Looking for a printer......
 

I'm presently considering the purchase of a printer (colour) having struggled along without one for some time. I especially require good Black and White performance as I expect to print copious pages of text and line diagrams. I'd appreciate any recommendations or comments you may have.
Thanks all.

HP950C
 

I have been using an HP950C for about eighteen months and am well pleased with speed, quality etc. It may have a slightly different number in the USA/UK etc. Cost me Australian$400:00.

Epson have just produced their '895', about A$850, gaining a good reputation.

If you are going to print a LOT of text/line drawings I would suggest you consider getting a black and white Laser printer. The cost of consumables (ie INK) for ink-jet printers can be considerable if you are printing a lot of pages.

Ebuyer have a good selection of lasers from just £100.

If you need colour just now and again, colour ink-jets are available from about £50

Thank you both - that has given me some food for thought.

Ta, again.

Do you already have a scanner?

Lexmark have a new 'all-in-one'. Its the Lexmark x75. Its a 1200dpi scanner, 2400dpi colour printer and a copier all in the size of the average printer. Cost £99 on QVC, £120 from Dabs.

Anyone got one yet? Anyone had an x73 predecessor?

(Editted - QVC price one day only, now £120 also but includes USB cable)

After much deliberation I blew the dust off my credit card and bought a Hewlett-Packard hp5550. Excellent performance in both colour and black and white modes. B & W quality as good as laser print.
(Sits back and awaits arrival of account from Visa.)

Background Noise
Don't know about the Lexmark but have recently organised an HP G85 for a friend. Has fax as well as copier, scanner, printer and (usefully) can be used stand-alone for copying and faxing. Print quality is excellent and built like a brick-built outhouse! :)

My venerable Lexmark packed in a while ago, and being a total cheapskate, I went out and bought a Canon S200 from PC World for £60. The printout is not fast but it is very respectable. Black ink cartidges very cheap (£7), colour cartidges less so (£25). The printer can take a colour cartidge and a black cartidge at once, so there is no cartidge swapping required.

My advice would be that unless you need a particular feature e.g. very fast printing or photographic capability; a cheap printer will be bertter for you than a dearer one.