this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2026
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Thinking about my most recent desire to have a printer, which I haven't had in many years, I was building a bed, and it would have been nice to have a cut sheet printout to take to the garage. Instead, I used my tablet, which worked well enough.
It's so rare that I use paper for taking notes, I have to track down something to write on, often it's an envelope.
It'd be nice to have a printer around for occasional use, but I'm afraid the ink would dry up between uses.
Get a cheap laser printer. The toner won't dry out, and you can get a very reliable printer for cheap. The Xpress series from Samsung was cheap and very reliable. Unfortunately, Samsung does not manufacture printers any more and their printer business was bought by HP. I have no idea how new HP models compare to the old ones.
I'd probably look at Brother, a monochrome laser printer can be had for $120, and Brother generally has a good reputation. If you want to print in color, that'll be more expensive of course. Honestly, I haven't had a color printer in 11 years and I don't miss it, but YMMV.
Remember to include the price of a new toner cartridge when looking for a cheap laser printer. Some become quite expensive when you include it.
When I bought a small office laser printer for making stickers it took me four years before I needed to change the cartridges. It only came with those partially full ones too. Unless you're printing dozens of full color sheets a day the cost of cartridges is likely a minimal consoderation
I once bought a Xerox for very cheap for office work. Buying a brand new Brother was cheaper than buying toner for it.
You could if you want. But then again, remember that most people will be replacing that toner cartridge only once every 2-5 years. So it's not like a major expense.
It depends on how much you print of course, like if you're a teacher or something, you might print a lot.