Maybe a new printer is in order.

[Philip]

I've been using a small desktop Epson photo printer (up to 4x6" prints) for more than a decade. I've never been especially happy that it can't do bigger prints, but I've slowly gotten out of the habit of wanting bigger prints. And the Epson has continually disappointed me when I turn it on after being off for a few weeks and discover the heads are dried up. And its wastage isn't just in ink -- Epson sells way more paper with their inks than I can use before it seizes up, so I have a small fortune invested in unused 4x6" paper. Grrrr.

Thus I am looking for a new printer. I want good prints, but my prime concern is the "infrequent use" one. I want something that does not need either extensive cleaning or a new ink supply when I turn it on after a season of no printing. It seems clear to me a laser printer is not what I need for photos. But it is not clear to me which printer to get.

Right now I am holding off investing in a new Canon Pixma G4210 (a "megatank" printer) because I am *not* sure it is better than my Epson in that regard, whether it will survive a few weeks of not being used.

Does anyone have any experience and/or advice on that?

Philip

[Julio1fer]

I got an Epson L210 about 5 years ago. It is a combination of a reflective scanner and inkjet printer, which uses ink tanks instead of cartridges. It self-cleans when needed.

I print very little and sparingly, although maybe after a trip I have a spree of 20+ A4 prints in glossy "photo paper". The L210 can handle smaller sizes than letter / A4. There is a software coming with the printer, "Easy Photo Print" that does the basic job.

The L210 is also our household shared printer. It has not had a single problem in about 5 years, except for a little routine needed to turn off a warning light that comes up after a few thousand prints.

[Philip]

Thanks, Julio. That is good to know. The tanks, in contrast to the little cartridges, seems to be the factor that allows infrequent use.
I'll let you all know what I get when I decide.

Philip

[alexvaras]

I got that one Julio says, easy to use for both photo and day by day printing, ink tanks seems much cheaper than cartridges.

[PFMcFarland]

I recently got the Epson "Small-in-one" XP-960 because it will do 11x17 prints. And being an all purpose office unit for copying, and printing out e-mails, receipts, and PDF forms, it gets enough use to keep things working fine. It holds 4x6 and 8.5x11 paper in the two bays, it has a slot for printing on CD's and DVD's, and you can insert single sheets of special purpose papers through the back slot. I'm not the happiest with the color output, but it may be a matter of using something other than the supplied drivers to control the machine. I'm still working on it, but have to rebuild my photo files which disappeared during the latest Microsoft "update", so haven't tested the driver theory yet. What is really great is the unit takes up no more desktop space than my old stand-alone Epson R280 which only did up to 8.5x11. Six inks come in either Standard size cartridges, or XL for lots of output.

PF

[Philip]

These are good suggestions. Thanks, everyone. I still have not figured out which I want. . .

Philip