Would You Rely On This Comparison Site?

Looking at replacing my HP A3-size printer with one better suited to my needs (still A3) I found a comparison site offering a selection of "the best", though did not initiallly notice that is American, and that it admits an Amazon "associate".

Then I read this - noting the second sentence:

"

Paper Size

A3 papers have an 11.7 x 16.5 inches size. So it’s recommended that the printer you buy can print documents with dimensions of 11.7 x 16.5. However, as A3 papers are slightly bigger than A4 papers, not all printers will print on an A3 paper flawlessly.

"

Hmmm. "...slightly bigger ..." Doesn't inspire confidence!

Apart from Which who I subscribe too, I would imagine most if not all sites are biased to some degree.

Tony

If they omitted the 'slightly', it would make better sense. A US audience might not be aware that as the A-number decreases, the sheet size increases*. In a natural number progression, four is bigger than three.

*just like their wire gauge system, for ought we know.

Be aware that USA paper sizes are different to UK. That may cause problems with the printer.

John

There is also an Amozon.UK site that has HP printers that specify paper size in mm like this one.

**LINK**

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-OfficeJet-7720-All-Printer/dp/B073FJ3B77/ref=sr_1_1?crid=H7CHD5D839BT&keywords=a3+printer&qid=1677445794&sprefix=A3%2Caps%2C535&sr=8-1

LOL!

I know how the ISO paper sizes go and that they differ from the US ones: it was that "slightly" adjective that does it!

Tony -

They may be biased, but that was not what I was commenting on.

DMB -

Tell me about it! I bought a Hewlett-Packard printer that claims to be an A3 printer / scanner / copier. It prints A3 sheets, but its scanning platen is smaller than that. I use TurboCAD but printing from it is an utterly baffling mess of unmatched, partial size menus for both printer and paper: ANSI, ISO, CiH*, scriptorium.... Even before its 'Viewport' system. I just paste the copied drawings as images, into A4 'Word' blanks, hoping they will still be legible. (To be fair to IMSI, I have learnt that the "viewport" principle is common across industrial grade CAD makes; presumably including the Siemens' SolidEdge I failed to learn.)

'

*CiH: "Come-in-Handy", part of ISO Standard Random, like the A3 printer's scanner size.

I'm not too sure about the comparison site, but I've been using the predecessor to this Brother one for a while now.
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfc-j6540dwe

It worked reliably so far, A4 paper drawer, A3 single sheet feed, A3 scanner and a document feeder scanner.

Bill

I would not rely on anything on the internet.

No idea about that particular one, but a lot of those "comparison" sites list only those who pay to be on there. All a little too cosy to be truly unbiased.

I second Peak4's advice ditch the HP and get a Brother. I have a MFC-6940DW at home and another at work. Both of them work flawlessly (and wirelessly). Can print and scan both sides at A3 you can also print direct from Android and Iphone to the printer.

A guy at work has the model above or one very close to it and I hear him cursing having to swap paper sizes. The one I have has separate drawers to hold different size paper.

Thankyou Peak and Pete for the recommendations.

I don't think I can use wireless connection from my PC (as far as I know) but I put the printer close enough to the computer for a lead anyway.

Androids and things? I don't own those sorts of complicated 'phones - and I'd not be sending anything from a phone to a printer anyway.

Edited By Nigel Graham 2 on 27/02/2023 09:41:22

Edited By Nigel Graham 2 on 27/02/2023 09:43:50

Nigel

If you have WiFi you should be able to print to a printer wirelessly. I have had a Samsung laser printer for a while and can print to it from my laptop, IPad and phone.

Stuart

Another satisfied Brother user.

I have the MFC J6930 DW with two paper trays. One for A4 and one for A3. It's a big lump but two trays make life easy.

Had the single A4 predecessor before.

Both have stood up well to rather intermittent use although I suspect almost as much ink goes in the cleaning cycle as on the paper.

Clive

Another satisfied Brother user.

I have the MFC J6930 DW with two paper trays. One for A4 and one for A3. It's a big lump but two trays make life easy.

Had the single A4 predecessor before.

Both have stood up well to rather intermittent use although I suspect almost as much ink goes in the cleaning cycle as on the paper.

Clive

Is expecting anything to be reliable a grandad thing?

The world has always been full of pitfalls for unwary organic lifeforms, and the onus has always been on individuals to apply due diligence. Adverts are biased. When the phone rings, it could be a scam. The media is biased, and so are we! Reputable banks mis-sold Personal Protection Insurance on a grand scale. Politicians are notorious fibbers and yet their supporters ignore and excuse misbehaviour and failure to deliver. Policemen shack up with criminals. Arsonists join the fire-brigade. Governments mount "Special Military Operations", and enact laws with no intention they will be enforced because they're unfunded. The Post Office imprisoned postmasters despite knowing their IT system was faulty. 'Performance enhanced sportsmen, and FIFA, who run 'the beautiful game' are a byword for corruption. Britain's most successful serial-killer was a genial General Practitioner who bumped off about 250 patients. The military apologise for 'collateral damage'. Tobacco companies successfully fended off serious health issues for decades. Minorities are successfully blamed for everything. Crime, mistakes and negligence are universal problems. And there are lies, damn lies and statistics. The world is full of people out to mislead others and themselves.

