Printer's remorse, or, on the horns of a dilemma 
Monday, May 13, 2013 at 11:03AM
Rachel Corn-Hicks

So. 

I got a printer this weekend. 

It is a good printer. 

It prints up to 13x19 borderless and prints wirelessly and has an 11x17 flatbed scanner. It is a sweet printer. 

While printer shopping, I began feeling a little trepidation, though, and asked my well-informed friend whether actually owning a printer would be any benefit to me over getting prints made at a print shop. 

Because I am a control freak so it is in my nature to want to do it all myself so that I am in charge of the quality. But printers go through a lot of expensive ink and paper. 

What it came down to was that, as I want to print stickers and temporary tattoos, having own printer is a good move because a print shop won't do those. So I got the printer. 

But here's the thing. 

In the whirlwind of nervousness and excitement and stress that surrounds a big purchase, it is sometimes difficult to think things through as fully as you might like. And the next day I realized that actually, seeing as what I really need a printer for is specialized stuff that will be on standard-sized paper, I could have gone with a good quality NON-oversize printer, and then gotten any oversize prints I want done at a print shop. 

So now I'm torn. 

I have all the packing materials and so forth, and my receipts. So I could return it and get something less ridiculous. 

On the other hand, it's a great printer, and the option to experiment with oversize stuff myself might be cool, as well as the option to print when I want to without having to drive across town. (I don't even KNOW where my closest printer is.)

But will I find those advantages useful? I'm not a professional printer and as far as getting stuff done for conventions, it may actually BE more sensible to get prints made at Kinkos, outside of any specialized stuff I want to do. 

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