Decent Printer and Page Layout Software

mr. k

mr. k

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My mom wants me to help her spec out a computer system she can use to run a nonprofit that she is the co-director of. She doesn't think she really needs a color printer, but can't decide wether it would be better to get a decent color printer to be able to print brochures. The printer I think would be great is this lower end laser printer. It would fill all the the organization's (which is a mental health clinic) needs besides color printing, but color might be great. What do the people here think would be better? A consumer level color ink printer or a lower end laser printer?
The total budget for the whole system would be around $2000, and in addition to the iBook and the printer she wants to get some basic page layout software for making newsletters, cover sheets and the like. Spending $700 on InDesign or Quark is way over the top for a little place like this, so are there any cheaper, easier to use products? A little more then Appleworks, but in the ballpark of $100-200.
 
  1. Link doesn't work... you can't link to items on Apple's store.
  2. What will her primary output from the printer be? If she's going to be printing mostly text-based documents with the occasional color, then the laser printer would be the way to go. If she'll be printing largely color-based documents, then go with an inkjet.
  3. For layout, look for a used copy of Adobe Pagemaker (since Adobe no longer sells it).
 
I recently set up my mother and grandfather with an HP Laserjet 1300 ($399) each, they are extremely fast and seem to be working fine a couple of months in (both are professional writers and need to print out a lot). Previous experience suggests that overly cheap laser printers are a false economy (the $200 ish ones) since they seem to eat up toner cartridges real quick, have a lousy paper capacity and generally are not built to last.

Unless you need color a lot, then get a laser, you can always buy a really cheap inkjet as well later (have seen some stupidly cheap ones).

As for page layout, i suppose it depends on what OS you are on. Like arden said, a used copy of pagemaker may be good but It is not OSX native (though will run in classic, see here). Much as i hate to say it, M$ Word is OK (i had to buy MS office v.X for compatibility with my university anyway).

I'm not sure, but have you checked whether you qualify for any discounts. If its not-for-profit I would think there might be something apple could do to help.

Good luck
 
PageMaker is not quite as easy to use as AppleWorks. Buying a 'used copy', afaik, is not even legal. And it makes not much sense to go with the past, anyway. If what a word processor can do is not enough, I'd go with InDesign, anyway.

As for printing: Inkjets are just not worth it if you actually _use_ them for printing more than a few copies a day. So if they want to publish newsletters for more than a couple of people more than once a month, I'd go with a laser. The cheaper Brother lasers (5040 and newer) are quite good, so are the HP Laserjets (like the 1300 model mentioned). Sure, you'll lack colour, but the product (the newsletter) feels much more finished in quality.
 
Brother Laser printers are very good, but if you want to do color occasionally, get an Epson inkjet. These inkjets will hold up nicely doing daily printing, speaking from experience with Epsons.
Forget Pagemaker, it won't run in OS X, only Classic. If you're going to spend that kind of money, get InDesign.
Or, take a look at Create;

http://www.aquafiles.com/cgi-bin/aquafiles/jump.cgi?ID=10
 
ora said:
Previous experience suggests that overly cheap laser printers are a false economy (the $200 ish ones) since they seem to eat up toner cartridges real quick, have a lousy paper capacity and generally are not built to last.
Click to expand...
LOL... I actually know someone who replaced their printer every time it ran out of ink because it was cheaper than buying a new ink cartridge. :D ::ha::
 
LOL! The strange thing, arden, is that that seems perfectly reasonable. I have an old epson photo 750, and if i have to buy epson cartridges it costs me more than £50, which right now is some $94, and of course if either cartridge runs out it won't let you print with the other. I am almost sure i could get a new printer for £50 that was as good as mine.
All i can say is thank god for unbranded ink cartridges.
 
We have a couple of HP 2280TN Business inkjets at work. I dont use one personally (in the Helpdesk that is) but from what ive seen when we've done windows test pages, and when other people have printed, they give pretty good colour quality, and fairly fast black and white. As for selling used software. I dont see why it would be illegal. You aren't buying a copy. If someone sells the original CD with the original license information, it shouldnt be a problem. But i think you're right, Indesign/quark would be way too expensive/intensive for what they seem to want. have a look on macupdate.com or apple.com/macosx/downloads for something shareware..
 
Right now I'm thinking that we go with a decent inkjet/all in one printer that can handle copying. My mom claims that she just wants the basics, and doesn't want to risk the grant by buying 'extra stuff.' As for the page layout I'm almost ready to just get her a copy of Microsoft Office, I'm sure that it does all she would need and then much more. But I need to figure out what the difference between professional and standard edition is, and go from there.
Anyone out there have any experience with federal grant's? Mom act's like she should but out the slimmest proposal that she can, but is that really the best way to make a proposal? Do you want to purchase all cheap equipment for less or go with more expensive, higher quality stuff? I don't know much about the actual grant besides the fact that it is for purchasing computer equipment and it's federal, but would be getting cheap be better or quality?
 
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