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A good decision; Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer, HL-L2350DW,

Here is what a dust cover made for my Brother printer would look like, fabric-wise. Digital Deck Covers has 3 other fabrics with multiple colors.

Screenshot 2025-05-09 115538.png
 
I have been using monochrome Canons for at least 15 or 20 years. Currently have a MF4800 that I have replaced the toner on once. Only minor issue is that Windows drivers can be a bit of an issue on older machines, especially for scanning, but usually can be resolved. I also keep an Inkjet around for the rare photo.

The other thing that may work for some is have an inkjet that uses an XL sized page black cartridge and just set it to print black. We have a Canon that works fine like that with the color carts empty. Not sure about other models or brands... some might lock you out if color carts are empty but IDK for sure. Still not as cheap as a mono laser, but not too bad.
 
raylo32 said:
I have been using monochrome Canons for at least 15 or 20 years. Currently have an MF4800 that I have replaced the toner on once. Only minor issue is that Windows drivers can be a bit of an issue on older machines, especially for scanning, but usually can be resolved. I also keep an Inkjet around for the rare photo.

The other thing that may work for some is to have an inkjet that uses an XL-sized page black cartridge and just set it to print black. We have a Canon that works fine like that with the color carts empty. Not sure about other models or brands... some might lock you out if color carts are empty, but IDK for sure. Still not as cheap as a mono laser, but not too bad.
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You cannot do that with an HP. I tried. Even setting it to print only black.
 
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I observe that this thread has garnered over 8,000 hits. I sincerely hope that the testimonials shared herein have proven beneficial to others, enabling them to avoid the error I made: replacing one HP DeskJet printer with another, over and over.
 
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I was just looking at the page yield from an HP 95 series color ink cartridges. The XL version has between 300, and 600 pages. The 4-cartridge set costs $150. Brother color 4 Pack costs $260 and has a yield of about 1500 pages.
 
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Another vote for Brother laser printers here. I picked up the 2370DWXL a few years ago because it was the bundle that came with both the starter toner cartridge and a full cartridge. I'm still using the original starter cartridge, and that printer has been rock solid. The best part is that when I've upgraded my Macs, the printer automatically appears in the settings and I can just print to it when needed.
 
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Weaselboy said:
Same model here almost three years old and it works perfectly.

For the rare occasion I need to print something in color I just take a USB key to the corner drug store and print it there. Better quality color prints than I used to get with color inkjet printers anyway.
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I've had mine for either 4 or 5 years at this point. HP lost my business when they switched to subscriptions for inkjets - easily the dumbest thing I've ever seen in the printer market.
 
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The subpar cartridges are already a source of frustration, but the printer’s design exacerbates the issue. It is not designed for desktop use. The paper trays in consumer models are inadequate, and the mechanisms required to prevent printed pages from falling are fragile and prone to failure.
 
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jay-A said:
I believe that all the major printer makers have understood that many many users, like the OP, have reached their limit with the scam of print cartridges and clog-prone designs. But this is not inherent to the inkjet technology. To the defense of inkjet printers, I'd like to mention that the new 'ecotank' EPSON line does no longer suffer from the problems alluded to by the OP.

I bought an ET-8550 A3+ printer three years ago and it has been phenomenal since. This is a 6-ink printer that does all the home office tricks (scan, double-sided printing, standalone operation without computer) while also being able to reach a very high quality level in color and B&W photo prints. Over the three years I have printed ~4000 pages, refilled the ink tanks only once for a cost of about ~100 euro (in line with the 2 cent/page advertised cost) and the printer has been remarkably consistent in terms of its ability to remain clog-free.

Since getting this fine piece of equipment, I wonder how I have been able to get along with my former printers that were, just like the OP says, a nightmare to operate and maintain.
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That printer is not “clog-free” as you say. What people are saying on here is that they don’t print often and when they do finally try to, it’s clogged. If you print 4000 pages over 3 years it sounds like you print regularly, so you are not really the use case where it gets clogged. Many people don’t print that often. The Epson eco tanks absolutely can get clogged. Sometimes they get so clogged, even the normal print head cleaning cannot unclog them. They need to be “power cleaned”, which requires waiting eight hours before you can print again. I have helped many a client fix this problem. They thought their printer was dead and would have to be thrown out. They have to go out to a print shop anyway, because they need an important document printed and their Epson eco tank is now disabled for 8 hours. What’s the point of even owning a printer at that point? It’s these kinds of frustrations that make infrequent printers come to despise inkjets.

jay-A said:
I'm seeing up to 18ppm for (color) Brother models under $500, which is barely more than the 15ppm of ecotank printers. But I agree that if you are willing to spend significantly more you can reach speeds with laser than are not possible with inkjets.
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Apart from the base models which one would be a fool to buy, all the current colour Brother laser printers print 27ppm or higher in colour.

raylo32 said:
I have been using monochrome Canons for at least 15 or 20 years. Currently have a MF4800 that I have replaced the toner on once. Only minor issue is that Windows drivers can be a bit of an issue on older machines, especially for scanning, but usually can be resolved. I also keep an Inkjet around for the rare photo.

