Buying a Printer

I want to buy a printer for home use. Just want to print photographs and let kids use for printing cards, homework assignments and other stuff. Nothing fancy just something thats reliable and economical to run.

The best type of printer for light domestic use such as you've described is an inkjet. If you look at any of the leading makers, such as HP, Canon or Epson, you will get a reliable model. My preference would be for HP. I have one of their inkjets since 1999, and it's worked without trouble and should last for another few years yet.

The only trouble with inkjets is the cost of the ink cartridges. Depending on your amount of usage, these which can be very expensive.

Kodak entered the consumer ink-jet printer market a while ago, their key selling point being the low cost of their inks, relative to the competition; they may also be worth a look.

It can sometimes be cheaper to buy a new machine with cartridges included rather than buy ink/cartridges. I bought this one in Argos recently for 44.99 and its grand. Haven't used it for photos but its goods for copying and printing. The ink for our old HP machine was 47.99 but was very hard to find also.

This discussion on AAM might be worth a read. You could always look up reviews on Google, Amazon or have reviews also. I have tried the replacement cartridges but they weren't successful, had to throw the last one away as it was such a disaster.

IIRC, Lexmark were a brand notorious for having cartridges more expensive to replace than the cost of the printer itself.

A good idea is to check the price of the cartridges first on eBay or Amazon and, if it's a HP printer, try to pick a model that allows you to buy the higher capacity "XL" cartridges. These typically contain twice or three times the amount of ink for only 50%-60% more than the regular size.

I can recommend Lexmark interpret S405 One of the many features is 4 individual ink cartridges, great for photographs and everyday printing. It was rated best in this months windows mag. Has wifi a great all in one.
If you want a free all in one i have hp machine under a year old surplus to requirements pm if interested

If it's photo quality you want I would not recommend a Kodak printer (based on 2 years of selling them) and a 70% return rate. I actually refused to sell them eventually.

Go for Canon (best for photos), Epsom or HP instead.