It’s the shark in your sea of gadgets. No other device inspires more fear and loathing than the printer.
Welcome to Help Desk’s Printer Week. It’s like TV’s Shark Week, but for a technology that has become far too hostile toward its users. There’s ink in the water.
Each day this week, we’re publishing new stories about where printers went wrong and what you can do about it.
Four decades after we were first promised a “paperless office,” nearly half of Americans still own a printer. Shipping labels, official forms and school projects still all have to get made somewhere.
Humans have sent people to the moon. So why can’t we make a decent printer?
The hardware is inherently hard: there are moving parts and the unpredictability of supplies such as ink that dries up or paper that jams. It is a true marvel that a box on your desk can spray thousands of microdroplets per second to re-create a lifelike image.
But hardware screw-ups aren’t the main reason people hate their printers. The bigger problem is that the printer industry has embraced some of the tech industry’s absolute worst ideas about exerting control over consumers.
They put little chips in ink and toner cartridges to watch how you print and scare you away from buying cheaper generic brands. They send out “security” updates that make printers suddenly less capable so you’ll buy a new one. They hide what they’re doing with your sensitive documents behind obtuse privacy policies. And they push people into subscriptions that lock them into bad deals.
Too often today, printer makers aren’t even trying to compete on better software and user experiences. My own printer, a 2019 HP model, makes me punch in characters with the same type of keyboard as my cellphone from 1999. Just to make sure my printer stays compatible, I had to waste hours figuring out how to turn off its automatic software updates.
Printers may act like apex predators, but you don’t have to be their prey.
See all the stories from Printer Week below:
We must end the tyranny of printers in American life
We tested some printers under $250. Here’s what we loved and hated about them.
You don’t need to own a printer. Do this instead.
Printer ink is a scam. Here’s how to spend less.
They’re chained to their printers. Why the paperless office hasn’t fully caught on.
People are paying to break printers with sledgehammers in smash rooms
Your printing service might read your documents. Here’s what to know.
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