Teachers love to print. We love things to be in color or on color paper, but let’s get real…toner and ink are expensive!!!
I get asked all the time about what kind of printer I use. I finally have two printers that I absolutely love and that I highly recommend. Keep on reading to learn about the two printers I think all teachers should own! This post includes affiliate links for your convenience.
I’ve always had two printers ever since I was in college. A black and white printer and a color one. My black and white printer is the one that I used the most. I had the same little Brother laserjet for years (from 2005-2014) and it worked great. I used it heavily and I only got rid of it because it began to jam after printing 20+ pages in one print job. I replaced it with the new model you can see below:
When shopping for my printer I had a set of criteria.
- Prints in actual size
- Print/color quality
- Qualities for Instant Ink
- Wireless
As you can see, my number one criteria was that it prints in actual size. What does that mean?
When I create resources, I usually create them using PowerPoint. When you create in PowerPoint the dimensions are in inches and I plan for things to be printed the exact size I design them to be. I was a little hesitant about going with HP because I have found out that some (a small portion) of HP printers can’t print in actual size. I asked at Office Max and Staples and the staff knew of this issue but didn’t know why it happened.
When I brought my printer home I was a little scared I had picked one of the machines that would have trouble, but I did some test prints right away and it printed perfectly! Some HPs cut big pieces off the bottom or shrink pages all together when you try to print in actual size. I want my projects to print the way I designed them to be, so that is why this was my first priority.
My second priority had to do with color quality. My husband and I went to Best Buy and searched and searched for the right printer. We ran test prints with every printer they had! Then this picture convinced me!
Do you see how close the colors are to the real life gift card? The other printers (even other HPs) printed close, but some had some graininess or the colors were just flat. My old printer couldn’t print any shade of blue except regular boring old blue. I was so excited to find that this printer can print shades of teal.
The next item on my wishlist was that it qualified for Instant Ink. What is instant ink? It’s a program where HP sends you ink based off of your membership. You sign up for a membership depending on how much printing you want to do each month. Lots of these printers come with a trail membership for you to try out. For my trail I signed up for the $9.99 plan which includes 300 pages per month. If I find that I print less than that, I can switch over to a less expensive plan once my trail period is over.
Shortly after I set up my printer, I received my very first replacement ink package. That was several weeks ago and I still haven’t needed to replace the original toner, so it’s there in my office until I need it. I love that I don’t have to panic last minute and run out to buy ink in order to continue my projects, or have to stop and wait until my ink arrives.
Since I just began the trail I can’t tell you just yet if it’s better to do this program or just buy the ink on my own. The starter kit (which is never full) has lasted me quite a while now and I haven’t needed to change the cartridges. If I only have to replace it a couple times a year, it may be more cost effective to pay for the ink outright, but I’m happy to do the trail and figure it out 😉 If you want to try out Instant Ink and you have a printer that qualifies for the program, you can get a free month using my referral link HERE. But honestly, I suggest it’s worth getting a new one because they typically come with a few months of free Instant Ink and you can use a referral code on top of that!
____Update 2018____
I’ve now been using Instant Ink for two years and I can tell you that it has absolutely been worth it. I tend to use between 100-300 pages per month so the 300 page membership works for me. You can even change the plan throughout the year if you print less some months. I do like having the largest plan because I don’t ever have to worry about printing in color! My printer is constantly used and the quality is just as great as the day I got it.
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My old printer (Brother laser jet) used FOUR drums of toner at $40-$70 per drum and I had to replace them all two or three times per year. If I was lucky to find them on the low price point it still cost me about $480 per year to print in color. This meant I tried to not print in color unless I absolutely had to. With the most expensive Instant Ink plan, I’ll pay $119 for the entire year printing 300 pages per month (which I don’t think I’ll ever need to do).
With the pages being counted and knowing that regardless of the fact that if I stay in the Instant Ink plan or not, color printing definitely costs more money, so I go to my B & W printer to print the majority of my master copies and use my color printer for things that I need to print in color.
My last criteria was wireless capabilities. This is a good time to mention that you MUST have wifi in order to use Instant Ink or it won’t work. HP constantly monitors your printer to see how many pages you’ve printed and if you don’t have wifi hooked up to it, it won’t allow your printer to work. Now having said that, the printer sets up with it’s own email address and wifi connection (I’m not the techiest of people so I’m not sure how it does that). You can print wirelessly or send documents to the printer’s email address and it will print! On top of all this, this printer copies, faxes and can print double sided.
You can check out this printer by clicking below:
I received the XL cartridges with the Instant Ink program and found out that they have WAY more ink in them than the standard ones. So if I leave the program, I will definitely stick with the XL ones. They might cost more but they will last much longer.
If I HAD to pick one printer, I’d go with my black and white one because I depend on it so much for every day printing. I know that it will be very cost effective and the quality is great. But if you are interested in going my route, both of these printers are terrific to have!