Printers, Pen Plotters, and Letterpress

[BigGuyOS 6 : Jovial Janny]

I'm looking a good printer to buy in a SHTF situation, but so far I've come up mostly short- and I imagine many others are too since Lewis Rossmann seems to agree that modern printers just SUCK.
What I'm looking for is a printer that lets me use bulk purchased ink / toner, has no DRM anoyances, no invisible tracking dots or markers, and is durable.
I don't want something that connects to the internet because I don't trust it won't upload my print job and location for advertising, but the best options I've found so far aren't digital printers.

Pen Plotters

Pen plotters put a pen on a CNC machine to draw what you want, but they can also be used to "print" documents and reproduce handwriting kinda-sorta. You can make them open source which is a boon, but they take a lot of time to print, but you aren't locked into a specific pen model, so it's very easy to stock up on "ink".

Printing Presses

Totally manual and you can use or mix your own ink for cheap, so good in a SHTF situation like an EMP, but these things weigh a ton and take up a lot of space so it won't fit in a bunker. You also need to manually set type, or expose a photo polymer plate. After set up, it prints at a quick speed.

Since the pen plotter and printing press both have significant convenience drawbacks, I welcome any recommendations for a good printer.

 

[SaltyFantaMan]

What about a teletype? It's an old school typewriter that hooks up to a phone line (a TTY). The OG ones were purely electromechanical. They have lots of parts though.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

A dot matrix printer with a ribbon can be reinked- especially if the ribbon is easily rewindable.

Realistically, even in a SHTF situation if you can generate electricity you could do way worse than an old HP LaserJet III or a more modern basic bitch brother and a bunch of toner cartridges. You can even self-refill toner cartridges is you’re an insane bitch.

 

[BigGuyOS 6 : Jovial Janny]

A dot matrix printer with a ribbon can be reinked- especially if the ribbon is easily rewindable.

Realistically, even in a SHTF situation if you can generate electricity you could do way worse than an old HP LaserJet III or a more modern basic bitch brother and a bunch of toner cartridges. You can even self-refill toner cartridges is you’re an insane bitch.

Old laser printer is a good option, and interestingly Epson still makes new Dot Matrix printers.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

Old laser printer is a good option, and interestingly Epson still makes new Dot Matrix printers.

Dot matrix will be made for quite awhile, because it's one of the few things that works with carbon copies, which a number of industries (including government) still use.