Inkjet = Crap

No more inkjet printer.

I've tried three different brands and they all end up wasting my money.  Unless you use it once a week in a properly climate-controlled environment, the cartridges dry out to the point where they're unusable, even though there's plenty of ink left inside them.

I do have a laser printer that works great for my paperzine but not so great when addressing envelopes.  The heat causes the envelopes to seal so instead I was making do with an inkjet printer — but, once again, when I tried using it to mail out the latest edition of my zine, the cartridges were plugged up as if blocked with superglue.

I've tried cleaning the heads through the printer's program, using isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab, even invoking the Eldritch Name of Cthulhu, and they refuse to work.  I don't have time to baby inkjet cartridges.

I hate addressing each envelope by hand.  I finally figured out a way to print envelopes with my laser printer.  A press-and-seal envelope works OK; the strip covering the adhesive stops it from sealing up unlike a standard envelope.  Each one does get wrinkled a bit going through but is still usable.

My laser printer is a basic b&w unit, nothing fancy.  The only time I need color is to print out photos.  I can use a photo kiosk at the mall or go through an online service.  Since I don't print that many images it's cheaper than feeding fresh cartridges to a POS inkjet home unit every couple of months.

So if you're thinking about buying an inkjet printer, visualize it as a small black hole sucking money out of your wallet.  The cartridges are way overpriced, especially when they don't last that long.  Inkjet printer companies are making obscene profits from this rip-off.