I currently use an Epson R265 inkjet and when it works, it works really well. Colours are great and photos are really well reproduced.

However, I use it rarely and I seem to spend more time (and money) running nozzle checks/cleaning processes that actually printing.

Are home laser colour printers any better for the occasional user and, if so, what one?

I have an HP color laserjet, I forget which model (I’m out of town). I don’t print a lot, and there is no issue with the ink drying out and plugging the print head like an inkjet that doesn’t get used enough. Print quality is fantastic, and print time is fast compared to inkjet.

The initial cost of the printer wasn’t bad, maybe $500 IIRC 5 years ago. it looks like some new ones are in the $200 range now.

Toner is the catch; a new set of 4 (C,M,Y,B) toner cartridges cost me more than the printer did new! 😯

We run a home office with inkjet, colour laser and b&w laser.

Realistically: inkjet is the best of the instant home options for photos. But really pretty poor for photos compared to a decent lab prints.

The colour laser is great for pitches, boaring passes, brochures…. But – and a big but – if you have any kind of critical eye – even the best laser is poor for photos.

The B&W lasers do 90% of our printing. They are Samsungs (ML 1640 and a later version that I dont know the number of).

So in summary, buy a mono laser, and a decent inkjet for the occasional photos, or send them off to be done proper.

I thought about that too. Think the laser would be OK for maps and so on though?

Yep – colour lasers are perfect for maps, data stuff, even small photos.

If you want an actual example of prints from an image / maps or something else then send them to me and I’ll post them back to you.

For occasional use get a B/W laser printer as they are much cheaper to run than a colour and far more reliable. If you have problems it will probably cheaper to replace it than repair it.

If I had my choice of printers I’d have a B/W laser. I had one for working from home for a wwhile and it then went to my GF’s uni house where it worked faultlessly for another couple of years. It may still be running for all I know.

We run a home office with inkjet, colour laser and b&w laser

That. Inkjets are fine if you are printing quite often but they are horribly expensive for occasional use because of the cleaning cycles eating ink. Photos seem much better on an inkjet though so I just use the inkjet for that and kids homework from time to time.

fwiw it’s possible to get a cheap brother laser and put the higher capacity (and better value for money) cartridges into it if you break off a plastic tab in the printer 🙂

We have a colour laser printer as the majority of our printing needs were better suited to it. The inkjet we also had suffered clogged jets from lack of use. We ended up ditching the inkjet and using online photo printers which were much cheaper and better quality than we could produce at home.