In this guide, we’ll take a look at some of the most common reasons why people want printers and the best one to go for, in each case.

General ‘home’ user

This sounds like it would be an easy category but in fact, it is one of the most complicated. Home users need a printer that is extremely versatile. It should be able to print everything from the kids’ homework to photographs and most probably needs to fit into a reasonable budget. The best choice would be color inkjet that is designed to be a ‘jack of all trades’. These are often called ‘small office’ or ‘home office’ printers. Their only downside is that in order to fit into the low budget category, they tend to be a little on the slow side.

OR

Get two printers. You could go for a basic, low end laser printer for text documents and a color inkjet for photos and graphics.

Aspiring novelist?

If you’ve been slaving away on your masterpiece and now need to print it out to send to prospective publishers, you’ll need a fast printer that will give you beautifully crisp, easily readable text. Your best buy would be a laser printer. They can sometimes be more expensive than inkjets but are cheaper to run and maintain.

OR

You could go for an inkjet so that you also have the option to have colour. If you choose this option, be aware that the cheaper ones can be slow, so go for the best you can afford to gain that extra speed.

Enthusiastic photographer

Any inkjet printer can print color photographs but for really professional results, you’ll want one that specializes in doing so. Check out what kinds of paper it will print with. See which tools it has for color management. If you’re only going to buy one printer, your best choice may be an inkjet because it can also handle text well.

If you want truly dynamic photos, read up on the printers and find one that uses thermal dye-transfer. This advanced technology is also called dye sublimation. The printer uses heat to change the physical state of solid ink so that it infuses paper which has a special coating. The inks then return to solid as they get cooler.

If you’re into digital photography, you could choose to buy a snapshot printer which is compatible with your camera. Or, you could go for a multi-functional printer. These have recently improved and many now have integral scanners, memory cards and LCD’s that you can use to preview pictures before printing.

Budding Entrepreneur

If you run your own small business or often work from home, a multifunction printer would be a good buy for you. These are also called AIO’s, which stands for ‘all in ones’. This printer may be inkjet or laser but will also have a scanner, copier and fax machine. These are great because they save both money and space – both of which are often in short supply if you are working from home.

The inkjet models are generally slightly cheaper but if your budget stretches to it, go for one that allows ‘stand alone’ faxing and also has an automatic document feeder. This allows you to put a stack of documents into the feeder tray and go off to do other things while the machine faxes or copies the lot!

OR

If you already have a fax, scanner or copier, a color laser printer should suffice, unless you need to print a lot of graphics in which case, go for an inkjet.

Team worker

If your business is expanding and you are going from a sole trader to a small team – or if you work as part of a team in a big organization, then you need a workgroup printer. These laser printers are especially designed to tackle multiple printing jobs. They have faster internal processors, a larger amount of memory and can print out more than twenty pages every minute. These printers are at the higher end of the market and their network capabilities, large volume toner cartridges, higher paper input and output trays are all reflected in their price.

OR

If your team doesn’t need to do much printing, you may be able to manage with a business inkjet but do check out if it is able to support network printing.

High Flier

If you are a jet-setter in the truest sense of the word and really do have to carry your office around with you, you’ll be happy to know that portable printers are now available. They may be either battery operated or charged up in your car. Most weigh between two and five pounds so are easy to carry whilst travelling and easy to pack. Some newer models have support so that you can print from a mobile phone by using a wireless connection.

OR

The least expensive alternative is not to have a printer. If you’re constantly on the go, it’s not difficult to find a printer in any office. Most hotels and airports often have areas to use a wired or wireless network so you use their printer or can send text and graphic files to another user to print.

Review and compare

Spend some time on sites that carry reviews or comparisons to see what consumers have to say. You may love the sound of a model but what do people who now own one think of it? You may also find yourself looking again at ones that you had discarded on the back of five star reviews. This is time well spent and will help you to find the printer that perfectly meets your needs.

There are so many printers available now, that choosing one can feel very overwhelming. They vary in their level of technology, size and of course, price.

So how do you decide which one to go for? It’s easier if you choose the printer that’s right for you. First decide what you want it for and what your budget is. Those two factors alone will start to narrow down the enormous choices.

Inkjet or laser?

As a general rule, inkjet printers are great for photographs and high resolution printing – which simply means they are better when a high level of detail is required in the finished print out.

Laser printers are better at producing text only documents but even then, their speed varies so don’t forget to check it out if it’s important to you. If you have high volumes of text to print, you don’t want to be feeding each sheet in by hand and tied to the printer all morning.

Top Selling Laser Printers

1.  Brother HL-4040cdn Color Laser Printer with Duplex and Networking

• Up to 21ppm color and monochrome printing
• Built-in duplex printing
• Up to 2400 x 600 dpi resolution
• Print directly from a USB flash memory drive or PictBridge-enabled camera
• High capacity replacement toner cartridges

2. HP LaserJet 4050 Printer

• 1,200-dpi resolution
• NEC 4310 133-MHz RISC microprocessor
• Prints 17 pages per minute
• On-printer help system
• 8 MB memory

3. Brother MFC-8420 Laser Multifunction

• Faxes, prints, copies, and scans
• 2,400 x 600 dpi resolution for printing, copying, and scanning
• Copy and print speeds up to 17 pages per minute
• 33.6 Kbps fax modem; 2 seconds per page transmit time
• Parallel and USB 2.0 interfaces, PC and Mac compatible

