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11/04/2020

It’s 2020

Why do printers still suck?

I HATE PRINTERS. Just when we need them the most, with print shops locked down, online schooling in session and everyone working from home, they fail to step up.

Printers have been my enemy ever since I can remember. My first office job involved an evil printer that suffered daily paper jams. Tasked with fixing it, I suffered frequent burns and paper cuts. It had a door you had to close just so, or it would immediately break again with the dreaded phantom paper jam. It tormented me for months, completely indifferent to my cries. There isn’t even any paper in it!

Enemy Number One
More than two decades later, printers haven’t improved at all. It feels like printer companies stopped innovating sometime in the ’90s when sales stopped climbing. In fact, it's almost as if they’ve regressed. Manufacturers tempt with unbelievably cheap deals on printers and then nail you on expensive ink. To make sure they get their pound of flesh, they focus an inordinate effort on making sure printers only work with proprietary ink cartridges.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.

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