Have an inkjet and a laser printer so most of my stuff goes to the laser. So I sometimes don't use the inkjet (HP 4655 all in one) and the ink dries out and isn't always able to be cleaned. Had thought about running all the print jobs through CUPS on a linux box that is always running and only printing a test page if I hadn't printed anything in the last week but that is complicated and I might not do something that uses both the color and black inks. I could do a cron job to just print a simple page every x number of days - thinking 7 -10 days. Need to find or make a simple document that has both color and black but not a big amount that wastes ink. Anyone done something like this? The internal cleaning pages are fairly simple but I don't see a way to do those via the network.
printer test page to prevent inkjet drying out
- Thread starter JimS
- Start date
That's what I am thinking of doing if I don't find a similar one. I also want a black square. The black cartridge is what has dried out this time. And rather than try to keep track of my use and remember to print when needed (which I know I won't be able to do) I am going to set up an automatic job to print it once a week. Might make the squares smaller to save on ink.
Using Microsoft Word I put 4 rectangles on a page, each about 1" square. I made them black (000000), yellow (ffff00), cyan (00ffff), and magenta (ff00ff). Then printed to a pdf and used cron to send it to the printer once a week. The black square printed badly indicating it was using the black cartridge. The others printed their respective colors well. I think I could reduce the size of the squares to save a bit of ink and I wonder what the required frequency of print needs to be but it works and should be fine at the current settings.
Best thing I ever did was to get a colour laser printer, after paying for 4 or 5 inkjet printers as well as 15-20 ink cartridges. The $300 I spent on a Brother wireless laser printer over the last ten years has been far cheaper than all the inkjet junk I have wasted money on. (about $3-4K)
For good quality photo images I use the machines at Walmart for the 17 cent prints.
For good quality photo images I use the machines at Walmart for the 17 cent prints.
pete_c
Guru
Here got rid of my color ink jet printers some 10 plus years ago. Keeping it simple here with an office style HP Laser printer and Canon MF laser printer. For photos use Amazon. I still have an old Alps MD5000 (decals et al) here which I do occasionally use.
Last year told retired neighbors to throw away their HP Inkjet printer and purchase the same Canon MF combo printer that I am using.
It's been working fine with their MAC desktop computer.
Last year told retired neighbors to throw away their HP Inkjet printer and purchase the same Canon MF combo printer that I am using.
It's been working fine with their MAC desktop computer.
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I prefer the Brother units due to more user friendly GUIs etc. but the mian issue is make sure you can get generic toner cartridges on amazon or ebay. The manufacturers cartridges will cost you more than the printer is worth and will not print as many pages.
As an example for my Brother MFC-9130CW each toner cartridge (x4) is about $120 CAD. Printer was about $329??.
I can get many different vendors combo packages on amazon.ca with the three colours and two black toners cartridges (5 pc) for about $49-$59 complete for all five and instead of 1200 page cartridges they are all 2100 page cartridges.
BTW: The toner cartridges do the same thing as some inkjets do. They have a CPU based counter inside them and at the rated page limit, they stop working. The generic ones typically do not. Ignore all the void warranty crap. They use the same powders.
So they have started putting counters (and probably other things to try to prevent non-OEM) somewhat like inkjet cartridges in toner cartridges? Not surprised but have used HP lasers - Laserjet 4 and now a 4000. Old enough that it is just a simple toner cartridge and prints until out of toner. I have had some issues with off brand ones so try to stick with OEM. How would I determine the quality of the non-OEM other than Amazon feedback?
pete_c
Guru
I went from a Brother MF to a Canon MF that looks like a mini copy machine here a few years back. I have replaced the Canon cartridge only once with a generic Amazon cartridge since purchased from Amazon. Its been fine. It is a combo wireless and wired printer. Canon imageClass. The picture makes it look bigger than actual size.
Next to this printer is an HP office style laser jet (old) and continues to work fine. I use the Canon more than the HP these days.
Next to this printer is an HP office style laser jet (old) and continues to work fine. I use the Canon more than the HP these days.
