Do you own a printer at home? Why/why not?

[Knan10]

Undecided on whether I’d need a printer at home considering how everything is digital now.

Please answer only if your reason for a printer isn’t school/uni work

Thanks :)

Yes, I bout it several years ago when I started my degree. It's been invaluable this past few months for the DC's school work.

Yes, we need to print things like tickets and hotel reservations and recipes, I know that you can often use your phone but I like to have a physical copy.

The printer I bought (Epson XP-345 ) is also a scanner and sometimes I have had to email a copy of a receipt and so that has been useful. I have also scanned old photographs and copies of important documents e.g. passports, driving licence etc - useful if you ever were to lose them.

A printer with a Wi-Fi connection can be a bit tidier and easier if you have multiple devices that you want to print from (may be essential if you are using an iPad)

The printer was only £29 - the ink can cost more than that. I would suggest a printer with individual colour cartridges.

So it is useful for us however do look at the 'running costs' - this is where they make their money! There are printers that offer a form of subscription for ink where it is sent to you with no additional charge but I don't know how cost effective that is.

Yes but need a new one, it's out of ink and cheaper to buy a whole new printer v 1 colour and 1 black & white cartridge

We print forms that need signing and returning, event tickets, labels for dd school stuff, school stuff

I have one wasn't too expensive and it's lasted well for years don't use it too much but handy for printing letters, photos etc

It's a canon inkjet

We use ours for
3 x kids school stuff
Scouts stuff both the kids and me as treasurer and DH as scout leader
Occasional printing out of tickets etc
DD prints out stuff a lot, dramas scripts so she can highlight her parts, stuff for crafts/art
Printing stuff for birthday parties - I make/do a lot of it myself, games, decorations, food labels and invites etc
Returns labels
Scanning in documents
Scanning in kids art work etc (during lockdown. Photos never seem to show as much detail if it’s a map etc)
Scanning in old family photos

When I worked from home I used to print daily reports so I could cross off lines. Work used to pay for the ink.

I don't and I have my own business and my office is at home. The company does have a printer but it's at my employees house as he had to print client specific job sheets and risk assessments off. Now and again I get him to print me something off or scan something in but I do all the admin/accounts but everything is online

No. Gig/festival tickets, boarding passes can be scanned on the phone. Returns labels can be printed at the post office. Can't think of anything else I'd need printing. I scan stuff on my phone then shred it.

I have one. It is useful for scanning stuff and I like to have a physical copy of tickets/train bookings etc. My dh went on a little tour of Scotland last year and it was v handy for him to have a folder with train bookings, hotel bookings and stuff. He also had it on his phone but what if he lost/had his phone stolen etc?
Have to say home printer is as much the bane of my life as the work one.

We work from home - the scanner & printer are often needed, sometimes I print recipes so I don't get my Mac covered in food.

Yes. I use it for printing off stuff for holidays - some voucher related stuff last year and a copy of our estas, just in case. At the moment it is mostly used for printing knitting patterns from the internet. I also use it to print BDM certificates relating to my family tree.

We got it for printing off and scanning mortgage documents, it's come in handy but we don't use it all the time. If I'm WFH it's great

We have one, and use it a lot. I can't even put my finger on what for! I print out a lot of patterns for sewing, recipes. Last night it was my questions for the family quiz. Like other people say, boarding passes and other important bits (no way I am relying on my phone to get me home), returns labels. I used it extensively to print all my wedding stationery. I thought that putting 300gsm cardstock through would kill it but it's a trooper! Still going strong 3 years later.

We got a laser one so we don't always have to worry about the ink drying up and clogging like you do with a inkjet. Plus wireless so you can do it from your phone/laptop with no hassle.

I bought one when I left my job - used to use the work one - and although I don't use it a lot it is useful and I wouldn't be without it. It's a copier and scanner too.

We are seling a house and have needed to scan in legal documents that have been signed. We use our printer as a scanner more than as a printer. It means that I know exactly where all of our documents are.

