<p>Are there any small, portable printers that actually work well? From what I’ve heard, all printers of this type tend to break down almost immediately, or jam, or something else unpleasant.</p>
<p>You can say that about a lot of inkjet printers these days…</p>
<p>If I feel I need to take a printer with me, I have an Epson Stylus 740 in my garage that I can easily put into my car and set up. I’ve taken this on a few trips with me without a box…or a problem.</p>
<p>Portable printers usually aren’t that swift. I remember hearing about the “Portable StyleWriter” printer from Apple in the early 1990s. It looked neat until I read the reviews–it jammed all the time. They haven’t progressed much since 1993.</p>
<p>You’d be better off to take an inkjet with you places (the Stylus is my old printer, I replaced it with a LaserJet in my room and now just take the Epson with me if I need a portable printer) than to invest in one of those printers. Alternately you can see about hooking into your network on campus or elsewhere to print. When I was in high school I did this a lot–I’d bring my iBook in and print all the drafts of my papers, etc. on the school printers.</p>