Don Madge Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Morning all, I've just invested in a new laptop (Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-1 LD) and I'm in the market for a portable printer copier/scanner that I can take away in the van. We have plenty of payload but a bit short on storage in our Timberland panel van conversion, so something not to bulky would be ideal. Middle of the road spec would do. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 See the following: http://portableprinterandscanner.net/ (I'm not sure if the Canon BJC-55 is still available.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattR Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 How often are you likely to use the printer for printing and how often are you likely to need to scan or copy? I ask because I wonder if you would find it more trouble than expected. If you are not printing regularly, the printer heads may get gummed up and / or the cartridges dry out - particularly if you keep it in a van that might get hotter than a house during the summer. Most towns have printing facilities which can work out a lot cheaper than buying a printer and replacing cartridges etc or you can email the document to be printed and posted to you. If you are not scanning often, do you have a smart phone? I use my HTC phone to scan documents and can create pdfs to store and / or email - much easier and faster than warming up my printer / scanner. I have given up printing photos at home - I was not doing it regularly enough to keep the printer heads clear and have found that it is much cheaper to upload photos to Snapfish and have them posted to me. Even printing monochrome documents is done less often than ideal so I have taken to leaving my printer on all of the time - it saves a lot of ink as the heads are not recharged every time the machine is turned on and I try and print a small page of text with different colours every 2 weeks to keep the heads clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Madge Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Derek, thanks for the link. Matt, we spend three months in Turkey and stay in the village of Keciler near Oludeniz. We rent a cottage and get invites to the homes of the locals for meals. The children love having their picture taken and to print them soon after our visit will make them very happy. I hear what you say about the ink problem and yes it does get hot in the van so we will have a rethink, maybe remove the cartridge when not in use. At the moment I'm leaning towards this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Pixma-Portable-Inkjet-Printer/dp/B0018NKZDK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1313572125&sr=1-1 We very rarely print pics at home although the boss does have a Canon Pixma MP810 which she uses for her hobbies. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike B. Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Don Madge - 2011-08-17 9:33 AM Morning all, I've just invested in a new laptop (Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-1 LD) and I'm in the market for a portable printer copier/scanner that I can take away in the van. We have plenty of payload but a bit short on storage in our Timberland panel van conversion, so something not to bulky would be ideal. Middle of the road spec would do. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Don Hi Don I have just retired after 30+ years in printers so have a bit of background knowledge. 1) Don't go for an inkjet if you are doing any volume (ie more than 10 prints a day) as it will cost you a fortune to run and even if you use refills/compats it is expensive as you won't achieve the yield quoted-ever. The yields are based on 5% coverage of each colour which is 20% in total not 20% coverage-big difference. 2) Depending on what you use it for-especially if downloading from web and printing, I would suggest you do not go for the cheap GDI machines as this will take forever to download & print and consequently stop you doing anything else with your pc in the meantime. 3) I would suggest you go for a toner machine which will be far better in the long run although more expensive up front-this will give you the option to copy or print in B&W rather than full colour all the time and thus only use black toner against a composite black on an inkjet or cheaper machine. Go for a Multi-function device with it's own processor (These start about £200) and forget about the £25+ ones. One other point is the print resolution-don't be fooled into sales talk about neeing 2400 x 2400 dpi. 600 x 600 is quite adequate unless you are a production printer! As pointed out with the inkjets they do dry up and last but by no means least, stay well away from the gel machines as they will give you enormous problems with the way you intend to use it If you need any further info, PM me with your questions and I'll try to help Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Madge Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 Thanks for all the advice, after mulling over all the info that has come my way I've decided that we will shelve the idea. It would not get a great deal of use while we are away so could not justify the outlay. Thanks Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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