in the nineties we had these two printers at home

HP Laserjet 4L

HP Deskjet 895Cxi

IIRC the 4L was very popular because it was one of the first "affordable" laser printers. I remember ours was prone to jamming though.

I don't miss the days of printing through the LPT port when it would take ages to print a single page...

One of my friends was just telling me about those HP deskjet printers, he says it's quite good and ink is very affordable right now. I may grab one if I can find one for a good price. I appreciate the info. 😁

What was your opinion of the 895Cxi?

I think it did the job but I remember it being slow. Actually I kept it in storage for a really long time and only threw it away 6 months ago due to lack of space...

I second the LaserJet 4 (or a 5).

Those things just don't die. Ever.

I've found one that apparently went down a flight of stairs, cracked the frame right in half. Just epoxied it back together and it was still working like a charm nine years later.

Do they function like most laser printers? (Refillable toner cartridge etc.) I really have only owned Inkjet printers so it would be my first laser printer. Is ink obtainable still?

At our local transfer stations, they have TONS of old printers. They had one from '94 one time.

Lucky Duck. 😜

I'm still using a Laserjet 4P as my main printer. I had to get a PCIe parallel port card because I was dumb and bought a new motherboard without parallel. Many boards do still have it though. Gotta love how Windows 8.1 still supports a 1994 printer. Surely thanks to the popularity of HP PCL5.

King_Corduroy wrote:

Hello all. I was just looking over at my retro computer desk and a thought struck me: I'm missing a retro printer! Back when I was a kid we had a Lexmark Z12 inkjet printer and it was extremely loud, slow and burned through ink like there was no tomorrow. So since I've basically decided I should probably get a 90's printer to round out my nostalgic computer setup I was wondering what printers you guys had good things to say about or would recommend or alternatively I would like to hear about some of the really crap ones out there so I don't accidentally pick one up while looking at thrift stores.

I look forward to your recommendations / anecdotes about the horror days of computer printers. 😁

I barely print anything from my modern computer, let alone needing to print something from a vintage computer. In either case, when I do need to print something, I just use my LaserJet 5M with JetDirect card. Doesn't matter what I'm printing from, it 'just works'.

If I was going to find something period-accurate though, I'd probably look for a dot-matrix printer.

I'm looking for something from the mid 90's, isn't that a bit late for dot-matrix? It's going to get hooked up to my 1996 Packard Bell for pretty regular use (College papers and personal documents) since my preferred word processor suite is still MS Office 97.

Yeah the old inkjets were terrible and ink is still just as expensive. I think the HP laserjets are what I'm going to have to keep an eye out for. Thanks guys.

Btw feel free to keep suggesting things, I'm not buying anything right now so I'd like to hear as many suggestions as possible.

Edit: What the hell. 🤣 You first edited your post and then deleted it... your making me look like I'm talking to myself here. 🤣

New printers work fine on old stuff as long as they support something like PCL and/or Postscript. I have a Color Laserjet 3700dn here that has been used with everything from an Apple IIgs to a modern Atom tablet. Windows 95 works great with color laser printers as long as they support the languages above. The 3700 still has a parallel port on it too!

swaaye wrote:

I'm still using a Laserjet 4P as my main printer. I had to get a PCIe parallel port card because I was dumb and bought a new motherboard without parallel. Many boards do still have it though. Gotta love how Windows 8.1 still supports a 1994 printer. Surely thanks to the popularity of HP PCL5.

When I'm feeling lazy and don't want to walk to the color printer, I still have a Laserjet 4MP (M = Mac, built in Postscript and Localtalk) on my desk here. Can't beat the cheap toner and sharp 600dpi output, but its slow at 4PPM. The printer should work fine with a generic USB to parallel cable, but my machine still has a LPT header on it.

Yeah but I'm really wanting it to match the general look of the rest of the computer hardware it's going to be connected to so I'm really hoping for something older, preferably monochrome because I never print anything in color and I hate how modern printers force you to buy color ink carts even if you aren't going to use them.

NJRoadfan wrote:

The printer should work fine with a generic USB to parallel cable, but my machine still has a LPT header on it.

I've tried a USB parallel adapter. It was quirky. I think the printer needed to be powered up and connected before the USB was connected to the computer. Otherwise the cable's brain wouldn't register the printer. I don't have my printer on 24/7 so that was a no go. I imagine there are probably other USB parallel cables that work better however.

When I buy a new motherboard someday I will be sure it has a parallel header. Though since I own a PCIe card now it's not much of a concern I suppose!

I'm looking for something from the mid 90's, isn't that a bit late for dot-matrix?

No. I have dot matrix printers from the late 90s. They are really reliable and neat...but noisy.

I think my professors would look at me a little odd if I gave them something printed on a dot matrix printer. 😜

Its not half bad on a 24 pin with quality cranked up. They can't do font anti-aliasing though

I bet if you went to the closest transfer station, you would find a lot of good stuff, especially if you're near a city. Heck, I live in the middle of nowhere and I still get got stuff. They also have shit tons of fax machines there. Try it, you'll find everything from computers, tv's, stereos, printers, cables, monitors, etc. 😀

King_Corduroy wrote:

I think my professors would look at me a little odd if I gave them something printed on a dot matrix printer. 😜

Pfft. It'd be as much of a flashback for them as it is for you!

Volumes of text in OEM dot-matrix font on green-bar, fan-fold, continuous-feed paper. Brilliant.