My resin printer was powered off with resin in the vat for about 7 months. Last night I turned it on, gave it a job, and I woke up to a successful print.
My inkjet printer was powered off for 2 weeks. Last night I turned it on, gave it a job, and was instantly disappointed with a streaky, blotchy output. Running a clean cycle just made the output worse.
Why are 2D printers so terrible despite decades of development? What are some 2D printers this community has had good interactions with/would recommend?
Inkjet 2D printers are terrible because they are purposefully designed to milk their owners for money in the form of overpriced ink cartridges. Often the printer itself is sold at a loss and the manufacturer’s single goal is to profit off of the sale of consumables. Inkjet itself is a technology that’s inherently fraught, due to the possibility of ink drying out. It’s the same reason most people don’t use fountain pens anymore, because the principle and pitfalls are basically exactly the same. (Says the guy who owns like 427 fountain pens. So I like to be contrarian; do as I say, not as I do.)
The answer to your question on what to recommend is a laser printer. No contest.
A lot of people like Brother laser printers. I would avoid anything by HP (for pretty much everything, not just printers). I personally have a Canon color laser printer which has been pretty good to me so far.
Sounds like the consensus. I also have a dye sublimation printer for photos (Canon Selphy) and it never fails. We’ve used it as a “near instant photobooth” at weddings, put probably a thousand photos through it, and photos today looks as great as the day we bought it.
The dye sub printers are doggedly reliable because basically the entire print mechanism is actually in that CYMK film cartridge, and every time you replace it you get a whole new everything. The printer itself only encompasses the linear heating element and paper handler and doesn’t have to contain any ink/toner/pigment handling hardware at all.
But that’s also why the things are so damn expensive per print. They’re excellent for the singular purpose of printing photos, which admittedly is what they’re marketed for, but lousy at everything else.
I recently got a color laser printer and in my research is seems like the consensus is that Brother is very solid for printers overall, but Canon seems to be a bit better at the price point for color laser. Very happy with it so far.