Just began the research curve. I see they have monochrome laser printers available, which is all I'd need. And I don't need it to be a copier, scanner and fax machine, just a printer for black text. I can use my inkjet for printing up digital paintings or photos and for all the scanning etc.
It takes research to make a recommendation, sometimes really extensive research because companies can turn evil at any moment, but I can still recommend Brother. Specifically, Brother HL-L2370DW. That thing can print 1200 text pages with a single toner cartridge (not the starter one it includes). That's the one I had my friend buy. BTW I think we might be slightly de-railing...
I recently bought a Brother HL-L2325DW laser printer to replace the HL-2370 I bought in 2006 (and which would still be working fine if I hadn't knocked it off the stand). I'll never buy any laser printer brand other than Brother.
Oh my bad! I thought this was the "What hardware/software do you use" thread. Thank you for all your help. I've settled on a simple monochrome Brother that only prints and isn't a Swiss Army knife device that tries to do a dozen other things as well. And now I end my attempted (but unintentional) coup of this thread!
This is the first one I looked into, it was recommended highly. But a lot of Amazon comments said you have to use some kind or proprietary software to connect or set up or something, that fails miserably most of the time apparently, at least for some people. I veered away because of that and opted for the Brother HL-L2300D. Not sure if it uses the same connectivity setup or not, but nobody mentioned a problem with it. Just hitting and hoping.
This shouldn't have been that funny... oh my God... You only need the bare-minimum drivers for it, but if you aren't particularly good at solving computer problems it might be best to get something easy to setup. The model you picked up has a D in the end instead of DW, so it's non-wireless (works only with USB) which is fine if you don't mind. I suspect this is also why people have an easier time with it, no need to bother with networking stuff. Seriously though, let's end it there, else we might awake the moose.
I had a Brother laser printer as well. Can't remember the model number but it worked from my Windows desktop and both my Macbook and Linux laptops. I don't think I installed the full software suite but just the minimum needed to make the device work.
I got the Pantum P2502 from Amazon earlier this year. Setup was easy, Print quality was acceptable, for a $100 laser printer, but it died after a month in storage. We I tried to get a replacement under warranty, all I got was a run around, so this company is definitely one to avoid.
We use Brother 2300s here. We probably have a 100 of them. You made a fine choice. They're not fancy but everyone seems to like them. You don't need special software for that model. I install just the basic driver, but Windows 10 will pick your printer up automatically anyway so you don't have to even install that. I'm assuming Win11 is the same . . . The only trick I've found is that the Windows driver doesn't have duplex activated, so you have to dig through printer settings to turn it on. That only matters if you're printing two sided though. Those printers used to cost about $80, even less when on sale. They're not so cheap anymore but at least you got one. They were sold out for all of 2020-2021, basically impossible to get for a fair price. The other nice thing about those is the knockoff toners work fine in them. You can refill pretty cheap, and you'll need to. The initial toner never prints much. Every company does that trick.
We lease a $10K Canon super-duper-whatever-the-fuck to print menus and high gloss promotional crap. The thing is half the size of a car and has more technical issues than a Russian space station.
I haven't actually bought it yet, but it's in my cart as I do some more research. Everything is saying yes, get this one. I specifically just wanted a USB connection. I suspect the people having trouble connecting were going wireless. I think I'll go ahead and press the Buy button now. You know, if a mod wants to, they could split this part of the convo off and make a new thread from it. It is getting rather extensive.
We lease Laniers for the real work, but everyone likes having their own printer. Too far to walk or something. Man, I hate it, haha.
Right, lets just get back on point. . . I was going to mention this. I use Nebo on a Samsung tablet and that works well with a stylus. That way you can write like on paper and still save your file into text. The handwriting recognition of it is really good. Sometimes I question how on earth it knew what I wrote, haha! You can write your story in cursive. You can do basic edits like deleting a word or inserting words, breaking lines with an enter, that sort of thing. I have a Samsung phone and use Nebo on it. (I only get phones with styluses because of writing.) You can scribble down 500 words or so and export it later. Here, I tried to jump to the note taking part. It's pretty cool, but maybe I'm old and easily impressed. Not sure if this shows editing . . . You just strike out what words you don't want with a line and they delete. You draw a little caret ^ and it will scoot words out of the way for you to add more. It'll word wrap your cursive as you edit so that it looks okay. That's about all I need to write a first draft. I'm always waiting for a black and white, e-ink tablet with a paper texture. It's got to be fast with no lag on the pen strokes. There are some out there but they're too proprietary, IMO. Or just too expensive. I'd love to use this program on that setup.
Yes!!! That's what I do, those knockoff toners (aka aftermarket cartridges) have caps on the side you can pop off to top up with toner straight out of a bottle. When I said that, people attacked me on a subreddit about how I'm going to kill my printer. Imo, there's probably some risk but nothing's happened to me, nothing's happened to my friend, and it looks like yours is fine too.
I sometimes write by hand. It can feel more freeing and honest in a way. A few years ago, I would have said I never write by hand. I'm not exactly sure why or how that changed, but I can feel called to the pen and paper where I've been known to do some of my best work.
I write a lot on paper, but that's only brief notes, such as things I'm told during a phone conversation that I don't want to forget. All proper writing is naturally done on a computer, because then it can be saved and easily edited. It's also much easier to read than my handwriting.
Unless you're the sort of person for whom writing is like opening the sluice gates --- in which case you can just use whatever is most practical for later editing and so on (i.e. digital) --- its definitely worth giving in when pen and paper, that old typewriter, a white-board, chalk on the pavement, pissing in the sand or whatever else, starts to 'drag you in its direction'. Just get it out! Fret about how to best store it later.* For real saving and run-forever value try a tractor fed dot matrix. Ink practically free. I use an Oki Microline. I'm with you. Been waiting for this for about ten years, whenever e-ink started to break out from Kindles. It still seems a long way off. ____ * But do fret about how to store it. Some great comments about digital longevity on this thread so far. In short, if you really really want to keep your work, write it on three different velum volumes and put them in vaults across the country in geologically safe locations. Everything else has its vulnerabilities. Except carving it in 10ft letters in stone, but it had better be flash fiction... ("I am Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works ye mighty, and despair." "Mod: Sry newbie, need to do you three crits first, see the rules." Thread locked.)
I do have a Panasonic dot matrix! But my laser is much faster, so I only really have it because its cool retro technology. Also, the noise, I probably wouldn't stand the TZZZZZZZZZZZ as the pins hit the paper to print my novels. I think a dot matrix works similarly to a typewriter in principle. There is an ink-soaked ribbon, and that ribbon gets hit on the back to imprint a shape on the paper with the ink. Only instead of those typewriter metal arms with the letters engraved to them, there are a number of pins which the printer pushes frontwards accordingly to form the shape of a letter. The more pins, the more precise it can shape it. I'm pretty sure it's that pushing action that makes the TZZZZZZZZZZZZ sound.
You can only re-ink ribbons so much before they wear out. With current technology, the dot matrix printer is most useful for creating multiple copies at the same time, such as business forms.. But even that has been replaced with the laser printer and a copy machine in most business.
And working for ever in dusty environments without ever breaking down. Kind of like Terry Pratchett's golems (because this is a writing forum).
#2 pencil with a LARGE eraser. I may have to learn how to use modern means. The frustration of trying to get it on the computer dissolves what creativity I started with.
Checking out the Kindle Scribe. Nothing is going to take me away from my fountain pens for fiction writing but this will be handy for work, I think.
