Were there ever combination Ink Jet & Laser printers?

casualsax3 · Post by **casualsax3** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 7:42 pm

Back when laser printers were black and white only, were there any models that offered integrated ink jet technology as well so they could do laser quality b&w, but also offer color?

SquareHead · Post by **SquareHead** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:47 am

Not that I heard of, but I wouldn't rule it out.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:04 am

I think I saw some of these being sold right next to that asian grocery store that sells orange juice beer milk in eight packs.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:30 am

they never combined the two mechanism together in a single printer - thats really unworkable - at the end of the day, you're mixing powder with wet paper one way, or taking wet paper and baking powder onto it the other.

the closest method is dye-sublimation

SquareHead · Post by **SquareHead** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:39 am

There was the short-lived ink jet that swapped its ink cartridges for a scanning cart.

Rashidi · Post by **Rashidi** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:18 pm

anyway both laser / ink-jet can't do what old dot-matrix can:
carbon-copy on multi-ply paper

i even have seen printer that using fax-paper,
hey no ink/toner required! (only good for mono-chrome printing)

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:35 pm

dot matrix can do color.

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:20 am

I used to have a color dot matrix printer. It was crap.

At work we have a "solid ink" printer. It's print quality is just like a color laser printer, but it uses blocks of wax instead of toner. It smells like crayons.

SquareHead · Post by **SquareHead** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 8:07 am

The only color dot matrix printer I ever owned was an Apple Image Writer or whatever. It did suck. I remember when people in the computer labs at school would try t print a picture they scanned using one of those. That was horrible and funny at the same time.

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 9:03 am

Mine was a Panasonic. After a couple of years of putting up with the crappy color and slow, noisy printing, my parents bought an ink jet.

Bent · Post by **Bent** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 3:12 pm

AntoineWG wrote:I used to have a color dot matrix printer. It was crap.

At work we have a "solid ink" printer. It's print quality is just like a color laser printer, but it uses blocks of wax instead of toner. It smells like crayons.

We had one like that where I used to work. It made really neat glossy printouts when it worked, but it was high maintenence.

Last year I bought a Dell 3110cn color laser. I was sick of spending so much money on ink for my inkjet. I am still glad I bought the laser, it has paid for itself already, and I still have 100% showing for toner levels in all colors.

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:01 pm

The bad thing about color laser printers is the quality. They really aren't suited for photo printing because the colors have to be dithered.

darkbenny · Post by **darkbenny** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:34 am

My b/w laser printer is probably the best computer investment I have ever made.

It was under 70 dollars, and the pages never stop coming. Every student should buy one.

soulmata · Post by **soulmata** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:01 pm

inkjet printers are gayer than aids

anyone who buys an inkjet printer for photo printing should be sodomized

hint: if you want to print color pictures go down to a damn kinkos or a walmart and have them produce color prints for you. it will be a hell of a lot cheaper than the cost of ink carts for you and the photos will be on better paper and last longer

Noxious Ninja · Post by **Noxious Ninja** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:05 pm

Some of Okidata's color LED printers can do pretty good photos. But, indeed, they're still not what you can get from a good inkjet or a professional printer.

Ichinisan · Post by **Ichinisan** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:21 am

soulmata wrote:inkjet printers are gayer than aids

anyone who buys an inkjet printer for photo printing should be sodomized

Absolute truth. I don't know how I would keep up with eBay and schoolwork if I had to wait more than 10 seconds for a printout.

Tip: Multifunction devices are a useless waste if it can't match the speed of a laser printer. Mine Sharp has sheet-feeding and flatbed-scanning, both of which I use all the time for Xerox-style copying. It also functions well as a standalone color scanner in Windows. Toner is super-cheap and easily refillable (not sanctioned by the manufacturer). It was well worth the $130 I paid for it. Now if I had a landline...I might actually use the fax function.

funkyass wrote:they never combined the two mechanism together in a single printer - thats really unworkable - at the end of the day, you're mixing powder with wet paper one way, or taking wet paper and baking powder onto it the other.

the closest method is dye-sublimation

Consumer-grade dye-sub printers are also quite slow last I checked.