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Pondering Printers

There are many different types and models of printer on the market these days so it is important to get something that suits your needs. Printers have reduced in price significantly over the last 2 - 3 years, to the point where they are basically disposable. In most cases repairing a broken printer is not economical, it will cost more to repair than to replace, so you will likely face replacing one every couple of years or so.

I am going to discuss what to look for in a new printer and some great websites to help you choose a new model.

What kind of printer do I need?

There are 2 main kinds of printer for your home. They are Inkjet and Laser.

An inkjet printer is generally cheaper to purchase, especially for colour printing and is designed for low volume printing (under 500 pages per month).
Inkjet's are cheaper than laser when combined with other features like scanning, copying and faxing. The downside is that the cost of the ink is much higher per page than for a laser because a laser cartridge will print many more pages per dollar of ink. Inkjets will produce much nicer printed photo's than a laser printer as well.

Laser printers are more suited to a small business or home business. They are designed for higher volume printing (500+ pages per month) and can produce cleaner and tidier printing of documents.
The price of a laser will increase when adding scanning/copying/faxing features.

An inkjet printer is better for home use and laser for businesses.

What features should I look for?

If you plan on printing photos and would like top quality print outs, consider investing in an inkjet photo printer. These will accept special high quality photo ink and print on specialty photo paper for perfect photos. Remember that the photo ink and paper will increase the cost of your printing.

A scanner/copier is a great feature allowing you to make photocopies and turn physical documents into electronic documents you can email or edit on your computer.

There are also printer/scanners that can scan your collection of slides into digital photographs making it easy to back up and protect your older photos.

Email has largely replaced faxing but it is a useful feature to have. Most printer/faxes in NZ support 'faxability'. For around $4 per month you get a dedicated fax number but sharing the same phone line as your home/business phone.

If you have more than one computer in your house, consider how you will share the printer between them. Many printers include networking by cable or wireless. A wireless printer is great because it can sit anywhere within range of your wireless signal, it doesn't have to sit beside your computer.

Inkjet printers with 3 separate colour cartridges are also a good idea. If you print a lot with one colour, replacing only 1 cartridge at a time can offer substantial savings over a single cartridge with 3 colours inside.

Inkjet vs. Laser

When deciding between these, look at the cost per page of printing and compare that to the difference in price of the printer. A typical inkjet printer can cost around 15 cents per page for black & white and 30 cents for colour. A laser printer can produce black & white for 6 cents or less per page and colour for 9 cents or less. These are the cost of the ink divide by the estimated number of pages.

Also consider the volume of printing you will do. An inkjet printer can break or become unreliable when printing high volumes where a laser may handle volumes from 500/month up to 50,000/month or more!

Helpful Websites

These websites can help you choose a printer model to suit your needs:

HP Printers: www.hp.co.nz
Choose Home & Office Printers > Help me choose a printer

Canon: www.canon.co.nz
Choose Find a Product link

Wiki how: www.wikihow.com/Choose-a-Printer