New info: I am looking for good PC ink A4 printer with following specs:

- very good color representation as I work with graphics a lot
- high resolution/quality prints (able to print very thin lines / very small letters)
- print head should be somehow prevented from clogging (most of my work is purely digital so I won't print very often)
- printer should be able to print on thicker paper (220g+) and on CD/DVD
- ink cartridges shouldn't be high priced (I am going to use original ones)
- optional - I have separate scanner now but if some "combo-printer" will have at least the same quality build-in scanner I could sell mine. My current scanner is Plustek OpticPro ST64 (CCD, optical resolution: 3200 dpi x 6400 dpi, grayscale depth: 16-bit (64K grey levels), color depth: 48-bit).
- budget: 1000PLN = around $300

What producer has the best offer? What is your recommendation? Any specific printer / combo (printer+scanner) model?

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EDIT: my choice: Canon PIXMA IP4950
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Infact I would like to know also. I have a printer/scanner combo.. Scanner works pretty fine but I once bought in that thing ink-cartridges and when I didn't print all the time, those went dry I guess, or those were crappy anyway. A laser printer also uses some cartridge.. Does that go dry and why? I mean, I just want my job applications to be readable. =P

I went with a laser printer the last time i switched, as ink was becoming much too expensive (I printed so seldom the cartridges managed to dry up between uses, so it was like 40-50 USD per print session since that was how much the cardridges cost) and I haven't regretted it yet. As I had no use of colour back then, I went with a quite cheap network-enabled black-and-white printer, a Lexmark E120. If I were to get a new printer today I would probably get a colour laser (there should be some decently cheap ones to choose from), but I believe you'll need an inkjet if you want to print on CD's. Toner is a powder, so it's already dry :-P That's the reason I decided to go with laser when I switched last time (read above).

Well, as I said its optional, also I saw sticky CD labels to print and then to stick on CD :)

A word of caution on this. After a couple of years some of my CDs with printed sticker labels stopped being completely readable. It turns out that the adhesive will eventually seep through and ruin the disk. I would avoid going this route for anything you want to keep long term.

Inkmaster flex.
"it's not an printer it was a rapper until you modified it a bit"
...
Goddammit again..

Oh, I see, never heard of that, but I have not used any CD labels so far...
BTW: Do you know about any bad sides of lightscribing? Is this tech secure? I've googled and couldn't find any printer named "Inkmaster flex" - can you give me some link?

I can and will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv6Ewqx3PMs

You can almost see that ink lasting and laser burning... repeatedly.

I have never used that tech before. From what I understand, it takes a long time, the disks cost a bit more, its monochrome, and it isn't super great quality or anything. I don't know about any problems with readability though. The issue with the sticker labels is the sticky stuff. I have never heard of any sort of issue like that with LightScribe or printers that print right to the surface of the disk.

Uhmm.... ooook.... so.. Happy New Year I think? I asked because I thought about
a) lightscribing - is this tech completely safe for data surface as you are doing some kind of damage to outer surface (making it thinner?) and some "things" could damage data surface by going that way
b) (in case of printed label) is normal printer ink completely safe for disc? I have special marker for doing that on my normal way, to write something on CD/DVD

Anyway both above problems are little offtopic ;)

If your rarely printing but when you do you need massice quality then drop the cash for a color laser jet... all you need are maintenance packs which are $40 or less once every few years under light use...

If thats inconvenient you can get a color printer with decent DPI for sub $30 at walmart and its cheaper to buy a new printer then ink... Just buy a new printer... where i work we have the big $10k printers and desk printers that are "field replaceable" and we don't even bother with ink... the user has the option to buy ink if they like, or we get a new printer charged to there dept :)

dont get suckerd into that cheap refil ink, its alright but not for professional work at all...

as for cd labels i gotta stick my hat in for lightscribe... thats all we use and done right they look very stylish (professional) and the labels are part of the CD, cant lose, miss align or screw it up...

I second that. I'm about 50-50 on reman cartridges working, so half-price for a half chance of getting a good cartridge means.... you might as well buy the OEM stuff and KNOW that you're buying a good working cartridge with top-quality ink.

The same applies for laser too, sadly. Due to us not having much option of where to buy from, and the supplier choosing the cheapest option for profit margins, we have at times got toner cartridges that the printer either refused to use (they were detected as non-original), or that didn't work correctly (releasing too much toner and making a mess of the page).

a) I really don't know enough about it to answer that for sure. I doubt there are any issues though. You need special disks for lightscribing, I would think that they would compensate for any problems like that on the media itself.

b)I don't really know this either. I have never heard of it happening, but I don't know anyone who has a printer that can print right to the disk.

Im no expert on the topic of disk labels. I only know for sure that the sticker labels will ruin the disks because I have disks that were ruined by them. When the disks stopped working I looked it up, and found that the labels are what does it.

I've updated first post. :)