This seemed a good time to post this question, based on some related threads.
My HP OfficeJet 710 has been unhappy for a while - for various reasons, and XP does not play nice with it. Now that I am getting ready to print submissions (well, submission, no "s," but I have hopes!) a clean print is an issue.
So I was wondering if anyone has recommendations on print/er options. Thoughts are: - if we get another multifunction/all-in-one, we are looking at the HP6110 or Canon MP730 - the HP copies better but I've read prints text slowly, and the Canon ink is almost 1/2 the cost of HP ink - should I be looking into a laser printer instead or in addition to a multifunction printer, and if so which ones - should I never worry about printing at home and just head to Staples or Kinko's to print every submission
What do you use/do? I'm doing mostly short stories, with one story moving beyond that size. My previously published work was all on-line, so I'm in new territory here. I do print drafts to fill in comments on from readers, and my current printer is ok for that (other than the fact it RECONFIGURES every time I go to print - I wait a lot).
Related to this - do you do cover letters when submitting short fiction to magazines? The Asimov's guidelines say "Enclose a cover letter if you like." So I'm thinking a properly formatted submission of short fiction does not need a cover letter, unless the guidelines specify one? Any thoughts or recommendations?
Thanks in advance
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
I use an epson laser printer that we got for free. They're nice, but unless you print more than about fifty pages a month an inkjet is cheaper to maintain. Now if you are making submissions regularly, you may well print that much. With inkjet printers you have to worry about ink smearing. Multifunctions are expensive to keep up, even if they are cheap up front. have bad print quality, are slow...of course going over to staples all the time is going to be expensive too.
Xerox Textronics Phaser 8400 is a very good printer. It will cost you a lot up front, but the quality is so good you could make the money back by charging people who need a print job...plus black ink is free for the life of the printer which does add up. It's $999 according to their website.
If you're going to buy something in the price range you mentioned, may as well go cheaper. They are not good buys for the money. And seriously, as long as your submissions don't have horrible black smudges all over them I doubt it will matter.
About the cover letter, go ahead and include one, it doesn't hurt, just make it short and to the point. Just say something like: Enclosed is "Insert name here", an approximately xxxx word short story for your consideration. Sincerley, signed, encl: SASE that's it.
Posted by Nexus Capacitor (Member # 1694) on :
I'd recommend a Brother HL-1440 personal laser printer. They sell for under $150 at Staples these days. It has a 250 sheet paper tray and it comes with a full toner cartridge. It's fast and quiet and the print looks very nice.
A laser printer IS nice . . . as long as you're not going to use it for personal stuff as well, stuff that requires color (color lasers are too expensive for the average J.B.). I have a HP PrinterScannerCopier, and I LOVE it. Sure, the ink is a little more, but it lasts a LONG time. I printed out nearly a thousand pages for some submissions, and I haven't gotten a "low ink" warning yet. The color cartridge is getting low, but I've used it regularly for more than a year. I don't have problems printing out manuscripts with it, so speed shouldn't be too much of an issue with short stories. It'll do more than a hundred pages (double spaced courier) in five minutes, and the quality is outstanding.
Plus, you get the color copier and scanner. S'good.
Posted by Jules (Member # 1658) on :
I'm more than happy with my LaserJet 6L. A toner cartridge lasts for many-many months, and I don't only use it for my writing, so I'm probably printing an average of 5 sheets per day I think. I think for anyone producing a lot of output (read: novel manuscripts more than about once a year), laser is the way to go, purely because you get so much more printing out of a laser toner cartridge than you do an inkjet ink cartridge, for only about twice as much cost.
Oh, and Phaser printers are cool, yes. My university had one back in about 95, when they were just Tektronix and nothing to do with Xerox. They also had a Xerox colour laser, and the comparison between the two in terms of quality... there wasn't one. The Xerox produced passable quality images. The Phaser prints looked like a magazine.
Posted by punahougirl84 (Member # 1731) on :
I appreciate the replies, and will look into the ones you suggested! I wanted to ask:
Christine - can you explain why the multifunctions I mentioned are not worth the money? I do prefer to have an all-in-one at the moment due to my space limitations for peripherals, but am willing to look into lower-cost alternatives if they are a better buy. Any suggestions? And thanks for the cover letter recommendation - I'll do it!
JB - can I ask which HP you are using?
