How to choose the right printer… Part 1
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
- 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.