The reason we don't own a functioning printer is because DH hasn't bought one,

Why can't you order a printer then @happypotamus? I work for a company that sells inkjet cartridges. What model is your printer. I will be able to confirm if the cartridge is obsolete.

I forgot to say what I use it for! I print recipes and some photos, plus the agenda for meetings I attend. I've been using it to print, sign and scan documents to my lawyer, and as I still write a letter now and again I print them off to send.

We have a wireless multifunction thing. It was bought for school stuff, but great for crafting too - I do beadwork, so the ability to print off patterns, to scan and enlarge etc is very helpful. Ours is HP - with HP ink subscription - very handy when DD was preparing A level stuff as you can up the subscription level, then lower it again when not using it much.

We have a wireless printer / scanner, it's 6 or so years old now and a real workhorse.

Returns labels
Theatre/event tickets
Forms to sign
Letters (still write them occasionally, recently to providers of very old pensions
School stuff
Recipes / crochet patterns (a lot easier than working off a phone)
Masses of paperwork to do with DCs SENs
Now some work stuff too, mainly meeting minutes so I can take notes during the next teams meeting.

The scanning is particularly useful, I do the odd single page with an app on my phone but when you've got 20 pages double sided to get through it's very useful having a feeder scanner.

Have multi function printer scanner copier use it everyday, mostly for work printing postage and invoices, (I work from home all the time) printing photos to send to my parents worksheets for DD school colouring craft sheets for her, DH uses it to print of plans etc to take to his workshop, we buy generic compatible cartridges

No because I use it so rarely that the ink has always dried up or some other malfunction. Most things I used to print can be used as pdfs etc on gadgets. On the very rare occasions I need printing I either sneak a sheet at work or ask my daughter. This is usually crochet patterns if I actually need a paper version.

I agree that working from patterns, recipes, instructions etc is so much easier than from a screen that you have to keep refreshing, plus splashing tomato sauce on a bit of paper doesn't matter, but getting it into a keyboard would be a PITA.

@PlayinMay I normally just Google whatever DS is into followed by colouring pages. Its normally Pokemon or Fortnite

We have a printer/scanner/copier which is mainly used by my husband for his tutoring work. It’s used occasionally for things like postage labels and scanning photos or documents. Whilst I now use my phone for things like travel documents I wouldn’t want to get rid of the printer as it’s handy to have.

Gig/festival tickets, boarding passes can be scanned on the phone

I'd love this to work properly lol
Every time I've tried a venues scanner it hasn't worked, had to screw about more than if I'd just had a paper ticket
Plane was most reliable and even then only Qantas was

Yes, I use it all the time. I’ve always had a printer and would be lost without one.

Sometimes I print actual letters and post them! Mostly though, I print things for art and craft reasons. Also print photos for kids’ diaries/scrapbooks.

And now of course, for printing schoolwork.

We eventually bought a printer about 4 years ago as, while I have good printing facilities in work, there were times we needed to print a single page or 2 at home, or be able to scan docs into our home computer. (We got a small combined printer/scanner).

It's basic, but has been very useful throughout that time for various things, including DD school stuff for the past 3 years (final year in primary meant a lot of projects, and then into secondary when she didn't always get to print certain things in school).

I recently had to bring my bigger printer (individual desk sized, but much faster and greater capacity than home one) home for WFH reasons. So DD has switched a lot of her school stuff to that one since then.

But in this house, we also have (or had in recent years) a Cub Scout Leader, Scout Group Secretary, Secretary to an extra-curricular activity after school Committee, Class Captain of a Junior Sailing Group, Committee Member of Junior Committee at the Yacht Club, Chair of the National Committee organising the Junior Class, main organiser of a 2 day national event, Committee Member and sometimes Chair of a Professional Body, as well as just 2 parents organising a DC and dealing with our own 4 (somewhat elderly) parents at a distance. So the ability to print occasional documents has been very useful.