Fortunately, as there's considerable profit in honest trade, taking a few reasonable precautions fends off the worst. But in my opinion it's always necessary to proceed with caution: don't assume anything, and consider the worst that could happen before taking a big risk. Beware 'bargains' - might be shocking, but maybe they're not!

Assumptions are always unwise. Not everything made in the West is wonderful, and not everything made in the East is rubbish. Also foolish to assume anything made in the past is better than it's modern equivalent, and to assume that time-honoured brand-names and trade-marks are automatically safe. They're not!

None of us have a fairy godmother and surely our current sense of entitlement is mostly unjustified. Everything in life is a risk, including going to bed at night. However, avoidable risks should be avoided, hence I suggest a few basic checks are always a wise precaution before committing to anything that might become seriously painful.

I wouldn't assume a comparison site is useless just because of a minor slip over paper sizes. Nothing and no-one is perfect. Comparison sites are somewhat untrustworthy because of how they are paid for. They're still worth reading, but look at more than one, think about it, and take a balanced view.

Dave

Blimey Dave - I know advertising and comparison websites might not be what they think they are, but I'm trying to work out how to print engineering drawings. That's hard enough without sorting out the world as well!

Though on second thoughts... sorting the world might be the simpler.

.

What I want, if such an animal exists, is a basic monochrome A3 printer, possibly laser rather than ink-jet since I don't use the thing often enough to keep over-priced ink cartridges and nozzles from clogging. Nor do I draw fancy multi-coloured 3D images that would empty the cartridges in one go.

I do not need or want wireless-connection. The instruments, and land-line telephone, live together on a purpose-built desk in the corner of the room. Also I do not have a "smart"-'phone. (Nor want one.) Those are not made for serious web-sites and applications like CAD, and my portable telephone is a shirt-pocket size telephone that even lets you make voice-calls!

For documents, small drawings and (rarely) photos, I use my A4, tri-colour and black, HP DeskJet printer generally.

It is though, almost impossible to switch between two printers and two ISO paper sizes in a CAD programme whose extraordinarily complicated printing system insists on the A4 printer and the USA "Letter" sheet size, as defaults.

.

Looking at the Brother and alternative catalogues, it seems they are all now colour machines, which is understandable. So be it.

If I thought the HP OfficeJet A3 printer would suit both CAD and general use, I'd consider keeping that and retiring the A4 machine; but its copier is not as claimed (possibly an ANSI size); and its cartridges are absurdly small and even the pattern ones are expensive. Also, it takes an age to set itself up, wasting a lot of costly ink in the process.

So a printer that can replace both existing machines may be the way to go; but not if its A3-size copying claim is a lie. I'd need that only rarely, but then genuinely at its claimed size. .

Having had to specify and support classroom printers for quite a few years I would be happy to offer this broad generalisation - HP are usually quality kit but the toners with the built in drum can be very expensive for some while Brother will often allow you to replace belt/drum/toners independently -BUT Brother may well have usage counts on every component and when it thinks it is life expired will stop printing until you either replace the part or fiddle the counter.

I'm starting to get the feeling here that the problem is more with TurboCAD than the printer! I gave up TC years ago for various reasons. It was fine for actually creating engineering drawings, apart from the fact that, at that time at least, correcting earlier errors when you were a way into a drawing often seemed to mean deleting it all and starting again. Combined with some of its other "features" like the paper size one, I went elsewhere. I now model, not draw, in Fusion 360 or Solid Edge, and then use those packages to generate drawings. Solid Edge does also have a 2D mode, I believe. There are all sorts of advantages but one of these is that both can print either directly to a printer or to a PDF file in any Windows-supported paper size without a lot of the TC faffing about.

I do have an A3 printer, a Canon Pro9000, but that was bought mainly for photo-quality printing for my wife's University coursework a few years ago, and is a bit of an inkjet cartridge eater. Day to day is done on an A4 HP colour laser, double-sided, with scanner. But then, as a retired HP employee, I still get the employee discount and when this model was becoming obsolete and hence on special offer, it was too good to refuse!

As for US comparison sites and A4/A3 misunderstanding - I suspect that many US citizens are still struggling to get to grips with the metric system anyway

A bit of both Nealeb!

The difficulty I have trying to print a CAD drawing does deter me, so the A3 printer sits there gathering dust and an untidy heap of papers and things. I hit a solid barrier with SolidEdge well before discovering its printing method; so do not use it though it's still installed.