The other thing that may work for some is have an inkjet that uses an XL sized page black cartridge and just set it to print black. We have a Canon that works fine like that with the color carts empty. Not sure about other models or brands... some might lock you out if color carts are empty but IDK for sure. Still not as cheap as a mono laser, but not too bad.
Click to expand...
In typical evil printer company fashion, many printers refuse to allow you to print in mono/black if even one of your colour cartridges is empty. They hold your black ink for ransom until you pay up and buy more colour. And then the colour gets all used up doing print head cleaning (you can’t do black-only head cleaning on some models) and the cycle repeats. Dastardly!
 
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Mactagonist said:
Absolutely right. No reason for most people to have a money suck like an inkjet around for occasional color pics.

Brother laser + pay per print for color prints at a local place.
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I actually have an old Canon inket, that I've found to be very economical. I buy XL cartridges on ebay for $17 each (one color, one black and white) and they last over a year each. And I can print one-off 5x7 or 8x10 photos or projects as needed. I kind of doubt any current-gen inkjet runs as inexpensively as my MX410.
 
By Brother laser has been a champ for almost a decade now. My only complaint is that it uses the generic AirPrint driver in modern versions of MacOS, and the quality isn't quite as good as what it outputs on the Windows side.
 
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weaztek said:
I actually have an old Canon inket, that I've found to be very economical. I buy XL cartridges on ebay for $17 each (one color, one black and white) and they last over a year each. And I can print one-off 5x7 or 8x10 photos or projects as needed. I kind of doubt any current-gen inkjet runs as inexpensively as my MX410.
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The Epson eco tank inkjets run circles around that printer in terms of ink costs. Their ink is a similar cost or slightly more than that, but the page yield per bottle is about 7500 pages or so. Yes, seven thousand five hundred; that’s not a typo! They are amazing for ink cost. They still clog though! That’s the problem.
 
dmr727 said:
By Brother laser has been a champ for almost a decade now. My only complaint is that it uses the generic AirPrint driver in modern versions of MacOS, and the quality isn't quite as good as what it outputs on the Windows side.
Click to expand...
If you want to make some changes to things like default print quality and so on, you can still do this via the web interface for the printer and it will apply to all prints going forward. It’s a bit arcane to figure out the right settings, but you only have to do it once, at least.
 
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escargot3 said:
If you want to make some changes to things like default print quality and so on, you can still do this via the web interface for the printer and it will apply to all prints going forward. It’s a bit arcane to figure out the right settings, but you only have to do it once, at least.
Click to expand...

I'll check this out, thanks!
 
dmr727 said:
By Brother laser has been a champ for almost a decade now. My only complaint is that it uses the generic AirPrint driver in modern versions of MacOS, and the quality isn't quite as good as what it outputs on the Windows side.
Click to expand...
I noticed that the quality isn’t as good when “AirPrinting” from my phone. If I had to bet, I would say this started happening within the past month.

Would the phone use a generic driver too?

How would I determine what driver MacOS is using for AirPrint? For iOS?
 
DCIFRTHS said:
I noticed that the quality isn’t as good when “AirPrinting” from my phone. If I had to bet, I would say this started happening within the past month.

Would the phone use a generic driver too?

How would I determine what driver MacOS is using for AirPrint? For iOS?
Click to expand...
Have you tried a tip from Rtings ”you'll need to go deep into the printer settings and select 'Use System Halftone' instead of the default 'Use Printer Halftone' setting. Changing this setting brings print quality closer in line with other, similar Brother models” ?
 
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Frosties said:
Have you tried a tip from Rtings ”you'll need to go deep into the printer settings and select 'Use System Halftone' instead of the default 'Use Printer Halftone' setting. Changing this setting brings print quality closer in line with other, similar Brother models” ?
Click to expand...
How do you get there?
 
This Brother printer presents the completed page face down. When I queued the first pages, I looked over and saw blank pages coming out. In the nearly 2 years since I last used this printer, I had forgotten this detail. Imagine my astonished joy when I turned over the printed page and saw perfectly printed b&w pages. 😍
 
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