If you need color, then I highly recommend the Epson EcoTank line of printers. No printer cartridges AT ALL - just raw 4 color ink. They cost more than most inkjet printers up front . . but more than save in the long run. And NO DRM in site . . rather difficult to put DRM into liquid ink . . .
Just a heads up, ECO tanks do have a sponge inside to collect inks. This sponge needs to be replaced periodically. Once replaced a counter needs to be reset, and that's only achievable through their service (it costs about 50€ where I live). In my experience it seems to be required about every 6000 prints
Thank you I will look into this
HP Smart Tank Plus 555 Wireless now sells for 179,90€ and has the same concept. A great product anyone looking for a new printer.
Alternatively you can get a second hand HP 3070A (Wifi, Scanner, Airprint) for around 20€ and use refillable cartridges. Or just unbranded ones that sell for cheap. The thing I like about this particular model is that the cartridges just hold ink there's not much hardware like other models, no print-head in the cartridge itself, just a simple chip that china has cloned perfectly.
I will never buy an HP again after their printers (the ones that didn't die) start giving "missing printhead" errors after an update if it thinks you are using non-HP ink (even when you are using HP ink) and is unrepairable. Replacing the printhead is a 50/50 shot for 75% of the cost of a new printer
Seconding Brother laser printers. They’re workhorses and I’ve had good luck with cheap third party cartridges
Ender 3.
... woops, wrong community.
If you didn't need colour, this could be an option, albeit a slow one.
There are color lithophanes now. Check them out, they look amazing.
My Brother B&W laser printer is a beast. I've had it probably eight years now and am only, two months ago, on my 3rd toner cartridge despite my relatively low use. That counts the starter cartridge which I am told isn't full.
My Brother color printer on the other hand is a pain. The yellow toner always runs out first and it won't print without it. Well, it can, if you finagle things, but then it only does for like 3-4 weeks. Annoying as shit.
But, overall, better than any HP or Canon I've ever used.
Both of my Brother laser printers are over 10 years old now and they have been working great. My mono laser printer has an open source driver. Unfortunately, there is no open source driver for my color laser printer, but there is no DRM either. The toner cartridges have a mechanical toner level reset if you want to refill them.
The newer Brother laser printers support driverless printing, so you don't have to worry about closed source drivers.
You are going to be stuck with closed source firmware unless you connect a teletype to your computer though.
Most comments comments mention Brother, but for me, Oki is working like a charm. Using a B431dn (b/w, duplex) and a C531dn (color, duplex) with PPD files from OpenPrinting. Older models though, not sure if Oki dropped quality in favour of DRM since.
Rules of thumb:
- Laser instead of ink unless you specifically know that you need/want ink.
- Stay away from HP, Canon, and probably Epson. HP, like IBM, has long lost its aspiration for quality.
- Stay away from anything that is ‘smart’ or ‘cloud’.
expired
A tip from the verge
https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine
I heard Brother is good. I'm sure there are better, but try to look into it
no DRM
Probably a dot matrix from the 90's
Open source
Closest I've seen is open source plotters.
This but also no MICs (the yellow dots)
Black and white only then
HP is a shitty company and also has really good Linux support.
None of them are open source. HP does that ink rental stuff that a lot of people don’t understand or they buy a printer that does it exclusively(?). The laser side has been unaffected.
Brother is also supposed to have good support. My last printer was a Brother multifunction and unfortunately it had poor support, which is how I ended up with an HP laser today.
I've heard Brother isn't what it used to be, but if it's even half of what it used to be, it's still in a league above any other printer.