At this point, just having a printer that plays nicely with XP, and doesn't run black lines through my text would be great. It would be nice to have one that can scan/copy from a book. And fax. And print text quickly (one cnet review said the HP 6110 prints 1 1/2 pages in a minute - that must be a typo). And have affordable ink. And do color.
I may think Laser when I am printing a larger volume.
Don't want much, do I?
Posted by JBShearer (Member # 9434) on :
I have a PSC 750, but they have the newer models out (I bought mine a year ago). When I print my manuscript copies, I buy the "bright white" paper. I print in "Draft quality", which is the fastest and uses the least ink. Contrasting with the extra white paper, you can use less ink and it looks just as dark--plus you don't get any smudges.
Posted by Jules (Member # 1658) on :
I don't know anything about the HP6110 but 1.5 ppm sounds reasonable for an inkjet printing high density in colour (which means they normally take 2 passes at each line).
One of the other reasons I like my LaserJet is its speed. I'm not sure how fast it actually is, but I'd guess somewhere around 7 or 8 ppm.
Posted by punahougirl84 (Member # 1731) on :
But that print speed wasn't for color! This is the quote from cnet: "OfficeJet 6110 prints ordinary text at the painfully slow rate of 1.5 pages per minute"
The copies are really clear from it - I made some myself - and the review confirmed that. But the review also said that "But prints made on ordinary 20-lb. photocopy paper didn't look so great. Printed text had a shadow or fuzzy outline, and color images looked somewhat washed out and had rough textures." So maybe the HP 6110 is not a good choice for a writer!
I will definitely try the idea of "bright white" paper with draft/econofast printing. If that solved my streaking problem it would be great, and if it saves on the expensive HP ink I currently use that would be a bonus. Thanks for the idea
I love the idea of the speed of a laser printer, but I would need two printers at that point - but maybe when my husband's printer dies we can get a laser printer!
I guess I'll keep looking
Posted by Nexus Capacitor (Member # 1694) on :
The only downside to a combo printer/scanner is that if one part breaks, you have to replace it all.
If you're really set on inkjet, walmart sells some Lexmark printers for under $40. I bought my wife one of those for color printing after I got the laser. It works well with XP and the print looks nice. Like all Inkjets, it's slow as dirt. At least it's faster than those old dot matrix beasts.
Posted by teddyrux (Member # 1595) on :
I use an HP laser. The print quality is better than on an inkjet and the cost per page is cheaper. Laser toner costs less than inkjet ink per page, even black and white. Of course, there's always Kinkos. They'll print out your submissions.
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you about the multifunction...I know nothing about printers and had to find five minutes of my husband's time to ask him. He says that if you actually need all the functions of a multifunction printer then it is cheaper than buying them all separately...but if all you need is a printer then they are more expensive to purchase up front, and more expensive to own and operate.
Posted by punahougirl84 (Member # 1731) on :
No problem! Everyone's input has been very useful, and I'm glad I have not jumped into a decision. What is weird is, after the discussion about using Courier New, I printed a draft of my current story in that font instead of TNR, and you can't see any streaking in econofast/draft mode! So I may yet get a little more life out of this printer - at least hope to use up the last cartridges. I figured out the problem it had about reconfiguring every time I went to print. It still has many issues, but that will give me time to do more research and determine the best printer for our needs. I do tend to do mostly printing, but I also copy, fax, scan... enough that it would be easier to have one machine. I'm thinking when we do replace it I'll go with an inexpensive multifunction, and also get a laser printer since I've had many good recommendations - it may be the best choice!
Posted by James Maxey (Member # 1335) on :
I also vote for laser printers. I use as Xerox Docuprint P8 I got for $300 about 3 years ago. Terrific print quality, 8 pages a minute printing speed, and I'm still on my original toner cartridge. I admit I'm a special case, though, since I really only print short stories and letters on it. I work at a Kinko's, so when it comes time to print out really big manuscripts (say, over 50 pages) I do it at work on one of the high speed laser printers. Being able to print a 400 page manuscript in less than 5 minutes is pretty sweet. Now, if you were a Kinko's customer and brought in your 400 page manuscript, it would cost you about $30 to have it printed. This may seem pricy at first, but if you use an inkjet 400 pages will take upwards of an hour to print and probably use up an entire ink catridge.
One final note is that I do own a multifunction fax/copy/inkjet printer. The text quality can't compete with the laser printer, and I've never installed it on a computer without running into some kind of driver problems. I do use it for the occassional color prints, but for the most part my experience with the multi-function units has been far more frustrating than my experience with the black and white laser printer.
