Important Tips on Buying the Right Printer

Normally, the time you are looking for a new printer is because your old one has just “bit the dust”. Don’t run out and buy the first, the cheapest, or the most expensive printer you find. Here are a few tips on buying a good printer that will suit your needs.

First, determine what you use your printer for?

• Do you use your printer for home or business use?
• Do you mainly use it to print text and the occasional picture?
• Do you need a printer that is a scanner, copier and fax machine also?
• Do you print high quality photographs?

Home or business use - If you normally use a printer for black and white text and the occasional picture, a good quality ink jet printer is all you need. Laser printers are much faster but are mainly used for business as they focus more on cost per page and are much more expensive, especially if you want a color laser printer, now you are talking some money. For the purpose of this article we are going to be talking about a printer for home or small business use. A good inkjet printer will have good resolution and will fit into your budget.

Basic “printer only” model - (not including scanner/copier, fax) This is a good choice for someone who does not do a lot of printing or faxing. If you print off coupons, recipes and the occasional photograph, this should be all you need. Look for the ppm, pages per minute, as you are comparing. This is the speed at which the printer prints a page. The larger the number, the faster the printer will be. Again we are not too concerned about the speed on a home/small business printer, but this number will vary in all models. Prices will run somewhere around $50.00 to $100.

Printer/scanner/copier/ fax - You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a good all-in-one machine and they don’t take up much space. These days, I don’t need a fax often, but when I do, I sure am glad I have an all-in-one! They are not much more expensive and can really save the day. Again, compare the ppm number. You will also want to watch your ink replacement cost. Some printers may cost less, but the cost of the replacement ink cartridges will be much higher. Prices for a good all-in-one printer will range around $100.00 to $175.

High quality photos - If you enjoy taking pictures and want to do your own printing, you are going to want to step up a notch. Depending on what quality you want in your photographs as to how much money you want to spend. You want to look for the dpi, dots per inch. The higher the dpi, the better the resolution you will have. This is especially important if you print your own photography, you want good resolution so your pictures do not look “grainy”. You also want to choose a printer that has separate color ink cartridges. If you choose one that only has a black and a color ink cartridge, you may run out of yellow in your color ink cartridge and will have to replace the whole cartridge. This can become wasteful and expensive. If you have separate color ink cartridges, then you will only have to replace them one at a time. I have a website where I sell my nature photography and I do my own printing. I have found this to be much more cost effective. You are looking at prices from $200.00 up, depending on the quality picture you want.

Bottom line – choose a reputable manufacturer with a 1 to 2 year warrant and watch your ink replacement cost. Don’t get more of a printer than you really need. Canon, Hewlett Packard, Epson, Brother, Lexmark and Kodak are just several of the manufacturers that have a good reputation and should do a good job for you.

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