Choosing a new printer

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Choosing a new printer

How to choose a new printer.

Inkjet Printers:
Generally cost much less than laser printers, although their maintenance in the form of ink cartridges andprint heads can be high. They are by far the cheapest option for users wishing to print in colour.

Laser Printers:
Although more expensive in terms of purchase price, they are much cheaper to maintain because their toner cartridges last longer.

Resolution:
Resolution is measured according to the number of microscopic drops of ink or toner the printer can fit in to a square inch of paper (dpi), with higher dpi ratings generally equating to better print quality. Whilst a printer with a high dpi rating is essential for somebody who wants to print out high quality pictures, photographs or other images, monochrome text looks fine in resolutions of just 300dpi, which all inkjet and laser printers on the market today support.

Paper Handling:
As inkjet printers are designed for personal use they are more compact in design, and consequently the majority will only hold up to 100 sheets. Laser printers are ideal for high volume document print jobs and are designed with much larger and more stable input trays able to hold at least 200 sheets of A4 paper. Laser printers also have dedicated output trays to keep printed pages clean and manageable.

Users:
Inkjet printers are compact and designed to fit on a desk for personal use and therefore are ideal for use by small groups of people or an individual user. Some laser printers have integrated network interface cards built in to enable them to be
attached to a network allowing any user on the network to print to the printer at any time.

Colour Laser Printing:
Whilst inkjet printers remain the cheapest option for those wishing to print small quantities in colour, colour laser printing is becoming increasingly popular. Whilst the initial cost of the hardware is more expensive than inkjet, the cost per copy is far lower and therefore colour laser is
the ideal option for large print runs.

Print Speeds:
Print speeds are usually achieved at the expense of resolution, i.e if you require high resolution the speed at which the printer prints will be slower. If you want a fast printer, able to print large volumes of pages cheaply and quickly, a laser printer is still the best choice.

Print speed can be affected by the amount of memory installed in the printer, with larger complements of RAM able to store and process bigger print jobs much quicker.

Direct Photo Printing:
Some inkjet printers include a facility to print either direct from a digital camera or using a digital camera media card, therefore eliminating the need for a PC. Such printers allow the user to view the image before printing and are ideal for photo enthusiasts or those without access to a PC who wish to take advantage of digital photography.

Parallel or USB:
There are two main methods of connecting a printer to your PC, USB (Universal Serial Bus) and Parallel. USB is the new standard for
connecting most peripherals to a PC and Mac, and many new printers come with USB connectivity only. USB will function on any PC running Windows 98 or later. Older PCs with USB ports will be running with USB V1.1, which allows transfer speeds of 12MB per second. Many new printers are now compatible with the latest version of USB (V2.0) which allows transfer speeds of 480MB per second for even faster data transfer. All USB V2.0 compatible printers are also suitable for V1.1 USB ports. Anyone running Windows 95 or earlier should select a printer that can be connected via the Parallel port, as these operating systems are not suitable for USB.

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