Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

Bring out yer dead! (printers, that is)

We used to have a big, heavy-duty, high-end printer. Now we don't. Or, more accurately, we used to have a big, heavy-duty, high-end printer that worked, and now we don't.

We got rather used to the convenience of such a beast. It did double-sided printing, in color, fairly fast. It connected directly to the network, so we could print from any computer in the house (and, in theory, from anywhere we had an internet connection, though I never did get around to setting that up.) It had two paper trays, the larger of which held a full ream of paper. And, the black ink was free.

Unfortunately, one of the bits inside failed -- just after the support contract ran out (of course) and before we got around to renewing it. The part costs more than the current version of the same printer. So, we have a rather large, heavy, paperweight taking up a third of Rachel's desk.

We know what we're going to do with the printer itself; the same person that introduced me (and my dad) to it is still using his. The question remains, however, as what to replace it with.

On the one hand, I definitely like the ability to do large print runs for business and pleasure. Double-sided printing is near essential now that I'm used to it. Color, of course, is a requirement for photos and such. The network connectivity, while nice, is not strictly necessary.

So, the question is, do we spring for another business-class printer or get multiple cheap home printers? Any thoughts? Anyone have any recommendations?