Flatbed scanner

Mike Hughes

Mike Hughes

New Member
Beth/Tony or whoever,

Do you know what the minimum quality scanner (dpi) I would need to take full advantage of the printing capabilities of my HP 4550 Color LaserJet printer?

I dont want a scanner thats not up to par with the printer......
 
Aplus

Aplus

New Member
Mike,

Darn nice printer! Well, according to the HP web site, your printer is a 600 x 600 dpi. As long as your scanner has an optical rating greater than 600 x 600 you will be ok. However, make sure it is not the interpolated rating, but rather OPTICAL.

I like HP products, and can safely recommend them. I did not do the research for you, as what model to buy, but if you stay above the dpi I mentioned you will be fine. Myself, I have an older 5100 HP scanner, and it is alright, but is cabled thru the parallel port. To me, that causes it to be a little slower than one that cables thru the USB port. Also keep in mind that you cannot extend the length of a cable that feeds a scanner. Sure you might find a cable that will accomplish this, but the length of the cable is actually a calculated length, and changing it affects timing and communications with the scanner. This is important to know in setting up a workable office layout.

Now go out to www.hp.com and choose yourself a scanner!
 
Mike Hughes

Mike Hughes

New Member
Tony,

Thanks, I love the printer...........I just got it about three weeks ago. I have to pay for that first before I buy a scanner, so that will be a while, but I just wanted to plan ahead.

Thanks for your input.
 
B

Bill B

New Member
Mike, Tony is right on, on all fronts. One other issue to consider would be whether you will ever need to print scanned documents on a higher resolution at a print shop. You would probably only need to do this if you were trying to achieve excellent resolution on larger size printed images.
 
Mike Hughes

Mike Hughes

New Member
Well, I want the scanner not so much for pics, but for documents, and photocopying. I figured as long as I was going to get a scanner, I better make sure it is good enough to go along with the printer, if I should decide to scan something with graphics or photos.
 
reedsterstl

reedsterstl

New Member
Mike,

I have a Canon flatbed scanner N122OU. Comes with 3 different photo/document software, plus the Canon support is great. You may vary the dpi scanning before you do your final scan, really helps in scanning b/w documents. The pics you have seen me post where all done with a 35mm and the scanner.

Reed
 
Aplus

Aplus

New Member
Mike,
Maybe you ought to look at going with an all-in-one machine. Fax, scan, photocopy, print. They have gotten pretty good recently. The older ones never really exceeded at anything, but were rather mediocre at all functions. Now, some of them are really sweet, of course they're a little pricier, but hell, you've already spent the mother lode on your Laser Jet, so why not have another super nice periperal on your desk.

Just a thought......
 
Mike Hughes

Mike Hughes

New Member
I already have one. HP OfficeJet 600...........but its not a flatbed. I figured it would be easier to just buy a scanner instead of replacing the OfficeJet with a flatbed version.
 
Beth

Beth

New Member
Mke,
We're using the HP Scanjet 4400C (flatbed scanner) and it works well. No sheet feeder, but if I was going that high end I would only look at Fujitsu anyway! (I deal with scanners all day long with the software company I work for since it is imaging software)

For home use, I suggest the HP. I tried the Canon and an Epson and sent them both back to the store! Since these are twain devices they don't always work as they say they will easily.

Beth
p.s. glad you love the printer, I love mine too, and found a great source for new toner at a fraction of the cost, not the same one you sent but another on EBay. I'll send you the guy's email address.

;)
 
B

Bill B

New Member
Beth, I'd also like to know where you are getting your toner. My wife the accountant spends a ton on toner for her copy machine and cartridges for her LJ printer - bill3752@aol.
 
Beth

Beth

New Member
Hi Bill,
I looked on Ebay by the manufacturer name and modle number to find auctions. The guy I got mine from had toner for the HP Color Laser printer 4550. I don't know if he sells other kinds, but his email is:
jwmccarroll@yahoo.com and his name is John.

Beth :)
 
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Paul Freeman

New Member
Mike,

My whole system is HP, except the scanner. I went with a Mustek 1200SP flatbed. At the time (4 yrs ago) HP didn't have anything that could touch it. The DPI range is 72 - 2400 and I can scan documents up 14". It's not the fastest scanner I've ever seen but, it's 4 years old and still works great. Unfortunately, it's a parallel Port unit.

I agree with Tony. Check out HP's site. Then compare to others like Mustek, Cannon, etc...

That's a nice printer you bought. It should last a long time.

Good Luck!
 
T

tzahlman

New Member
Mike

I just bought a Cannon s520 printer and the Cannon N670U flat bed scanner, both for less than a all in one set up. The printer has the seperate color cartridges so you can replace a specific color rather than the whole cartridge and photo editing software for digital cameras but havent used it yet. Neither is top of the line but fits the budget and does the job very wellin my opinion.

Just my 2 cents.
thanks:cool:
 
D

Dan Flynn

PWN Founder
I use the HP 4400c scanner as well. For the price I feel it's pretty good.

I use the Cannon S600 Color printer. Considering I never really had good luck with any inkjet printer. For 150 dollars I am very pleased with it.

I would love to get my hands on a color laser :D
 
Beth

Beth

New Member
Took me a year to talk myself into the color laser printer. Finally, the ink jet died, and I just could not see spending money on another ink sucking, cartridge burning, short lived printer. I've been an HP laser fan for years. I have another one, just black, that works beautifully that I am selling...gee maybe I should auction it.

We got tired of seeing ink from the ink jet smear.

Made up a sample sheet on our letterhead with all the colors from the products we use most and are giving that out too....


Beth
 
Richard R.

Richard R.

New Member
I have owned an HP OfficeJet G55xi Printer, Scanner, Copier for about a year and a half now and it seems to work ok. I picked it up on sale at Sam's a while back for about $369.00. I'm with Beth though, the ink cartridges do seem to be a nuisance at times.
I have, however, found a really neat site that I get my ink from. LD Products.com sends me ink at almost 2/3 of the normal price I used to pay for replacement cart. and it usually arrives a few days after I order it. If I would have known last year how good the ink quality was and how easy it was to load, I could have saved about as much as the printers worth.
$26.00 refill vs $70.00 for cart.
The photo copy capability is quiet amazing and the speed is not to shabby either. I sometimes wonder if there is anything it can't do.

Richard R
 
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