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5 Tips to buying the most suitable printer
When most people buy a new printer they normally look for multiple functions and price. But there are many things to consider when buying a home printer, like total cost of ownership of the unit i.e. cost of ink tanks or refills.
Questions you will need to ask yourself before your new printer purchase.
1. What am I going to use the printer for?
2. What would be my expected print volume?
3. How often will I print colour?
4. How much of my printing will be text?
5. What functions do I need?
This might seem like stupid question, but what type of printing do you think you might be doing.
Photos – High quality Inkjet - Things to consider
If you are into digital photography and think you might use the printer for printing quality prints from your digital camera, while a suitable printer which may be more than equal to the task and seem quite cheap, in contrast the costs of replacement ink tanks are more expensive than Grange Hermitage by volume, and third party refill packs are not always an option. So it’s a good idea to take into account the cost of replacement ink tanks before committing to a photo printer as well as the alternative option of just using your local photo lab.
Of course it’s no huge surprise that printer companies have made a killing over recent years from ink tank sales due to everyone embracing the convenience of printing photos from home. Another disadvantage of ink jet cartridges is that they have a limited shelf life once installed into the printer. In other words whether you use the printer or not, you will need to replace all the cartridges roughly twice a year.
But if you are an enthusiast photographer and aware of the increased cost of owning your own photo printer and highly value the ability to be able to print quality prints at home, then there are some great products out there.
Primarily Text – Home Laser printer
It’s only in the three or four years that small/home laser printers have come onto the market, and if you primarily are printing text and moderate to large volumes of it, there is no better solution.
Laser home printers are very cheap to run, I bought a laser canon six months ago and since then I have done some serious printing, probably over 3000 pages and I am still waiting for toner to run out. Also toner cartridges are relatively cheap, but here’s a tip ‘Buy Online’. You can buy the genuine toner cartridges online for around 30% less than a retail outlet and you can save even more if you buy a reconditioned cartridge.
And if you really need to print colour there are some great colour laser printers out there, although they aren’t quite as efficient as the Mono Laser’s and the Printers themselves as well as the cartridges are considerably more expensive.
Overall if your’ only looking to print text and expect to do a fair bit of it, a small home/office printer is a great choice.
Multi Function Printers
Multi Function Printers are great for the convenience of doing a multitude of tasks using a single device. Print, Scan or simply Copy, some models even have an integrated Fax.
The obvious benefit to having a Multi Function Printer is that if you need a Scanner or Copier and even a Fax Machine for that matter, effectively you get an ’All in One’ solution. The only drawback is that all Home/Small Office Multi Function printers are ink jets and therefore pricey to run due to ink jet cartridge replacement costs. Other than the costs of ink jet cartridges, Multi Function Printers are a great investment if you need all those functions as buying a Multi Function Printer will prove much cheaper than buying a separate Printer, Scanner and Fax machine.
Wrapping up, what’s important is getting all the functions you need and the quality you expect for the best possible price ensuring you get the best value for money. Overall the best advice is to identify and ascertain all your essential needs before you go shopping for your new printer and consider the lifelong ownership cost of the unit.
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