The funny thing is that the laser printer is much better for people who print once a week or less, because toner doesn't dry up and clog the printer. But for the price/quality it's hard to justify buying a new one.
But you do need to keep it and use it over a long period of time to justify the initial outlay. The cheap inkjet may very well be a better deal for most people even if they have to junk it every few years (especially now that the need to print paper copies keeps diminishing).
Realistically, how many people need and really expect high quality color prints? I’m sure the tech has improved marginally, but I was always disappointed as a kid with inkjet photo prints compared to professional prints. Most people would be better off having professional prints made rather than owning inkjet, very rarely do other documents require high quality color.
how many people need a printer, period? i haven't needed one for decades. if i need to print something i go to a print shop.
my mother (80yrs old) recently bought a printer because she was printing out poems and stories she had written over the years. that made sense for her, but i think that is going to be the exception, unless you live in a suburb or outside a city/village where a print shop is far away.
My kid had like $500 worth for printing available at his college and literally didn't use any of it. That said, during covid, I printed a ton of stuff for the kids for school. And it's nice to have one for crafty projects and printing forms for work and the government that can't yet be done online.
I take photocopies of kid's activity book pages for my kids to draw on so they're more than one-time-use.
When I know I'm going to cook something big and messy I like printing off the recipe first and treat it as disposable. Same goes for when I'm about to go wrench on the car or motorcycle, having all the torque specs and diagrams and what not printed and handy even with greasy grimy hands is nice.
Then in the end I'll still want some kind of scanner around for those things I get that aren't digital yet. Phone "scanning" apps just aren't as good of quality IMO.
But yeah, outside of these things if I want a high-quality print I just print online. Lots of places around me can take print jobs online and have common stuff all ready in an hour or so.
This is exactly what I do. There is a great shop a few minutes away and I can order fairly low volumes at great quality. Anything worth printing is worth getting done on their printer which is better quality and the the volume I print likely cheaper overall.
I went to a Brother color laser printer for home and send out high quality color prints to companies with high quality commercial photo grade or print grade equipment
