I need to buy a new printer to replace my old HP inkjet.
- Lately I've been doing a lot of desktop publishing (brochures, business cards, etc.) and want to bring the printing in-house rather than always relying on a print shop. So I need a printer with excellent output quality both for color and for black&white documents. It should also provide a decent number of pages per minute (such as more than 10 ppm with a setting of "best quality" color).
- I have both a Mac and a Windows PC, and need it to work with both (either on my LAN or direct plug-in). I don't need wireless.
- I especially want one that does "bleeds" (aka borderless printing). If it also does duplex printing, that's a plus, but not absolutely necessary, since I can make that happen manually, and my experience with duplexing hasn't been all that positive in the past.
- I do NOT want an "all-in-one" or "multifunction" machine because I already have a scanner (which I also use to make copies of documents to store or print) and I can fax directly from my computer.
- I've always stood by HP products because of their reputation for quality and human factors engineering. However, I'm open to suggestions of printers by other manufacturers.
- As for cost, my preference is to stay under $500.00, but if I have to go higher to get what I need, I'll consider it. I'm also concerned with operating costs, such as the number of and cost of inks or toners and how long the cartridges last.
- Finally, the monthly duty cycle is important, since on certain projects I will be printing hundreds of pages, which can add up pretty quickly with multiple projects during the course of a month.
I've been researching printers for 3 days now and haven't yet found the exact product for my needs. Any suggestions???
