I'll just repeat that inkjet anything is something to avoid like the plague that it is, unless you are producing high quality photo prints in quantity, and have the income(!) and technical chops(!) to do that. Obviously a multi-function device is not up to scratch in this case.

I'm as guilty as anyone of ignoring sound technical advice for ... reasons. In a support role, I also tend to cave to users' cherished but non-optimal solutions, where I have no stake in the outcome -- with the caveat: if this goes tits-up, again, you're on your own.

I'm just curious what the user has been doing with the device. Is the appeal based on familiarity, he already knows how to use it? Would a different, possibly better solution be too challenging? What's with the need to scan and copy -- does he have a small business, is he having to produce physical documentation for some legal reason, that he can't take to a post office or corner store photocopier? Could he instead (eg) make the copies with and print them directly from his phone? Pretty sure hp has an app for that.

1-1 networking may work if you can set a static IP on the printer and use a cross-over cable to connect it to your Dad's PC, but it doesn't look like it's officially supported and you also need a separate installation CD (I'm sure you download it from HP or some archive somewhere) to configure it for network access instead of USB.

Alternatively, a pair of Homeplug adapters to get it connected to router via mains wiring, assuming your Dad has Internet access and said Internet access includes a router of some sort?

The preference is a single device that does printing and scanning. Two devices are acceptable if they can fit in approximately the same amount of space.

* It MUST function when connected to a Debian-powered computer.
* Being able to print from SD card and/or USB drive is a bonus.
* It does not need to be usable from a mobile phone, and MUST NOT require one.

If there's a laser that can do colour documents and adequate quality photos, I'll happily look into it, but now that tank-based inkjets are becoming mainstream, lasers no longer appear to win on the economical front.

For £330, the Epson EcoTank ET-3850 has an estimated 7,885 black prints and 4,681 colour prints before needing refilling, at a cost of ~£63 for a full set of bottles.

For £535, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw is the "Best Color Laser Printer", but can only produce 2,412 black and 2,169 color, with a full set of toners costing ~£352.

(The "Best High-Yield Laser Printer" can do 9,577 black prints per toner cartridge, which only equals the 0.003 US$/print of the ET-3850.)

In a nutshell: "Since it's an inkjet printer, it requires consistent maintenance to stop the printheads from clogging."

(in my experience: "consistent maintenance" [pumping stupid amounts of ink through the printheads into a drain] will not stop the heads from clogging -- and unless they are replaceable, your investment is toast).

Thanks, there is a router but I don't think there's an available plug socket by it, and I'm fairly sure he would be wary of something like Homeplug anyway.

New heads appear to cost under £100, so even if half the ink in every 127/70ml bottle were wasted on cleaning AND a new set of heads was needed with every ink refill, it would still end up being cheaper.

But again, I'm just trying to narrow down options, I'm not pro-ink nor anti-laser.

All the printers I used at work were laser printers and all of those at home were/are inkjet. It was certainly true that inkjets were a pain in the backside a few years ago, with printheads clogging up regularly if the printer wasn't used every day. The internet was full of "useful home remedies" for how to remove printheads on various models and whether to use water or alcohol or whatever to soak them.

For the last 5 years, I've been using a Canon MG5750 and in all that time, I think I've run a cleaning cycle twice. I know it runs its own cleaning cycle as well at start up, but I never buy Canon ink as this is about four times more expensive than the 3rd party alternative I've been buying for ages. Never really had a problem with it.

(YMMV)

https://www.google.com/search?q=mg5750%20clog

I actually laughed out loud. 

How to clean the print head, video. Film of some bloke holding print head under a tap.

In the past I've had Canon and Epson printers that resisted all and any cleaning. Maybe I've been lucky with the current one, or maybe the 3rd party ink doesn't clog as much.

The stuff of nightmares. I ran large format, 6-colour photo inkjet printers for ~10-years. When working they produced beautiful prints.

Most of the big commercial photo printers use very high quality inkjet or die-sublimation printers these days. Send your holiday snaps off in the post, or online, and that's where they'll end up. I strongly suspect that throwing away is a feature of these as opposed to cleaning.

I suspect in the low end, clogging is a feature not a bug.

At the very low end it's practically a free printer with every year's worth of ink. My printer isn't far off the bottom of the price range. I think I paid about £65 (100 CAD) for it, but a full set of inks from Canon is around £76 (for the large size). The printer gets quite a lot of use and I change the cartridges about 4 times a year, more for the black cartridges (it has 2) so if I was daft enough to stick with Canon ink I'd be spending maybe £350/year on ink. Which is why companies like HP have free starter subscriptions to their ink supply service. I'll be interested to see how the new "tank" models work out long term and how prone to clogging the print heads are.

So yeah, if the heads clog and I can't clean them, that's money in the bank for Canon/Epson/HP/Brother or whoever. 

Late to the party --

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-all-in-one-printer/

(sub or Remove Paywalls browser add-on)