Which printer? | Imamother

amother

Wed, Dec 06 2023, 2:22 am

TLDR: this is what I'm looking for:
All in one printer
Color
Under $100
Paper supply is kept in a covered horizontal tray
Decent print quality (not impressed with Canon so far)

I was happy with my old HP office jet that I had for years, but it's really not working well. Something is wrong with the paper feed, first it thinks it's out of paper then it sucks them all up at once and jams. It needs the printheads cleaned very often. It's just done. We had a great run.

The office jet line has gotten much more expensive so I no longer feel up to replacing it with an update of the same thing. I'm looking to spend under $100. Preferably closer to 50.

The less expensive HPs have one main issue for me: the paper sticks up in back instead of lying in a drawer. I find those very annoying. It leaves both the paper and mechanism vulnerable to dust damage (my apartment gets very dusty no matter how much I clean) and humidity - even when you don't feel humid the paper curls up and flops over. Basically I think sticking up paper is a bad idea and I can't understand why it's THAT ubiquitous.

So I found a nice looking Canon on cyber week for $60ish with a covered horizontal paper tray and decent reviews. I printed a couple of test pages. The b&w was ok, maybe a little hazy but it's not a laser printer so my expectations are low. The color test page seemed very pale and washed out. I printed the same page on my old printer to see if I was being realistic and sure enough it came out much bolder and vibrant.

So now I'm thinking of returning it and trying for something that actually prints well. But I'm not sure what that something is.

Help!