Because of these shenanigans I bought a nice Brother MFC (laser). The factory cartridges worked really long. Best printer I ever had and it will stay until it breaks down!
Because of these shenanigans I bought a nice Brother MFC (laser). The factory cartridges worked really long. Best printer I ever had and it will stay until it breaks down!
I have had a few of the basic Brother laser printers that were bullet proof in the last 20+ years. After getting so sick and tired of the all in one inkjet the SO brought into our relationship I...
I have had a few of the basic Brother laser printers that were bullet proof in the last 20+ years. After getting so sick and tired of the all in one inkjet the SO brought into our relationship I convinced her to replace it with a new Brother color laser all in one.
It's no better, to be honest.
We can't print black if we need a cyan toner. Replace the cyan toner and it won't print until we change the yellow toner. We bought the official XL toner catridges thinking they'd last us forever since we rarely print in color but we've had to replace them just as frequently as our black toner. Suspiciously the color cartridges all run out within a few weeks of each other even though we rarely print color (maybe colored section headers from time to time). We can go weeks without printing anything and it is considered heavy usage if we print more than 20 things in a week yet we've replaced all the toners 3x in a year and a half.
After I have always talked up how great the monochrome Brothers were I am disappointed and a little scared that this is the future of Brother printers. I'm still hoping that we somehow just got a lemon but I'm not sure I'd jump at the chance to buy another Brother again at this rate..
It's been a while since I replaced a printer, but my old black and white printer has been absolutely reliable and no hassle. If I need to print in color, I will go to a shop and pay for the...
It's been a while since I replaced a printer, but my old black and white printer has been absolutely reliable and no hassle. If I need to print in color, I will go to a shop and pay for the service when I need it. I hate wasting time fiddling with tech and money being extorted for specific component parts and supplies.
I ran into this when I used to own a printer. First of all, you should look if your printer has some setting for "pure black" printing or some such thing. Usually, colored ink is mixed into the...
I ran into this when I used to own a printer. First of all, you should look if your printer has some setting for "pure black" printing or some such thing. Usually, colored ink is mixed into the black, especially for grey/transparent text.
Also, they generally print some yellow color dots on each page, the machine identification code. It's invisible to the naked eye, but it adds up over time. Calibrating the printer often will also use the colored ink.
I have a bw brothers as well as currently use a color HP on subscription I hate subscription services but I gotta say I've had a very happy relationship with this one for the last 6 or so years:...
I have a bw brothers as well as currently own use a color HP on subscription
I hate subscription services but I gotta say I've had a very happy relationship with this one for the last 6 or so years: the low volume plans work out to be cheaper than buying cartridges, and when I have spurts I need to print several hundred color pages in one night (....) I can do that using roll overs and ink on hand. When one colour looks a little weird I don't feel bad about tossing the cartridge with 30% ink that might be old or missing a Cyan/Magenta/Yellow because I mail them in to be recycled. One time I printed 100s of mostly yellow posters and I just swapped cartridges as yellow got low even when magenta cyan were full. HP said if I had called hp ahead of time they would have made sure I had extra cartridges on hand too, because the price is set per month.
It used to be that I would scrimp and save and not print color or be stingy somehow. Once I even tried grouping pictures by colour groups....took forever. On prescription, nope go nuts.
I was able to scan and print out a bunch of full colour copies of sun or flood-damaged old family photos on archival grade photo paper, for a retired neighbor who didn't have the money or the negatives and it didn't cost me anything more than the <$10 month
So sorry to hear the color brothers isn't good :( maybe they got jealous of how much money HP is making....
My b/w Brother laser printer I've had for like 6 years now, and I'm still on the original toner, have had no issues with the printer whatsoever. That being said, I don't print super often. A few...
My b/w Brother laser printer I've had for like 6 years now, and I'm still on the original toner, have had no issues with the printer whatsoever. That being said, I don't print super often. A few times a month at most.
However, I have heard that Brother is starting to pull some shady stuff with their printers too- so even they aren't immune- but they're nowhere near as insultingly user-hostile as other print companies.
Same. I have not actually directly experienced the issues with inkjets. However due to issues that others have experienced, I have a laser printer. I got a "retired" business class lexmark. It is...
Same. I have not actually directly experienced the issues with inkjets. However due to issues that others have experienced, I have a laser printer. I got a "retired" business class lexmark. It is a tank. Ever since I got it, it had been complaining about a needing a maintenance kit, but unlike inkjets it still prints. When it runs out of toner, I'll bring another one of the exact same model out of storage. It does one thing, print, and it does it well.
I've had two of these in the last 20 years, first one still works, I just upgraded to colour. I think I've changed the toner way less than one a year on average. Never had a single problem with...
I've had two of these in the last 20 years, first one still works, I just upgraded to colour. I think I've changed the toner way less than one a year on average. Never had a single problem with them with Windows, Linux or OSX, they just work.
for anyone struggling with this, here’s a tool that takes a collection of your signatures, adds them to the document in specified locations, and adds artifacts to the document that make it look...
for anyone struggling with this, here’s a tool that takes a collection of your signatures, adds them to the document in specified locations, and adds artifacts to the document that make it look like it was printed and scanned.
One of the neat things in MacOS is that digital PDF signing (with actual signatures) is built-in. You can even use the trackpad or an iPhone/iPad to record a signature. When I'm on other computers...