Reading the various replies above does strengthen the idea that I may be better keeping the A3 printer (HP OfficeJet 7510) and using it for all printing tasks. That despite its extended, slow, ponderous series of loud crashes and bangs as it wakes up; and more seriously its absurdly under-sized copier platen. It can take some twenty minutes to come to readiness.

It's possible that if I do this, retiring the A4 printer (HP DeskJet 1510) as I use up that machine's inks, it will remove the 7510's ink-clogging problem I think it has. I could try using the A3 printer next time I print anything A4 or an envelope.

With printing only very occasional photos and no CAD "models", I am not hitting the colour inks very hard on either printer; but that disuse might let the ink nozzles dry closed..

.

The 7510 has only one paper tray so you do need change paper and the tray fences. That would be annoying in business use but does not matter when printing anything only infrequently, at home.

Indeed, an advantage because when the rather crude plastic tray and delivery shelf above it are extended to hold A3 or US near-equivalent ANSI 'B' size sheets, the shelf does not cover the paper and tray enough to exclude dust. Though really, I ought cover the entire machine.

.

It is possible to save a TurboCAD drawing in .bmp and .jpg; but I don't know if you still need use its 'viewport' system. The image will not be to scale and the dimensions printed may be of that, not the manufacturing ones intended.

....

I've had odd glimpses into the USA and its fun with the system set by the ISO of which it is a fully paid-up member. It is one of only three countries not using the Metric System for everyday life. I think its fellows are Liberia and Myanmar (ex-Burma)! US scientists and many engineers do work in metric; and an American servicing a car will need know at least M-series fastenings and spanners if it is imported.

Some years ago I contributed to a Q&A site called 'Answers'. I found two areas where I could help here.

One was private swimming-pool owners trying to calculate doses of disinfectant and other additives delivered in litre-volumes, for pools to feet and US Gallons. I would show them the sums in full, being careful myself to use their 16C wine-trade, not standard UK, gallon.

The other was clearly school-children struggling with conversion-sums in their homework: I would show simply multiplying the given values by standard co-efficients that are very widely published. (Maybe even in their text-books, though I didn't say so!) Sadly these were often pounced on by two particular individuals who wilfully mad the process as absurdly complicated as possible - sometimes with errors in their own arithmetic.

It gets worse, thanks to Gates' Goons.

I had a prescription request to print so thought I'd try using the bigger printer, and set it to A4.

It would not print. Reverted to the A4, HP1510. It would not print.

In its unauthorised change of my PC from WIN 10 to 11, µS had deleted or blocked both printers' drivers.

I am not sure but I managed to find the Hewlett-Packard web-site, which like any IT and telecomms company site is very confusing. Eventually I succeeded in loading then installing the 1510 driver and indeed printed the document.

So far so good.

Looking for the 7510 driver failed. The HP site sent me down a weed-strewn branch-line where eventually I ran out of steam in thickets called "HP Smart" (whatever that is) and something about a Mickeysoft "account" I do not have and do not want.

HP asked me if all had worked: [Yes, No, Unsure]

I ticked NO then put this in the comments box asking my reason

Actually download and install what I asked for: the driver for an OfficeJet 7510 printer! MS had up-dated my PC from W10 to 11, and as you'd expect from those clowns, it deleted my two existing printer drivers in the process. (The other is a Deskjet 1510.)

The process hangs up on advertising something called "HP Smart" and refers to "signing in" to supposed Microsoft "accounts". I don't want that nonsense. I just want my lost drivers back.

Despite your confusing web-site I managed to re-install one (a 1510) but that for the 7510 goes nowhere.

Is this what's needed?

I've abandoned Inkjet printers for another reason. They have to be used. The technology squirts tiny droplets of rather expensive ink through a closely toleranced nozzle. Keeping the nozzles clear is best done by frequently using the printer, ideally every day. Almost the worst thing is infrequent printing, because the printer goes into a self-clean routine in which the nozzles are cleared by pumping ink into a waste-bin. Infrequently used printers can use more ink cleaning than they put on paper! And because Inkjets are intended for full-colour, all the cartridges have to be used, which may not happen if the owner mostly prints in black and white.  Despite self-cleaning, nozzles and pipework are prone to gum up.

Inkjets are good for regular light-duty colour printing. The printers are cheap and do a good job, but the ink is expensive. However, Inkjets are unsatisfactory for irregular occasional printing, and not so good for heavy-duty work, unless you buy one with giant cartridges or a reservoir system.

I've given up on Inkjets of any size, and colour. Not because Inkjets are rubbish, but because my use case doesn't match their capabilities. Instead I use a cheap A4 monotone laser printer which doesn't care how often it's used. It's also fast and cheap to run. When A3 and bigger prints, or colour are needed, I order prints over the internet, or take a memory stick to a handy local print shop.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 28/02/2023 11:09:53