Nerds Can Help You Choose a Printer

When trying to choose the best printer for you or your business, it really comes down to what you are going to be using your printer for. Lets have a look at which type of printer is best suited for you or your business. Usually you will choose between an inkjet and a laser printer. Each of them has their own specific use, and varies in price and maintenance costs.

The Inkjet Printer

The inkjet printer is good for short printing runs, the quality is good, and they are not expensive. However when purchasing an inkjet printer, one must look at the costs of maintaining that printer. Inkjet printers run on ink cartridges, which can be expensive to replace. Typically, you would need two cartridges for this type of printer, one for black ink and one for colour. It is very important to always keep the box of your cartridge, as it can become a nightmare to replace it when you are faced with 400 cartridges in a shop. Alternatively, there are inkjet cartridge refill kits, but this can become a messy and inefficient process, which could lead to you damaging your printer. While the quality of inkjet printers is good, printing a page can be timely, and their output is prone to smudging and fading.

Advantages

    * Low cost, good quality printer for the home or small office
    * High quality printing, which can be used for printing your digital photos
    * Reasonably quick printing time (varies according to make and model)

Disadvantages

    * Expensive to replace cartridges
    * Not efficient for high volume printing
    * Smudging and fading, and can be messy when using lots of ink

The Laser Printer

Unlike inkjet printers, laser printers use toner rather than ink cartridges.  This allows for the printer to print at fast speeds and at a high quality resolution. If you are going to be purchasing a printer for your office or plan on printing large quantities, then a laser printer should definitely be considered. Although initially more expensive, a laser printer requires less toner cartridges than an inkjet would require ink cartridges. This would ensure that your cost per page of printing is reduced, as well as being capable of high volume printing. The disadvantage for a home user using this type of printer is that besides the high end laser machines, the printer is less capable of printing bright colours and high quality images, for example if you used your printer for photo printing at home.

Advantages

    * High resolution, quick printing
    * Low cost per page
    * Depending on machine, may only be able to print black, unless a colour model is chosen which can be expensive
    * High initial cost, but lower costs when replacing cartridges over an inkjet cartridge.

Disadvantages

    * Less capable of printing high quality, colourful photos ( except for high end machines)
    * Machine will require warm up time
    * Initial cost is high, and is affected by whether you require pure black or a colour laser.

Convergence in technology has no doubt affected the printer, and nowadays you can find really good all-in-one printing machines- these typically include a printer, fax, scanner and copier. These have become very popular machines in the home and small office environment, and are available in both inkjet and laser printer options. The great thing about these machines is that they save space and reduce costs, however if one of the components breaks, usually the entire machine will break.

Whatever your printing requirement, give us a call and we can help find you a printer that is best suited to your home or business needs. Dial a Nerd: Because Nerds know computers