At 14:03 23/09/03 -0400, Chris Wolf wrote:

>This isn't strictly a network topic, but I'd like to hear about experiences
>with mid-range (~$2,000) networked color laser printers.  What do you have,
>and what is good and/or bad about it?  Thanks.
>
>--Chris

We like the HP Color Laserjet 4500 and its successors.   The first one was more than $2000 the way we configured it, but I suppose the price is somewhere in that range now.   A couple of people here also have the lower-end Color Laserjets -- I don't recall the model number offhand but they are in the $1000 range.

The 4500 has been running well for a few years with no major problems.  If I wasn't so lazy I'd walk next door and find out how many pages we've printed on it since we bought it.    I've had it serviced a few times.   Some of it was stuff I can fix myself now that I know.   It's a 4 ppm printer.   Toner and other consumables are expensive.    People would use it more than necessary, but the usage is self-limited by the fact that there is a fast Laserjet 8100 right next to it.  I'd like to get one of the newer, faster Color Laserjets but without some means of charging users for pages the cost of consumables would eat me alive.    So we'll carry on with what we have.

Ours sometimes gets used for printing brochures -- say 500 tri-fold pages, 2-sided.  These used to be done at print shops.   Sometimes I have to play referee to keep faculty members who want to print handouts before rushing to campus from coming to blows with those who are printing brochures.

It doesn't do full-bleed printing like you could get from a print shop, but people seem glad to work within that limitation.

John Gorentz
W.K. Kellogg Biological Station