Mike Hillyer of MySQL wrote about saving money on printers. Basically, if you are printing text most of the time (like most of us, especially the students, do), then getting a laser monochrome printer will be much cheaper in the long run.

We all know how inject printer companies make their profits – selling their colour inject printers below production cost, and then make profit by selling specialised ink cartridge. Otherwise why would printer companies spend lots of effort promoting “generic” cartridge? On the other hand, a laser print might cost more to start with, but it is usually built to last, have faster printing time, better text quality, and per-page cost would be lower in the long run. You can get an entry-level laser printer now for less than AUD$200

I bought my Brother HL-1250 more than 5 years ago for around $600, and it has gone through more than 15,000 pages. Still serving me faithfully. A 6,000 pages toner costs less than $100, and a drum rated at 20,000 pages would cost less than $200 – that’s a lot of printing for a personal printer! But still cheaper than buying cartridges that last less than 200 pages. Looking at the current Brother offering, you can get the entry level 2040 for $195, but it has smaller toner (2,500 pages), GDI and slow processor. Alternatively, Brother 5140, the next step up, costs $299. Besides faster processor, bigger toner (at the same cost), it can also talk PCL6 for all you Linux dudes who can’t do GDI.