Top Selling Ink Jet Printers

1. HP Officejet J6480 All-in-One Printer

• Includes: HP Officejet J6480 AIO, CD with software, Fax and wireless starting guide, Set-up poster, Power cord, HP 74 Black Cartridge (210 page yield), HP 75 Tri-Color Cartridge (155 page yield), 1-Year limited warranty
• Black printing speed – Up to 31 ppm
• Color printing speed – Up to 25 ppm
• Black print resolution – Up to 1200 rendered dpi black (when printing from a computer)
• Color print resolution – Up to 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi color (when printing from a computer and 1200 input dpi)

2. Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless All-In-One Photo Printer

• Fully-Integrated 35-sheet Auto Document Feeder for rapid built-in two-sided document copying and scanning
• Built in auto duplex copying
• Dual color Gamut Technology optimizes the original so that copies remain true
• Various security features including password protected PDFs
• 5 ink tanks only replace the tank that runs out

3. HP Officejet 6310 All-in-One Printer

• Robust and affordable all-in-one printer, fax, scanner, and copier
• Crisp and clear 1,200 dpi black and white print quality; 4,800×1,200 dpi full-color print quality
• Prints or copies up to 30 pages per minute
• Windows and Mac compatible
• 1-year limited manufacturer’s warranty

Ink tanks

Something to be aware of when choosing a printer is the cost of the inks that will be used. Some printers use one tank for all colors. Others use separate tanks for separate colors – which is useful, but do be prepared to stock up on the black tanks if you print a lot of text.

There are now shops and online companies who offer to fill empty ink tanks for you, so if you have one near you, this may be a viable option – but do check if the printer that you have fallen in love with has refillable tanks.

It’s really worth taking a little time over this and the cost of inks is considerable, will add to your outgoing expenses and may need to be factored into the cost of anything you are producing to sell.

Using genuine Canon ink is your assurance  that your Canon printer will give you the performance it is designed to give.

Using  Canon  ink cartridges gives you a smudge resistant print that is fade resistant and a print that is sharp and clear.

The Canon CLI-8 4-Color Multipack has  four high-capacity color ink cartridges with long-lasting Chromalife ink for bright and vivid results. The Box  includes one cartridge  of each of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow.

This ink is compatible with Pixma models  iP4200, Pixma iP4300, Pixma iP5200, Pixma iP5200R, Pixma iP6600D, Pixma iP6700D, Pixma MP500, Pixma MP530, Pixma MP600, Pixma MP800, Pixma MP800R, Pixma MP810, Pixma MP830, Pixma MP960 and Pixma Pro9000

Based on 5% coverage means that each of the four ink cartridges wil yield up to 280 pages.

Pixma printers give excellent results and using the right ink will make sure your printer continues to give you excellent prinnting.

There is a huge range of printer ink cartridges on the market today. OEM cartridges, compatible ink cartridges and remanufactured printer ink cartridges are all available and deciding on which cartridge type to purchase can be confusing. This guide will provide you with information to help you with your printer ink cartridge purchase.

OEM cartridges

OEM cartridges are Original Equipment Manufacturer cartridges. They are printer ink cartridges that are developed by the manufacturer of your printer. This might be HP, Canon, Lexmark or any of the other printer manufacturers around today. These type of cartridges are generally more expensive than remanufactured or compatible ink cartridges.

Remanufactured cartridges

Remanufactured printer ink cartridges are empty cartridges that are refilled with printer ink. The process involves checking the cartridge for faults, cleaning and refilling with fresh printer ink. The cartridge is then tested to ensure it meets OEM standards. It is essentially a cartridge that has been recycled and therefore excellent for the environment. Remanufactured cartridges are generally cheaper than OEM and compatible cartridges.

Compatible cartridges

Compatible printer ink cartridges are cartridges that have been manufactured to meet or exceed OEM standards. In other words, they are generic brands of printer ink. They use brand new components so are not recycled in any way and are generally cheaper than OEM cartridges.

Epson is a company that recognises the importance of the environment, and so encourages their customers to return used Epson printer ink cartridges, toner ink cartridges and other Epson products for recycling.

You can help save the environment by sending back your used Epson printer ink cartridges including inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges.

Used Epson printer ink cartridges are recycled through a licensed recycling facility which evaluates the components and then shreds the products. After the shredding process, the materials are separated into ferrous, non-ferrous and plastic components and sent to other mills for further processing.

There is a fee for this service which includes shipping and recycling costs. Customers taking advantage of this service will receive a voucher for each item returned. This coupon may be redeemed on your next purchase at the Epson store. Ensure you check the Epson site for any updated details.

If you own a HP laser printer then you know that the cost of a HP toner cartridge can just about send you broke. To help you save we have developed these tips and hints that will provide you with the information you to extend the life of your HP toner cartridge and ultimately save you money.

Tip No 1: Store your HP toner cartridge correctly

Always store an unused HP toner cartridge in the foil bag it came in until you are ready to use it. Keep your toner cartridges in a cool, dry place and avoid extremes of temperature.

Tip No 2: Print in draft or economy mode

Your HP toner will last much longer if you change your printer default settings to only print in draft or economy mode. Some printers even refer to this as Speed mode (as opposed to Quality mode). Printing in draft mode will reduce the amount of toner that is used for each print. For most prints draft mode is generally sufficient.

Tip No 3:  Keep your printer clean

With each change of your toner cartridge ensure that you clean the printer. Toner is a fine dust that can get into the mechanism of the printer and cause damage. A wipe over with a damp cloth to remove the accumulated dust will reduce any future mechanical problems.

Tip No 4: Shake your HP toner cartridge

This may seem like an odd tip but it is an old trick used by anyone who has a laser printer. When your printer presents you with the Toner Low message, remove the toner cartridge and give it a few shakes from side to side and place back into the printer. This will loosen the toner and give you a few more prints. Continue doing this until you can no longer print.

Want to Save Up to 80% On Toner
CLICK HERE
for our suggested online merchants.