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Most people don't need a color laser printer. Heck, until recently, color laser printers were so expensive that most individuals and small businesses couldn't get them. But now, with the laser printers we see here, color laser printing has become practical-and for some purposes, even more cost-effective than inkjet printing.

Author: David Gewirtz for DIY-IT | May 17, 2021 | Topic: Hardware

This is about printers, especially laser printers: when you need one, you really need one. This applies especially to laser printers. If you have to print a lot, a laser printer can be a real victory.

We looked at all kinds of printers, from corporate monsters to stylish, high-performance, and inexpensive models that our editors rely on.

Now, let us make it clear. Not everyone needs to print a lot. If you are an individual (rather than a person working for a company), in most cases you may not need to print as much. The problem is that #adulting responsibility often comes up suddenly, and then you need all the tools.

If you are in business, you may need a printer. For example, if you process a large number of documents that need to be printed, you will need a printer. Some suppliers, customers and government entities still need to submit paper documents. If you are a real estate agent, lawyer or any other paper-centric business career, printing is essential.

Personally, I have gone through a lot of printer usage stages and the least printer usage stage. After the Internet boomed and Word had excellent document markup capabilities, I had a book editor who wanted to submit book edits on paper, with actual editing marks. When you have to print a 500-page book four to five times, nothing beats a laser printer.

A few years later, I had to deal with the medical care of my seriously ill parents, as well as the final care. The large amount of paperwork that needs to be scanned, faxed, printed, signed and processed overnight is shocking. Once again, we are in a world with the Internet and even Docusign, but it doesn't matter. A large number of paper documents proved to be necessary.

Buying a house is another paper-intensive task, especially when you are selling houses nationwide at the same time. Add all the printed materials, plus a notary, and you will understand my life for most of 2018.

All of these are chores for batch printing. When you print in batches, laser printers can beat inkjet printers almost every time. The reason is that inkjet printers can pass ink too quickly, usually in the middle of the document. If you just want to complete the work, please buy a laser printer and a large-capacity toner cartridge, you can print more than two reams of paper without refilling.

But what about color printing? So far, I have never owned a color laser printer. I think most people don’t because they just can’t get it at an affordable price. To be fair, in the dark ages of the 1980s, when the price of laser printers approached $7,000 (more than $16,000 in today's currency), I started using them. Those are black and white (printers, not from the 1980s), and we are happy to have shades of gray.

Most #adulting large documents that I have to print only need to be printed in monochrome. Consumer buying patterns confirm this. For my 2021 article on the best printers for home offices, I looked at the laser printers with the most commented and highest star ratings to gauge emotions. The three printers with the highest scores based on sentiment analysis are considered the best.

Interestingly, none of the most acclaimed laser printers are in color. They are all black and white. Most people buy color inkjet printers, but for batch document printing, they buy black and white laser printers. They may not know that color laser printers are actually affordable. Let's look at one next.

Color laser printers exist, and they are now surprisingly (mostly) affordable, and I have been testing one for the past month. Well, technically, my wife has been testing it. 

As early as March, HP sent me a $179 monochrome LaserJet MFP M234dwe as part of my tax preparation work. This is an exquisite small laser printer, and given its performance of 30 pages per minute, the price is quite cheap.

I put it in Fab Lab and performed some tests. When I put it back in the box, my wife asked, "Can it be printed in color?"

"No, honey. This is a laser printer," my man explained.

"So." Pause waiting for me to catch up. "There is a color laser printer."

"I know. But why do we need color laser printers? Our inkjet printers are doing well."

"Not for me. I need to print a lot. Color."

It turns out that a lot is really a lot. My wife is very active as a doll dressmaker and fabric artist. Some of her patterns have 50 or 60 pages of descriptions and full pages of color photos. These photos are not just for cover art. She carefully checked the photos, stitches, and how the clothing was constructed to guide her project.

We also prepared a new 12.9-inch iPad to store all of this, as well as the knitting and sewing magazines scanned by my wife. But she needs a color printer to print patterns, mark them, arrange them, cut them out, and use them. She interacts with prints to create her artwork. She does not need to change the ink cartridges frequently.

Of course, color laser printers are more than just printing artistic patterns. Marketing organizations can produce a sufficient amount of on-demand marketing literature to cover sales activities or training courses.

The engineer can print out the plan and use it for a working prototype. I printed out the designs of the projects I worked in the store and pasted them on the machines I used to make them. Users of scrapbooks who print a lot may find that color laser printers are more cost-effective than inkjet printers. A colleague planning a wedding discovered that she needed a large-capacity printer for the first time-for documentation and design.

In addition, inkjet printers use ink to print, and the ink is usually wet when it comes out. Ink does not always dry completely deep in a pile of pages. The last thing artists want is that the ink on the prints is applied to the materials they have been using. The pages printed by laser printers are dry and will not stain.

Denise has also served as editor-in-chief for more than 20 years and knows my project-oriented review process as much as anyone. She knows that I like to bring products into projects that I can test in context, not just for ruminant feed and speed.

"So," she suggested, "why don't you invite HP to send us a mid-range color laser printer, and I will see how it supports some real production work."

So I did. They did it. She did it.

So far, out of the box, she has printed a little more than a full ream of paper (500 sheets) and has not received any toner capacity warnings. It just continues printing.

The printer supports regular-capacity and large-capacity toner cartridges. The normal capacity is about 1,250 sheets, and the high capacity is twice that.

HP LaserJet Pro M283fdw

Now, one thing to note: toner is not cheap. The price of the black ink cartridge is slightly more than $60, and each color ink cartridge is close to $75. Therefore, you need to spend nearly $300 to replace all the toner in the machine. That is... daunting. Fortunately, each color is used up individually, so you only need to replace the used ink cartridge. And, of course, the inkjet cartridges you may be more accustomed to are also expensive because of the products they produce.

In terms of speed, it is about two-thirds of the speed of the pure black and white laser printer I reviewed in March. Its running speed is 30 ppm, while the printing speed of this color printer is 22. Even so, it is much faster than our inkjet printer, which itself is a business-grade machine.

I really like some annoying things about this printer. You can open the compartment on the back and reach the full paper path to easily reach and resolve any paper jams. So far, we haven't, but it's nice to know.

The paper tray can hold 250 sheets of paper. If you want to use a whole stack of paper in the printer at a time, you can purchase an additional paper tray. There is a neat small slot just above the tray. This is suitable for disposable paper printing, for example you want to print a card, envelope or label. This way, you don't have to remove the paper from the tray and set the width for one-time printing. very convenient.

The printer also has a 30-page automatic feed scanner. We have not used that much because we have used a dedicated double-sided scanner (the new scanner will be reviewed within a month). But we have used the printer to run the copy, and it does.

There is a fax option, we don’t use it because we no longer have a landline. You can connect to the printer via Wi-Fi, Ethernet or even the old-fashioned USB.

Having said that, give a hint. Ethernet is (obviously) more reliable than Wi-Fi. In addition, please consider setting a static IP for the printer on the router. I have encountered some challenges with dynamic IP and connecting to printers (like some other customers). On the bright side, the machine supports dual-band Wi-Fi, so you have some flexibility.

Undeniably, the price of the M283fdw is about $450, which is more expensive than the small monochrome machine I reviewed in March. But if you need color, it will be better. Once you have established a connection and locked, this thing is a tank. It will just continue to print, print and print.

how about you? Are you actively using the printer? Have you encountered any serious #adulting that requires printing documents recently? Please let us know in the comments below.

You can follow my daily project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @DavidGewirtz, Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz on Facebook, Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz on Instagram, and YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV on YouTube.

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