When choosing a printer, the first thing that you should do is to determine your printer needs. Consider both the quality and the quantity of the documents that you will print. If all you print is a weekly list of your investments and occasionally send a letter to Aunt Suzie, then you may only need an inexpensive black inkjet printer. If you want to print out photographs of the children or grandchildren, you will want to look at a higher-end colour inkjet printer or a special photo printer. If you anticipate printing dozens or hundreds of pages a day, then you may be looking at a laser printer. Here are the three different kinds in more detail.
Inkjet Printers:
Today, the two most common types of printers are the inkjet and the laser. Each uses a different type of technology. The inkjet printer works by squirting small dots of ink onto a sheet of paper. Colour inkjet printers can produce simple documents with just a splash of colour or a full-sized reproduction of a colour photograph. The black text output of a good quality inkjet printer is almost as good as the output from a laser printer. It is certainly good enough for most everyday home and small business applications. Inkjet printers can cost from $30 to over $500. As the price increases, so do the print quality and the speed. Obviously, an inkjet without colour capabilities will cost less than one with this feature.
Photo Printers:
Some inkjet printers are labeled "photo printers". These will have special types of ink, special ink cartridges, and unique features for printing photos, which is especially useful if you have a digital camera. Many photo printers can print "borderless photos" with no white border on the outside. This is a special feature that is not usually included in regular ink jet printers. Some of the newer photo printers also have a small LCD screen and slots for memory cards. You simply remove the memory card from your camera, insert it into the printer, view the photos on the LCD screen, and print the photos of your choice. If you purchase a photo printer with these advanced features make sure that the printer will accept the type of memory card that you use in your camera.
Laser Printers:
The technology used in a laser printer is similar to that of a photocopier. The image is drawn with an electrical charge on a drum inside the printer. An electronic charge attracts particles of toner in the pattern that was drawn by the laser. A drum then rolls across the paper, and the electrical charge causes the toner to jump from the drum to the paper. The images that are formed by the lasers can be quite detailed resulting in excellent print quality. Laser printers are designed to handle a larger load than inkjet printers. They tend to have a higher paper capacity, which means that they hold more paper. The actual amount of printing that the machine can handle is called the duty cycle and is usually stated in so many copies per month. For example, a monthly duty cycle of 5,000 means that the printer can handle a volume of 5,000 sheets in a month's time. If you anticipate printing a lot, you will need to purchase a printer with a duty cycle that is high enough for your needs. So if you will be printing a large number of documents, a laser printer will be your choice.
Print quality is generally quoted in the printer specifications as the resolution, which is stated as dpi or dots-per-inch. The more dots per inch of paper, the better the quality of the printed output. Just a few short years ago, we were all using 300x300 dpi, even for important business documents. Now inexpensive inkjets boast print qualities as high as 1200x1200 dpi.
Most printer speeds are measured in ppm or pages per minute. There is usually a different speed listed for printing in colour. For example, black text may print at a speed of 12 ppm while color may print at a speed of 10 ppm. Speed may be important to you, or it may not. If you want instant results without a wait, look for a faster printer. If you're on a tight budget, look for a printer with the best colour reproduction and don't worry about its speed.
Most PCs have a parallel port that can be used to hook up a printer. Newer PCs and Macs have USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports that can also be used to hook up a printer. Many printers today connect strictly to USB ports. Be careful because some printers will not come with a USB cable! I don't know why, but some don't include the cord with the printer. Ask a salesperson if it does come with it, if not you need to buy one.
