Sysadmin here. I think HP's quality has gone way up in the past decade or so on the enterprise level. I remember the early 2000s as having a lot of lemons on their officejet line and now we have printers that run with hundreds of thousands of pages and only needing a new fuser now and again. Their enterprise drivers are usually okay but its a crapshoot between using the dedicated driver or the universal driver. Common wisdom is to never use the universal driver in production, which is a shame, because it was supposed to solve all the driver woes HP had with its dozens of different models.
That said, the consumer line is a complete nightmare, especially the all-in-ones. HP and the rest need to stop what they're doing and just re-do all the drivers and helper software from scratch. Its also inexcusable that anyone is still selling ink-based printers. The industry really needs to move to a laser-only strategy. Everything about ink printers is terrible.
Currently, I have a $199 5+ year old brother b&w laser printer at home. Its a little tank. When I need to print photos I just send them to Walgreens. Win-win in my book.
> Why can't I print ink on a copper PCB, so that I can etch it later? Why can't I print soldermasks or silkscreens?
Well, to be fair, HP isn't in that industry. You're asking for 3D printing solutions from a paper printing company. When those things happen, they'll be from other companies. There's not a lot in common with circuit or 3D printing and traditional laser printing. Also considering HP is trying to re-do itself as a software company and always trying to find a buyer for its hardware lines, I suspect they have zero incentive to enter risky new markets. I'm guessing this acquisition is to make them more attractive to a hypothetical future buyer. This acquisition gives HP access to a robust copier line and mobile printing technology that works pretty well (samsungs copiers are android based so there are some mobile benefits and 'not reinventing the wheel' aspects here).
Ink is very expensive per page, but the ink printing process takes much less electricity, generates much less ozone, than xerographic printers. And the printers are substantially lighter. Depending on your situation, an inkjet printer could fit your purposes better.
That said, the consumer line is a complete nightmare, especially the all-in-ones. HP and the rest need to stop what they're doing and just re-do all the drivers and helper software from scratch. Its also inexcusable that anyone is still selling ink-based printers. The industry really needs to move to a laser-only strategy. Everything about ink printers is terrible.
Currently, I have a $199 5+ year old brother b&w laser printer at home. Its a little tank. When I need to print photos I just send them to Walgreens. Win-win in my book.
> Why can't I print ink on a copper PCB, so that I can etch it later? Why can't I print soldermasks or silkscreens?
Well, to be fair, HP isn't in that industry. You're asking for 3D printing solutions from a paper printing company. When those things happen, they'll be from other companies. There's not a lot in common with circuit or 3D printing and traditional laser printing. Also considering HP is trying to re-do itself as a software company and always trying to find a buyer for its hardware lines, I suspect they have zero incentive to enter risky new markets. I'm guessing this acquisition is to make them more attractive to a hypothetical future buyer. This acquisition gives HP access to a robust copier line and mobile printing technology that works pretty well (samsungs copiers are android based so there are some mobile benefits and 'not reinventing the wheel' aspects here).