The laser to think differently with.

You know it's time to get yourself a laser printer when you are doing a lot of print runs of 15 or more B&W pages, where an inkjet just can't keep up and you think you can draw faster than it can get that last page out! Since this happened to me I figured it was a good time to get a laser printer to handle my research print outs and future business printing requirements.

After taking a trip around to eye up the low end SOHO market laser printers (Brother, Canon, HP, Samsung and Panasonic being noticeable contenders) the slight addition of "MacOS X compatibility" wipes off most of the "Windows only" models that don't use PCL or PS but instead use custom GDI drivers. Consequently, the price you pay goes up, but sometimes that's not a bad thing considering the extra quality that goes into the more expensive models.

After having a look at the higher end Brother and Canon models and deciding they just weren't my thing (either too plasticy, flimsy, not enough RAM, or non-expandable), I decided to go with HP since I'd used their higher end laser printers (the 4x00 series) before with no real problems and the HP LaserJet 1300 was a lot more appealing than the other printers, albeit more expensive (it's a lot more expensive in Australia, if it were regularly $350 US it'd be the printer to have!)

I settled on the HP LaserJet 1300 after reviewing the specs and finding them more than adequate for my small needs (MacOS X compatible, up to 20 PPM, 1200 DPI printing, toner saving, PCL and PS language support) however more importantly it has 16 MB of RAM which is also expandable. Looking at other printers with 2 MB, 4 MB or even 8 MB of RAM, you wonder how they'd manage on some tough jobs with lots of graphics.

After picking up the HP and a USB cable (which they don't include, for some reason) it was time to get set up and give it a go. Drivers (well, PPD's for MacOS X) were all on the included CD and installed without any major dramas. Since the LaserJet 1300 is a PS printer, it works without any exciting drivers which is the way I like it.

Setting up the printer is straight forward, with the toner cartridge installing smoothly and the top and the top and bottom paper feed trays being equally easy to install. It also comes with a Parallel Port LIO adaptor, which I left in the box since I don't need it. Powering it up, the Mac recognises it without any problems and it's ready to print.

Sending text documents to the HP is no drama, they churn out almost as fast as I can reach over to get them for the odd page or two. Fortunately, for Australian users the A4-US Letter debate with other people's documents is a non-issue with the HP, it is able to figure it out and use A4 as US Letter OK. The usual MacOS (Times) vs Windows (Times New Roman) is also not an issue, with the fonts working correctly (some printers don't work OK with this).

Printing graphics is where the HP starts to slow down, but that's to be expected. The output of the HP at ProRes (1200 DPI) doesn't fail to please, with the images well defined and no noticeable artifacts on the output that you could really complain about compared to other laser printers.

The HP LaserJet 1300 also supports a save toner feature which lightens the output, good for draft print outs and gets more from your toner cartridge. The HP supports a 2500 and 4000 page cartridges which are reasonably priced however the 4000 page cartridge is well worth the extra money.

The only real issue in my view with the HP is the open air paper feed. Since it's winter in Australia now, the paper seems to be picking up a lot more moisture content, so passing large jobs through the HP you can feel the steam coming off the printer! The paper also tends to curl a bit due to this. A closed print feed (such as the 250 sheet expansion for the LaserJet) could minimize some of this, but for best results, leave paper in the moisture resistant wrapper until you need it.

After using the HP LaserJet 1300 for a while now I can highly recommend it as a dependable laser printer for a SOHO market or personal use. The output is great no matter what you're sending to it, and speedy for most of the jobs you can throw at it. If you're a MacOS X user, this is the printer for you!