Doesn't even have to be color. My daughter got a free HP printer with the power book I gave her as a graduation present. But it's such a piece of crap that she can't really use it at all. Even when it's full of paper, it gives a paper out message. I've fussed with it plenty and if everything is just right, then sometimes it will print. I've had exactly the same experience with other low end HP printers, so I'm strongly prejudiced against them.

So can somebody reccomend something else? Any actual good experiences with this class of printer?

I hear you about cheap printers causing migrane headaches. I will never again buy a color inkjet due to clogging or other problems, much less the hundreds per year in ink (its like buying drugs from the pusher).

If it doesn't have to be color, then I think there is only one solution... a laser printer. There's loads of them from $65US to a couple hundred. Mrs. D_S85 recently bought a Dell 1700 (about $100 - wait for a special). Not a bad unit. A little on the tall side though. Lasers are very inexpensive per page - if you shop right.

If you go laser, I can only recommend that when you look at the consumables first; check whether the cartridges come with the drum (however the 1700 does not). Better if they do, though, since you skip the expensive drum replacement at the 50,000 page milestone.

Cartridge capacity is another issue. The higher, the better. 6,000 pages or more is good. At 2,500 per cart., it gets expensive to run.

Also, look for at least 1,200dpi. Lots of just average printers out there still doing 600dpi (which matches the res. on my still working HP4 I bought back in 1989).

i love my canon ip4000, it does great photos, but it also does extremely quick document printing.

Yeah! I sell Canon printers all day (among others).

I have the IP5000 - it's awesome. $150CDN and you get photo quality, speed and silence.

The IP4200 or IP6210 would be great.

Owen

Originally Posted by Owen Yeah! I sell Canon printers all day (among others). I have the IP5000 - it's awesome. $150CDN and you get photo quality, speed and silence. The IP4200 or IP6210 would be great. Owen

OK, sounds like I have the right person on the line. My daughter's priorities are

1. Reliable
2. Easy to use (she is a technophobe)
3. Small
4. Inexpensive

in that order. Notice color and photo quality didn't even make the list (at least for now.) I'm thinking about a cheap laser, but when I went to look, it seemed you had to get into too much printer before they started to look solid.

Easy to use. Which Canon printer wins that one? Think of someone who doesn't like to have to be careful about loading paper, for example.

Costs $50 -- however -- the replacement ink cartridges are outrageously expensive.

Depends on how much printing she plans on doing.

Very small, doesn't take up much space. Straight paper feed through. A little noisy though when it grabs the paper. VERY fast printing black! I ran 6000 cards thru the one I was using, so it's pretty reliable so far.