Hey lemmy. I’ve been paying out of pocket to get stickers printed from online printing companies. But its getting expensive and I think I’d like to get a printer to do the job.
HOWEVER, I’ve been avoided getting a printer, because, well, the whole thing is just a shit show. Our household went through like a printer a year for almost four years. Between ink prices, and the printers just failing, we threw our hands up and said fuck it. Not playing this game, so we shifted to printing services or the local library.
So I’m looking for a very basic (I think?) printer. Honestly, a black only printer might even be fine. I’ve heard I think that maybe Canons or Brothers are the ones you want and HP’s are to be avoided. The purpose of the printer will be to print stickers on sticker paper. What printer should I buy?
Like other posts - brother, laser.
My ancient HP laserjet died a few months back so I picked up a brother. It amazed me that I just plugged it in (Linux) and it worked. No hplip, no cups config, just worked.
Even more impressive, I tried the network/wifi print out of curiosity and it also just worked… Nothing special, Debian 13 auto discovered it on the network and added it to my printer list.
I had the HP for over 15 years and it was always a bitch to get working with Linux. Hoping this brother lasts at least as long.
Make sure you know the price of sticker paper and whether you’re really saving any money.
I think canons been enshittified, but mines been solid for over a decade. I buy cheap third party ink, and the difference is big enough to save money even if it’s another cartridge per session. Realistically I haven’t printed anything in like two years
Cannon definitely enshitified. I have one from 5 years ago that is taking up space on my desk because I haven’t got around to the Office Space treatment.
My first big problem was when it wouldn’t scan documents because the color ink cart was out, completely unnecessary for the task at hand! It always had issues with feeding paper unless it was perfectly aligned and you’d made thr proper blood sacrifices but it just doesn’t load paper at all any more, just spins wheels pretending it wants to move paper.
My wife has a brother black/white laser printer. I got it about 5yrs ago and still going with no issues. She does sell things and makes labels and also uses a small thermal printer that pumps out label packages. Not sure if that can double for stickers for you, but could be an option.
My Brother printer can legally vote in the next election and it’s still kickin
Mine is about old enough to buy alcohol, although the NIC died and the Linux drivers for a print server are garbage, so I replaced it with another Brother (found nearly brand new in the Goodwill bins for $10)
It definitely still works as a wired printer, though.
Brother laser printers are my current go to
I had a brother printer (mfc) that i bought and gave to my friend after a couple years. bought another and the colors are off but it works. the ink dries out tho so i was thinking my next printer might use toner/lasers. i just buy ink cartriges, i don’t refill.
If you are fine with ink printers, get inktank which you can refill yourself with pretty much any ink you can find. Never buy ink cartridge one like ever. Also, I would opt out of ink printers if you are not using them so often and if speed is preferable. They are slow as fuck and in my experience, a seldom used printer would at some point clog and it is pretty much impossible to clean this shit out.
As for laser ones, get preferably Brother. I have Lexmark and their toners can be refilled at home which is nice but I believe Brother toners if not easily refillable at home, can be refiled at print shops for cheap. Also, look for part availability so that in case of some part become broken, you can easily get a replacement off the web. Then you’re set!
I have bought a brother laser printer 8 years ago. It just stop working, because of a know problem of not turning on. There’s a workaround that a used, and lately let it always on, but it finally stopped working, even with the workaround. Although it was a good printer because I would have spend many times its value if I had used the cheap ones. I also have a xerox and canon laser printer and so far so good.
After a long time with HP printers, i switched to Epson Ecotank series. Way better with regards to ink usage and prices.
Key features for me: all-in-one device that also scans and copies, feeder for the scanner, double-sided printing, color.
The Brothers are really good, but the Ricohs closely behind and a little cheaper. Both with relatively few bullshit going on.
I can’t say much about brands, I bought a Samsung color laser years ago and still use it.
What I will say is being able to network print is amazing and well worth having. I can print from my tablet, phone, or desktop.
i think samsung doesn’t manufacturer printers anymore since a very long time ago. iirc it’s a rebranded hp printer (at least in samsung’s homeland korea) and quite notorious for breaking often
My samsung printer had terribly unreliable network access. I could never figure out what its problem was.
In the end I connected a raspberry pi zero with a cups server to the usb port and let that one handle all the printer requests. It works so much better now.
Brother laser printer. Mine’s going on 9 years now, a cartridge lasts so long I have to look up how to change it when it finally needs it.
Instead of buying a new printer, can you print at a local print shop/library/university? That might end up being the cheapest option
I have been for a few years. ITs time to buy my own. Also, some of the contents of the stickers are… well… sensitive to say the least.
Brother laser or bust. I use mine once a month Max and it’s been years since I even serviced it, they simply last forever with no maintenance. Color laser is significantly more expensive for the initial buy than inkjet but supplies are infinitely cheaper per-page. Problem being I don’t know how laser behaves with most sticker package paper, so you’ll need to research your preferred stickers to make sure they are compatible.
See if you can find a used Brother laser printer. The older Brother printers are fantastic. I thought I heard somewhere Brother had started to enshitify their newer products (last coulple of years). But I might be wrong there.
It was a mountain out of a molehill situation. Basically, brother toner cartridges can do an internal calibration to fix minor alignment issues. For off brand toner, it needs to be done manually. It had been that way for a while. The original author just got some particularly misaligned cartridges and “discovered” this.
Other than that, I’ve seen no signs of enshitifcation from Brother. I ended up buying a brother colour laser not long afterwards, and have been quite happy so far.
I just got a new brother laser DCP-L6600DW after my old brother laser started malfunctioning after nearly 15 years of duty. They both work fine, even with 3rd party toners. I’m using Debian BTW, but my phone also worjs fine with it. I did have to install the brother driver package, as the Debian included one didn’t work quite right.
I hear that once in a while, but so far it seems to be mostly haters have to take everything to the extreme vs a real problem. Still things could change.
Only advice I can give is if you are just printing on paper, pay the extra $ and get a laser printer. Avoid inkjets - they are a complete scam and a waste of money. The toner will last 10x longer, never goes bad or clogs up the print heads, and the quality is better.
I don’t know how laser printers handle sticker sheets, but for all practical printing purposes I wholeheartedly recommend a laser printer.
Brother is also a solid brand. I have had mine for almost 10 years now and it’s still running like the day I got it.
For sticker sheets you want a straight through paper path - this often means feed sheets one at a time, and catch them out the back instead of letting them to to the paper tray.
Stickers meant for printing in printers generally will work with a normal feed though, so if you don’t mind opening your printer you can take a chance and normally be okay.
