When
buying a printer, for work or personal use at home, one of the choices you're
likely to face is maybe to get an inkjet printer or a laser printer. Inkjet printers use liquid ink sprayed through microscopic
nozzles onto the paper, and laser printers use a toner cartridge (filled with fine
powder) and a heated fuser. Each
technology has its own strengths and weaknesses. The two types use different
approaches and each is appropriate for meeting different printing needs.
Initial costs
Surprisingly enough, you can
purchase a basic laser or inkjet printer for almost the same price. If you're
looking for a budget multifunction printer -- which will include the ability to
photocopy and scan images as well as print -- there's not much difference in
price between inkjets like the Canon
PIXMA MX350 and lasers like the Dell 1133. One distinct difference between these two models, however,
is that only the inkjet model can print color pages — budget laser printers are
only capable of producing black-and-white documents.
The cheapest laser printers will generally cost around $130; you can pick up
inkjet printers for as little as $60-$70. However, these budget inkjet printers
generally come with 'starter' cartridges, which don't have a full ink tank. This
means you'll need to refill them after fewer prints.
Ongoing costs
As you continue to use your new printer over a period of time, you'll need
to keep it supplied with appropriate consumables like paper and ink or toner.
The ongoing running costs of printers are generally quoted in cents per A4
page. You can calculate this by dividing the number of pages an ink or toner
cartridge can produce (this figure is provided by the manufacturer) by the
price of the cartridge. This doesn't include the cost of paper though (but this
won't change depending on the type of printers).
Generally inkjet printers have a price per page of around 20 cents, although
this includes both black and colour cartridges — if you intend to print only
black, ongoing print costs are generally 7-8 cents per page. Cheap
black-and-white laser printers have a price of around 6c per page on average.
If you spend more on a laser printer, the cost per page generally drops
quickly.
Larger laser printers have additional ongoing costs when compared to
inkjets: they often require an additional fuser cartridge or the replacement of
parts with a maintenance kit.
Print speed and text print quality
When it comes to printing black and white text pages, laser printing is
unbeatable. Even in low-end cheaper monochrome laser models
you can expect print speeds of up to 20 pages per minute. Inkjets are
significantly slower, with budget printers rarely printing more than 6 pages
per minute of black text.
For normal print sizes (of around 12pt and larger) text printing quality is
similar between both laser and inkjet printing platforms. However, if your
printing needs include printing small fonts then lasers are normally superior
to inkjets, as the fusing technology better lends itself to the minute curves
and dots of small text.
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN BUYING a printer
1. colour
Your first thing is your basic need: ask yourself what types of documents
you will be printing to determine the type of printer that will suit you best.
If you only want the ability to print, and if you will only be printing things
such as invoices or other monochrome documents, then all you’ll need is a
monochrome laser printer. Go for a colour laser printer if you will also have a
need to print colour documents on a regular basis.
2. Functions it posses
If you have a need for scanning documents, making copies, sending and receiving
faxes, then you will need to consider a multifunction laser printer that can
perform all of these tasks. Furthermore, you may want to look into other types
of functions such as printing from USB sticks (file support can vary, so check
the specs), scanning to USB sticks and network locations, and perhaps the
ability to print and scan using Cloud-based apps.
3. handling of paper
Commonly, printers will handle paper up to the A4 size, so you will have to
look for a specific model if you want to be able to also print documents on
A3-sized paper. Things such as envelopes and heavier paper can be printed if
the printer has a multi-purpose tray, and you will need to check the printer’s
specifications to see exactly the weight of the paper that it can handle (in
gsm), as well as the number of envelopes that can be loaded. For a busy office,
having enough paper in the printer at all times is a necessity. No one ever
wants to be one to have to fill up the trays, so the best you can hope for is
for the tray to not require regular filling. Look for a printer that has an
appropriate capacity for the number of users who will be printing (many office
printers come with a standard tray of 250 sheets). Also, look for a printer
that can be expanded via a second or third tray to satisfy growing needs. At
the same time, look for other paper handling characteristics that may concern
you. This can include the ability of the printer to print on both sides of the
page automatically (via a built-in duplex unit), and also the ability to scan
or copy multi-page documents via an automatic document feeder (ADF).
4. Connectivity Status
USB is standard on all printers, but for an office environment, the key type
of connectivity you should look for is Ethernet. This will allow you to plug
the printer in to your network router and share it among the workers in your
office. The printer’s driver will need to be installed on all the computers in
the network that will require access. Look for wireless connectivity (usually
up to 802.11n specification) if you would like to set up the printer on your
wireless network instead. Furthermore, look for Wi-Fi Direct capability if you
would like to give mobile devices a way to communicate with the printer
directly and print via an app. This can work with NFC functionality on some
printers, allowing the direct connection to be set up by placing the device on
the printer to pair it. Ensure that the printer supports all the devices that
will require access in your office, be they Apple devices, Android devices, or
even Windows Phone. Printing from Cloud services is also supported in many
printers these days. Check up on the services that a printer supports, which
could make it easier to print from places such as Google Docs, Dropbox,
OneDrive, and other online services, without having to go through a computer or
mobile device. Brother is one vendor that includes these types of
services on its entire range of colour laser printers.
5. Ease of use to user
You’re probably used to the touchscreen on your phone, tablet, or perhaps even
laptop. So why not go for touchscreen on a printer? A touchscreen can make it
easier to navigate a printer’s menu system, especially if it has built-in
access to apps that require the user to punch in their login details. Ease of
use can also encompass the swiftness with which the paper tray can be accessed
and loaded, and the way in which the toner cartridges can be changed.
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