somehow printing & printers came up in hn a couple months ago, and there were some supporters of not owning printers: just buy whatever prints you need.
maybe they're still right, but i feel like this demonstrates well why i'd want a decent slightly-wide-format cost-effective printer: a rotating selection of cpu print outs, to hang on the walls.
At ~$10 per print, I feel a little weird about spending the money, time & time again, to get photos.
But buying a $1000 Epson with an EcoTank- it comes with two free years of ink, and will be cheap to run after that- it might/might not make financial sense. 100 photos is a lot to print out. But I feel like it's something that I'd want to use, would be happy to use, am incentivized to use. Where-as I would be hestitant to keep throwing $10 after prints, that I wasn't super sure about. Buying my own printer lets me leave the scarcity model behind. It frees me from the act of deliberation. It gives me faster turn around, to experiment.
I'm not sure why people keep foisting what seems like such terrible & limiting advice on me, to not invest in ownership, not invest in myself. It's confusing. It's not backed up with arguments. This is the 3rd time I've had this exact same encounter on HN. I welcome some healthy questioning, but no one has given me any arguments, anything to go on.
I should probably start by ordering some prints. See how that goes. Sample the idea. But even throwing $60 at some prints- it feels like a lot of money, that could be better invested.
maybe they're still right, but i feel like this demonstrates well why i'd want a decent slightly-wide-format cost-effective printer: a rotating selection of cpu print outs, to hang on the walls.