| Portrait of Jean Miélot, The Scribe at Work. 1456. Jean Le Tavernier |
Today, I want to share with you a printer that made our life so much easier. I have hated every printer I've ever known. In the offices of my workplaces, I dealt with huge machines that jammed up all day. In my home, our personal HP ink jet printer went through ink cartridges like an old chain smoker. We were always running out of ink. I think we got 20 pages per ink cartridge. And even though we weren't heavy printers, it would always run out of ink during the most important and time sensitive moments. In those hectic deadline situations, our HP printer always failed. The fifth page would be nothing but faded lines. We would rush to Walmart and pay $25.00 on a new ink cartridge. During Covid, we bought a DIY ink refill kit to save money on HP ink. One morning before an important appointment, I went to print a document. Of course, I had to refill the ink. My hands were black with ink, and the pages came out smeared with ink globs. I was trying not to get ink on my clothes before our appointment. And that, my dear readers, is when I lost it. Having a bad printer made everything chaotic.
| Unidentified female office worker sitting at a desk using a large computer. 1981-1990 circa |
I know a product is awesome when I never have to think about it. This is the case with my Brother printer. I've had it for three years. It is the easiest printer I've ever used. It has never jammed or smeared ink. It has a paper tray that can hold 250 sheets of paper. Best of all, we are still on the first ink cartridge three years later! I found out about it from a woman who runs a money saving website called Southern Savers. She prints out a lot of coupons and did the math on the most economical printer. She stated her black and white Brother printer was the best printer. Boy was she right. Here is her old post with the Brother printer model number and ink info HERE. Listen to what she says about the Brother printer:
The Brother Printer is a black & white laser printer. It can print 500-700 sheets with the toner it comes with and then you can replace the toner with a high yield cartridge for around $20. The replacement will print 1700-2000 sheets! For the cost of one inkjet replacement you have a new awesome printer!! Seriously guys, I have 2 of these and haven’t replaced the toner in either of them in the past year.
We bought a Brother HL-L2320D in July 2022 from Staples. It came with the ink cartridge that we are still using. Unfortunately, that model is no longer available now. I truly believe that any Brother laser printer would be dependable. And for the mid tech users like us, they have wireless printer models that can use wires.
When you break free from your ink jet printer trap, you can finally use your printer and not just for your updated car insurance cards while keeping your fingers crossed praying it will print. You can print fun things. In my opinion, a printer is a really fun overlooked analog tool. It's a way to take online information and make your own hard copy. Today, I use my Brother printer with abandon. I print recipes. I print out letters to my family. I print out prayers like our favorite daily Auxilium Christianorum Prayers. I print my Clemson University garden planting date guide (4 pages long) for my garden binder. I have printed a typed list in alphabetical order of all our DVD titles in our collection (easy site to alphabetize.) I even printed out our primary election sample ballot, so I can research candidates better. I print out all these extra things because printing is no longer difficult. Printing is cheap and fun. Please buy a Brother printer and break free. It might cost a little more upfront, but you'll never have to think about printing ever again. And, that my friends, is priceless. God bless you and thank you for reading!
| Illuminated page "Ave Maria, gracia ple[na]",15th century. Robinet Testard |
| Letter R Crop Crop of folio 52r w:Heures de Charles d'Angoulême |