toner cartridges for the win!
pt2016
Amazing.
isetprettygirlsonfire
I have a similar model it's been no issue for 10+ years. Toner is cheap, easy and lasts me about a year (and I print a lot). I was in charge of printers and plotters at a geology and engineering firm. It taught me to just get a laser printer.
NotSleepingNow
I have an hp laserjet 1212 that copies and wifi prints, that takes a $13 cad toner cartridge. It gives a message that it's not an HP cartridge, then it initializes anyway and off we go.
cytherians
What model do you have? My Canon ink jet printer has finally "given up the ghost." And frankly, I'm stick and tired of the cartridges drying out so quickly, even without much regular use. The newer printers using the ink tanks that you fill yourself are a terrific step forward to extricate from the predatory cartridge pricing, but the printers are larger. And the heads still clog. I'm thinking about getting a used laser jet printer.
isetprettygirlsonfire
Dusty, but still chugging
Colopty
Brother is always a solid brand and they do make laser printers.
BeaverOnFire
Any older brother laser printer will get the job done. If you can find one at a thrift store with a w for wireless or a d for duplex in the name for under 20 bucks grab it. You can usually do a test print to make sure that the drum is in good condition as long as you can get a piece of paper by holding down a combination of buttons. The combination can be looked up using Google and the model number.
isetprettygirlsonfire
Brother, but I don't remember model off the top of my head, and I'm skiing right now. Will tey to remember to look when I get home.
solemnwar
If you don't use the printer that much, laser will save you since ink dries out if you don't use it and ruins the print heads
TheChunguskaEvent
At my last job I ordered a Brother HL2140 as a desk printer for maybe $100 at the time? Simple, compact, quick. Honestly I think any old school Brother is solid. If you see one at a thrift store don't just leave it there
cytherians
Yeah, I'm going to start actively looking. I'll have to do some digging on what models have had the best reviews compared to others.