One of the neat things in MacOS is that digital PDF signing (with actual signatures) is built-in. You can even use the trackpad or an iPhone/iPad to record a signature.
When I'm on other computers I typically just use the annotation tools to sign with a mouse.
Rarely if ever does anyone really care if it's printed, signed, and scanned unless you're expected to have physical documents.
Yep, that’s what I’ve typically used. Unfortunately when dealing with the federal government I’ve been asked to submit a “wet signature” and had documents rejected for not looking bad enough!
Yep, that’s what I’ve typically used. Unfortunately when dealing with the federal government I’ve been asked to submit a “wet signature” and had documents rejected for not looking bad enough!
Because of these shenanigans I bought a nice Brother MFC (laser). The factory cartridges worked really long. Best printer I ever had and it will stay until it breaks down!
I have had a few of the basic Brother laser printers that were bullet proof in the last 20+ years. After getting so sick and tired of the all in one inkjet the SO brought into our relationship I convinced her to replace it with a new Brother color laser all in one.
It's no better, to be honest.
We can't print black if we need a cyan toner. Replace the cyan toner and it won't print until we change the yellow toner. We bought the official XL toner catridges thinking they'd last us forever since we rarely print in color but we've had to replace them just as frequently as our black toner. Suspiciously the color cartridges all run out within a few weeks of each other even though we rarely print color (maybe colored section headers from time to time). We can go weeks without printing anything and it is considered heavy usage if we print more than 20 things in a week yet we've replaced all the toners 3x in a year and a half.
After I have always talked up how great the monochrome Brothers were I am disappointed and a little scared that this is the future of Brother printers. I'm still hoping that we somehow just got a lemon but I'm not sure I'd jump at the chance to buy another Brother again at this rate..
It's been a while since I replaced a printer, but my old black and white printer has been absolutely reliable and no hassle. If I need to print in color, I will go to a shop and pay for the service when I need it. I hate wasting time fiddling with tech and money being extorted for specific component parts and supplies.
I print so rarely these days that I just pop down to my public library when I need anything printed now. No printer maintenance required!
I ran into this when I used to own a printer. First of all, you should look if your printer has some setting for "pure black" printing or some such thing. Usually, colored ink is mixed into the black, especially for grey/transparent text.
Also, they generally print some yellow color dots on each page, the machine identification code. It's invisible to the naked eye, but it adds up over time. Calibrating the printer often will also use the colored ink.
I have a bw brothers as well as currently
ownuse a color HP on subscriptionI hate subscription services but I gotta say I've had a very happy relationship with this one for the last 6 or so years: the low volume plans work out to be cheaper than buying cartridges, and when I have spurts I need to print several hundred color pages in one night (....) I can do that using roll overs and ink on hand. When one colour looks a little weird I don't feel bad about tossing the cartridge with 30% ink that might be old or missing a Cyan/Magenta/Yellow because I mail them in to be recycled. One time I printed 100s of mostly yellow posters and I just swapped cartridges as yellow got low even when magenta cyan were full. HP said if I had called hp ahead of time they would have made sure I had extra cartridges on hand too, because the price is set per month.
It used to be that I would scrimp and save and not print color or be stingy somehow. Once I even tried grouping pictures by colour groups....took forever. On prescription, nope go nuts.
I was able to scan and print out a bunch of full colour copies of sun or flood-damaged old family photos on archival grade photo paper, for a retired neighbor who didn't have the money or the negatives and it didn't cost me anything more than the <$10 month
So sorry to hear the color brothers isn't good :( maybe they got jealous of how much money HP is making....
Interesting. I am curious which model you have. For me it is the MFC-L8690CDW.
My b/w Brother laser printer I've had for like 6 years now, and I'm still on the original toner, have had no issues with the printer whatsoever. That being said, I don't print super often. A few times a month at most.
However, I have heard that Brother is starting to pull some shady stuff with their printers too- so even they aren't immune- but they're nowhere near as insultingly user-hostile as other print companies.
Same. I have not actually directly experienced the issues with inkjets. However due to issues that others have experienced, I have a laser printer. I got a "retired" business class lexmark. It is a tank. Ever since I got it, it had been complaining about a needing a maintenance kit, but unlike inkjets it still prints. When it runs out of toner, I'll bring another one of the exact same model out of storage. It does one thing, print, and it does it well.
I've had two of these in the last 20 years, first one still works, I just upgraded to colour. I think I've changed the toner way less than one a year on average. Never had a single problem with them with Windows, Linux or OSX, they just work.
for anyone struggling with this, here’s a tool that takes a collection of your signatures, adds them to the document in specified locations, and adds artifacts to the document that make it look like it was printed and scanned.
nice, thanks.
what a high tech way to get around an idiotically low tech hurdle. It's like having to spoof a fax machine *eye roll
One of the neat things in MacOS is that digital PDF signing (with actual signatures) is built-in. You can even use the trackpad or an iPhone/iPad to record a signature.
When I'm on other computers I typically just use the annotation tools to sign with a mouse.
Rarely if ever does anyone really care if it's printed, signed, and scanned unless you're expected to have physical documents.
Yep, that’s what I’ve typically used. Unfortunately when dealing with the federal government I’ve been asked to submit a “wet signature” and had documents rejected for not looking bad enough!