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Inkjet Printers Are Trash
Why your next printer should be a laser printer
The inkjet printer has no place in a home.
Yet most people who buy a printer for their home buy an inkjet. They find the low cost, small footprint, and relatively stylish design of the inkjet printer appealing, so they buy it instead of a bulkier and more expensive laser printer.
But the inkjet printer isn’t meant for a home where it’s used sporadically and usually only for text documents. Ink dries out. The jets clog. You find yourself replacing cartridges as often as you’re adding paper. You end up miserable and anxious and unsure of when you’ll actually be able to print. That’s because the inkjet printer is designed to sell ink first and print things second.
Inkjet printers are like the batteries in a phone. When you’re using your phone daily, its battery feels like a dependable, if finite, resource. You know when you need to charge it, and you might even know for how long. But if you only used your phone once or twice a day, you wouldn’t be as aware of the battery life. You might find yourself charging it less often. Then one day you go to text a friend and find your phone shutting down. This is how I feel when I try to print after not using my inkjet for months. Both inkjet printers and phones are designed with the understanding that you’re using them daily.
Inkjet printers operate on the razor and blades business model. Starting in the 1920s, disposable razor blades were sold at a premium while the handles to hold them were sold cheaply. This gave the razor blade makers a continuous stream of revenue. Video games are also often designed this way now — with “microtransactions” providing a continuous stream of revenue after the initial low cost of the game itself. Arguably Apple’s App Store and the iPhone use this model, too.
The Tango X is still an inkjet printer and like every other one it’s a ticking time bomb waiting to fail me at the most crucial hour.
But no one has perfected it to the obnoxious degree inkjet printer makers have. “These are infectious grifts,” EFF’s Cory Doctorow said in a blog post last year. They charge exorbitant prices for DRM-laden…
