Choosing A Printer

A Printer is a printer you say. Yes and No. A printer must accomplish the job you want done quickly and efficiently. If it doesn't do that, it's worthless.

But with so many printers out on the market, which do you choose: inkjet, color, photo, dot matrix, multifunction, WIFI or laser, just to name a few.

There are three different printers in which I will discuss that are the most commonly recognized:

InkJet Printers
Laser Printers
Multi-Function Printers

Inkjet Printer

Inkjet printers are the most common and they vary in price. The inkjet printers offer an inexpensive solution for home users; and on the high end, they offer the professional quality printing.

First, let me say that a printer's speed is usually based on the type of documents you are printing. And comparatively, most of today's inkjet printers print out an average of 13 to 15 pages per minute in black, with 11 to 14 pages per minute for color.

Inkjet printers comes in different categories: 3-color, 4-color, and photo printing. The 4-color printer is the most popular, because they hold 2 cartridges, 1 black and 1 color, or the printer can have cartridges for all four colors: black, yellow, magenta, cyan. (I've had both styles of printers, and prefer the 2 cartridge unit.)

Pros

1. cost of printer is reasonable
2. ink cartridges that contain their own print heads
3. Ability to print a variety of print media
4. Less expensive than laser, while producing quality printing at the faction of the cost.

Cons

1. ink cost-this is where it is important to do some comparative shopping. How much is the inkjet cartridge going to cost, and how long will it last.

Laser Printer

Though in the past you may have found the laser printer in the office, that is beginning to change. Why? Cost is coming down.

The laser printers utilizes two separate technologies:

1) black and white
2) color

The black and white (monochrome) unit is the most popular for the laser printer.

Once untouchable, money-wise for the home user, the laser printer is coming down in price (Around 200 for a home unit). Which may soon make it very competitive against the inkjet printer.

Pros

1. Size of laser printers are getting smaller
2. Speed and lower cost per printed page
3. Laser printers use toner-which means they last longer and costs less over the long run.
4. Connect to a network

Cons

1. Color Laser printers are expensive. When you look at the quality of the color against that of an inkjet printer, the inkjet printer is the winner.

What Determines the Quality of a Printer?

What does determine the quality of a printer?

Color Printer Speed

If speed is important to you than you will have to look beyond the lower-end inject color printer. Midrange inkjet printers usually type print at 14-17 pages per minute. If you're printing graphics, the midrange inkjet will take several minutes.

Laser printers on the other hand, can print color at 26 ppm, and have a page in your hands in less than 10 seconds.

Questions you need to ask yourself? How much speed do I need? And how much am I willing to pay for it?

Color Printer Quality

Professional quality photos can be produced on both the inkjet and the laser color printers.

However, if you're looking for an inkjet color printer that is capable of giving you professional looking photos you will need to go the the higher-end inkjet printer.

Color Resolution

Resolution defined, is simply the dots-per-inch (dpi) that a printer can place within a one-inch line. The higher the dpi the higher the image quality.

When looking for a printer, you should check to see if the color printer has different resolution settings. Usually there is a "quality" button. This is helpful because each printing job may not need a professional look. For example, you may want to use "draft mode" to print something for personal use.

Inkjet

Inexpensive-low end: 1200X1200 DPI to 1200X2400
Expensive-high end: 2400 X1200 DPI and 4800 X 1200 DPI

Laser

Inexpensive-low end: 1200 x 600 to 2400 X 1200
Expensive-high end: 2400 X 1200 to 2400 X 2400

Reliability

Reliability is another factor to consider when buying a color-printer.

There are some low-end color printers that are designed to be throwaways, thus, you have to determine if you want to buy a low-end unit that may last a year. Or, are you looking for a unit that will last for 5 years or more. If that is the case, then you're have to pay a little more and choose a mid-range to high-end unit.

Multi-Function Printer

A multi-function printer is ideal for a small or home office. The multi-function machine can have
capabilities to: print, fax, scan and copy. They offer the advantages of saving space and money. The two main functions on a multi-function printer that you have to look at is, whether the printer offers high-resolution scanning and/or advanced faxing features.

Multifunction Printer Speed

Some multifunction printers are slow, especially with color. Thus, my advice is to choose the fastest multifunction printer you can afford, especially if you are going to
be printing out long documents.

Multifunction Printer Fax

Check the fax/modem speed. If the fax speed is 33 Kbps fax, it means that your faxes will take less time on the phone line and save you money. I would advice staying within this
speed range. It's important to know what the fax can do. If you going to be doing color faxing, broadcasting or group dialing, you have to make sure that the printer can handle the job.

Multifunction Automatic Document Feeder

Make sure that your multifunction printer can automatic feeder at least 50 sheets.

You are seeing more and more multi-function printers with WiFi capabilities. Though they say that the printer is WiFi capable, be aware that in most instances they also give you the option of connecting your printer by way of a USB cable.

As you can see, buying a printer is not as easy as you may have thought. My advice, shop and compare, and match your printer to your daily needs for your home office or business. And prices, vary, as you will see.