Need To Get : To get the best looking hard copy, means buying the best printer for the job. Of course most people need to look at buying costs as well as costs of supplies and maintenance.Need To Get
You can classify 3 types of printers; the first type is for students/homeowners and very small businesses, you’ll find printers here in the price range of 30 USD to 150 USD. Next step is the small business type printer in the price range of 150 USD to 500 USD, the enterprise models which are suitable for heavy duty everyday printing for several employees and suitable for setting up in networks, carries a price tag of 500 to several thousands of dollars.
Before you start dreaming about some high specification all-weather durable monster, start by analyzing your needs.
There are basically 6 steps to consider in the process of selecting the right printer:
- Color or monochrome
- Printing volume
- Networking
- Displays and touchscreens
- Supplies
- Multi Functioning
1 Color or monochrome?
If all you need is basic black and white text and you have a focus on maintenance cost, this would be your choice. You can get a good laser printer for small money that will allow you to print sharp looking text and graphics like logos a.s.o. It might even satisfy your need for printing black and white photos On the other hand a color printer would allow you to design stunning looking invitation cards, print marketing material. In fact with the right – and sometimes costly – paper, you would be able to print photos in an acceptable quality.
The best advice you can have is to get an actual print (maybe even several – e.g photo, graphic, text, charts) from each of the printers in your price range. This will make your choice a lot easier.
Tip: Don’t just accept the ready-made samples that they show in the shop,these are often optimized pictures, specifically designed to impress prospects.
2 Printing volume?
How much do you actually print? Again are you working from home or are you purchasing this printer for a small office, this could be of importance. Also do you need to print on other than standard Letter/A4 formats? The bigger the format the more expensive the printer will usually be. Do you need to print on envelopes or thicker paper? Address these needs. Some printers have a so called duplex-unit which allows for printing on both sides of a sheet, this again will make the printer more expensive, but the benefit is cutting your paper-expenses in half and the ability to make e.g reports look more professional.
Tip: Again look at your needs – if you need the duplex feature only once in a while – you always have the opportunity to flip the paper manually and print on the other side. The duty cycle of printer tells you how many sheets the printer will print in a month without losing quality – again are you working from home or buying for an office? A rule of thumb here is to estimate your printing needs per month and times it by 2, this way you will be on the safe Side.
3 Networking?
In the cheaper end of the scale you’ll find few or no printer with the ability to hook up to a network whereas an office printer would be of virtually no use without this feature. Choices are no, wireless and cable. The thing is unless you’re a student with your own room and you being the only user, you will need some kind of networking on your printer.
4 Displays and touchscreens?
If you’re the non-technically minded type, I believe that a well lay-outed full-color touch-display can help you a great deal – remember you might want to set up a network, define use of colors and paper, some of this could prove tricky. However if you have been using office printers since the yearly nineties and feel that you are familiar with the phrases like “Load Letter paper in tray 3”, you might opt for a cheaper model with a monochrome display.
5 Supplies?
Besides the expense of acquiring the actual printer, you will need to consider the expenses of buying cartridge toners, ink and paper. The color laser printers-supplies carry a hefty price tag, so make sure you research these in detail in comparison with your monthly printing-needs. Tip: When buying color printers make sure the cartridges comes in each separate color, this allows you to just swap the e.g magenta cartridge once empty, in opposite to have to swap a all-in-one where e.g the cyan is still half full. Printing black on an inkjet printer tends to be 2x more expensive than printing black on a monochrome laser printer.
6 Multi Functioning?
The most popular printers for home use and small business today are multi functional printers, that have the ability to fax, scan and print in full color. Not only do they print on paper or scan photos – with some you’d have the possibility to scan negative film, print on labels or directly on CD’s! These all-in-one printers comes in both laser- and inkjet-models costing as little as 100 USD.Need To Get