Gavin writes (correctly):

> IIRC, HP's previous generation of color LaserJets cost around $7,500, and
>  required an overhaul every couple years that cost almost as much as a
>  new printer.  I think the current generation are much better in this
>  area, but it's always nice to avoid these little "surprises".
>
>  I believe that the color LaserJets are much more like copiers in that,
>  unlike the B/W printers where much of the guts of the printer is inside
>  the toner cartridge, a color laser printer is more like four little
>  copiers internally.  While I have absolutely no evidence to support it,
>  I suspect that these things might become maintenance headaches a lot
>  sooner than the much simpler B/W LaserJets.

Gavin is basically correct in his assessments (with the exception that there
is only one "copier"-like structure in a color laser printer; it's shared by
all of four of the color cartridges). But Gavin is correct, the toner
cartridges contain only that, toner, nothing else. The imaging unit and fuser
assemblies are generally separate devices that are now usually as easily
replaceable by a user as are the toner cartridges in a regular black & white
laser printer. But ease of replacement doesn't mean they're cheap.

The first color laser printer we had internally here was about four years
ago, when the technology was first becoming available. It was a Xerox 1200 x
1200 dpi color laser, priced at about $12,000, which was far better than the
primary alternative at the time, a Canon color copier/printer priced at
$30,000. Even that much reduced cost was too expensive for us, for the
relatively limited use we intended to put it to (advertising QueryCalc's
output from an HP3000), so we merely leased it for six months. Nonetheless,
the consumables we used during that six months plus the lease payments came
to about $4,000 for the lease period. But this became the printer we
recommended strongly to our users at the time. It was the best color laser
available -- and approx. 10 of our users did purchase the device (the only
one that I know of that's on this list is Ken Sletten).

When the Apple Color LaserWriter appeared a year later, we immediately
switched our recommendations to that printer. It was half the price and
produced far better color.  We switched our recommendation again a year later
to the Tektronix Phaser 560 -- and purchased one ourselves. The cost of the
printer, fully loaded, was $5,000. Since then, we have had to reload its
consumables twice, at a cost of $1,000 each time. However, this last reload
will probably be the last time. The next reload will require a changeout of
the imaging and fuser units and thus the cost will be closer to $2,000.

Indeed, we're already planning on purchasing an HP4500N color laser. Its cost
is only slightly higher than the next go-around reload costs of the
Tektronix; it produces equal or better color, much better black output, and
its consumables are priced at less than 1/3 of the Tektronix's. It
legitimately has the cheapest cost of operation of any color laser currently
on the market, and its output is surprisingly good.

We're not going to dispose of the Tektronix, but it is definitely going to
become merely a secondary, backup color laser printer. We've still got 5,000
pages of usage in the device before we have to spend any more money, but all
of the economics now point to not using it much anymore and switching over to
the small HP color laser. In the Tektronix's favor, however, in printing over
30,000 pages of output, it has never screwed up a single page. I've been
greatly impressed with the quality of the device.

Wirt Atmar