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How often do you print anything (for personal reasons)?

bigred

Penultimate Amazing
bigred
Joined
Jan 19, 2005
Messages
22,659
Location
USA
I haven't had a printer in years because I almost never have a need or even interest in printing anything. I've printed something like twice in the past 5 years. Just wondering if that's typical
 
Hard to know without other responses, but I'm frequently printing forms to sign.

In the past 2 months I've printed:

Driving licence renewal form
Eyesight test form for above
Superannuation declaration x 2
Statutory declaration re: will

Plus a load of things for the kids.
 
Turns out I'm printing something every few days, mostly black & white. I like having separate color cartridges now but it's still where they get ya.

Recipes, Instructables, art reference, legal forms. I had several years in a row where I'd be printing out tax forms at the last minute and run out of ink. (My state requires copies of the Federal form as well.) Usually when it's 7:45 pm and Staples closes at 8. I'm glad I do it online now and print the forms at my leisure if I want to.
 
I print sheet music sometimes (about once a month or so). Also, every once in a while I'll need to print something to sign. But I haven't owned a printer in 20 years. When I was working, I could usually print stuff at an office somewhere. Nowadays, I just go to the library and do it for free.
 
About once a month, usually forms to sign, or tickets that I feel safer having in hardcopy.

It’s handy how I can print from my phone and iPad to my printer, and also to the same model printer at my mother’s house.

Printers are great when they work.
 
Just today I had an opportunity to send a fax. My printer has a fax option which I have never used. Tried it, didn't work. I thought it would go through my wi-fi somehow, but obviously needed a connection to a phone line. I have a modem jack on my internet box that I have a landline phone plugged into but haven't used in several years. I unplugged that and found that I didn't have a separate line long enough to reach from my printer/fax to the modem. I had to move the printer and modem at great difficulty moving things around. Finally I was able to get close enough and I jacked the printer into that.

Still no success. I plugged the phone back in and it turns out the little on/off sensor on it was broken so I couldn't check the line. So I took the phone apart and wriggled some stuff around in there, to no effect. I had a bunch of old phones in the basement I got at a surplus sale (freebies) so I looked at those. Turns out none of them had a base to plug into the phone jack, just the handsets themselves.

So I went to the thrift store thinking I could find one since nobody uses them any more. Oh, lots of junk there, but not a single phone. I did see a phone line in the wires section.

I came back home and ran several resets on my internet system and modem to no effect. I tried calling the home line from my cell phone but got disconnected immediately every time. It should at least ring even if there isn't a phone plugged in on the other end. I looked at the internet help for my service and all the auto-resets didn't work. I finally got an agent on the chat and after some diddling they reset the line. They said oh, you have an old modem that's why you're having intermittent problems, and will send a new one out.

After the reset I picked up the original old phone and heard a dial tone. I said **** this I'm not going to fax that document I'll have to do it a tedious way. As if it hadn't been tedious enough already.

So, while my printer has been great, **** those people who insist on faxes.

Oh, and then the print head clogged on my 3D printer, and that was another fiasco that finally ended up in me buying a new print head. If there was ever an evening I sorely wanted a drink, it's this one.
 
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I have a printer, but I'm 100% certain that the cartridges are long dried out and useless. My dad still prints stuff - I helped him with some family tree stuff just this afternoon, and he printed out two pages and stuck them on a pinboard above his desk.
 
it usually comes in spurts for us. We'll go months without needing to print, and then we'll need to print out a bunch doctor's forms for school or camp for the kids or print up financial documents because we want to do something like refinance our mortgage.
 
Let me see, last week or so I've printed:

Half a dozen coloring pages for my daughter
A few pages of sheet music for tuba and trumpet
A few recipes for my wife
D&D character sheets

So probably 25-30 pages this week?

If you print anything at all, ever, that isn't glossy photographs, get a laser rather than an inkjet printer. If you print a lot, the toner cartridges are way more cost-effective than ink cartridges on a per-copy basis. If you print only once in a blue moon, toner cartridges don't dry out and need to be replaced every few months like underused inkjet cartridges. If you print a moderate amount, lasers are so much faster than inkjets that it's just less frustrating. Never going back to inkjets.
 
alfaniner said:
Turns out I'm printing something every few days, mostly black & white. I like having separate color cartridges now but it's still where they get ya.

Recipes, Instructables, art reference, ....
Click to expand...

Similar to me and add in my own artwork.

Probably 3 or 4 times a week.
 
Oh, and for D&D I always recommend going electronic. I use Hero Lab, but Beyond, Roll20 and other platforms are fine as long as you're okay with paying for the books twice.

The advantage of using a non-paper character sheet is that a computer never forgets to add your proficiency bonus.
 
It's extremely rare for me.

The last time, was when I was moving my superannuation accounts into retirement mode.
(Equivalent to USA 401k accounts I think.)

The providers needed physical copies to be seen and notarised by a Justice of the Peace.

(They could be scanned and emailed after being 'sighted' but had to be in a physical state in the middle.)

Fortunately, my laser printer uses loose toner, and doesn't care if it has long periods of idleness.

If I need portable versions of documents, I can put them on one of my tablets, my laptop, or on my phone (which is a phablet apparently).

Very occasionally I'll back something up to a CD or DVDROM, but mostly just rely on copies on my computer and NAS.
 
A lot, but its almost entirely for tabletop gaming stuff.

I get really annoyed whenever a place emails me a form that they want me to print, fill out and bring in, and they often seem puzzled when I send back a filled in PDF doc. This doesn't seem like hard new tech to me, c'mon people.
 
Maybe five or six times a year. Stuff like a local property tax receipt when I know I'll need it for something at the DMV, or forms I have to fill out and mail like when I redeemed a paper EE savings bond from 1993 last year. Some financial things you can't do completely online everywhere, they want paper documents with signatures. I don't print enough to justify keeping the printer plugged in, or even on my desk, I just haul it out when I need it.
 
Very rarely anymore, maybe two or three times a year. Although I did just have an instance the other day. I maintain my grocery list using Evernote on my computer which then automatically transfer to my phone. I was just walking out to pick up my brother to go shopping when I realized Evernote would not open on my phone. I didn't want to keep my brother waiting while I figured out the problem with Evernote so I printed the list. First time I've used a printed grocery list in years.

I still have two color laser printers left over from when I had a home office and worked in the office as well. I've been using the same cartridges for five years on one printer and when they run out I'll probably just toss that printer and drag out the other and use that until it dies.
 
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