Early printers were slow, produced questionable quality output, and were expensive. Just a few short years ago, you couldn't buy an inkjet printer for under $500. Ah, progress! And this time evolution has moved in the consumer's favor. Today a printer does not have to be a major investment. The market offers great products that produce quality output at affordable prices. Printer manufacturers are responding to a huge consumer appetite for less expensive printers — both inkjet printers and laser printers. Entry-level inkjet printers start about $49.99, but I have seen them for as little as $30.00. Recently, the price has dropped substantially on laser printers as well. Lexmark and other printer manufacturers have come out with laser printers costing around $200. Hewlett Packard's Laser Jet 1012 has a retail price of $199 and pumps out and amazing15 pages per minute.

Making Your Choice

Lower end printers are a great buy, so go for it. But to be happy at the end of the day, you will need to do a little research. Here are some pointers on buying a printer. One special note: be sure to check out the cost of consumables, especially when dealing with inkjet printers. Printer manufacturers are making up for profits missed on the cheap printers by a hefty mark up on ink cartridges and printer paper. Color ink cartridges and glossy photo paper can set you back substantially. When buying a printer, it used to be you needed to focus on how fast a printer could print and what quality it could produce. Today's printer shoppers should be checking out the operating costs as well as the printer's capabilities and the purchase price.

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 color 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.

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. Color inkjet printers can produce simple documents with just a splash of color or a full-sized reproduction of a color 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 color 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. 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 an 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

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.

The dpi will give you an idea of the quality of the output. However, you will find that each printer manufacturer has its own method of improving the print quality. Hewlett Packard uses technologies called PhotoRET, ColorSmart, and RealLife Imaging. Epson uses systems that they market as PerfectPictureTM Imaging, Micro PiezoTM inkket technology, and AcuPhoto HalftoningTM. If you want to do a little research, it can be fascinating to investigate all of these different technologies to determine which one(s) you like best. However, if you just want to buy a good printer without spending hours reading about print technologies, let your eyes be the judge. Many stores have demonstration units where you can see the output from the different printers.

When you look at printer output, look first at the clarity of the text printout. Look closely to make sure the characters don't look jagged. Check out the lightness or darkness of the printout and make sure the characters look clean and crisp. For color prints, look for good contrast and vivid colors. Make sure that the colors don't bleed into each other and be sure to look for clear, clean lines where black lines meet the colored areas. See if you can view the output on various types of paper. While some printers do better on expensive photographic paper, others excel at printing on plain paper.

Speed

Most printer speeds are measured in ppm or pages per minute. There is usually a different speed listed for printing in color. 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 color reproduction and don't worry about its speed.

Cost of Operation

When you use a printer, the cost of consumables should be considered in addition to the initial cost of the printer. Inkjet printers use ink cartridges, while laser printers user toner cartridges and drums. The cost of ink cartridges can be surprisingly high. I recently found an Apollo printer that could be purchased with rebates for $30. However, the ink cartridges cost $30 each.

The least expensive printer may be the most expensive to operate. Some printers may themselves be inexpensive, but hefty ink or toner cartridge prices can make them more expensive in the long run. It is easy to check the price of toner or ink cartridges before you purchase the printer; however, it can be difficult to judge the yield that you will get from one cartridge. Some printer manufacturers like Hewlett Packard and Epson give the technical specifications for page yield per cartridge; others give some indication of yields. However, some printer cartridge manufacturers give no specs of this type, leaving the purchaser in the dark as to the actual cost of operation. Many manufacturers offer good information about how long a print cartridge will last. This information is usually found under the product specifications for each printer. I was disappointed to find that Hewlett Packard did not give a per page cost. Epson, however, was more detailed in their information and included data on both the black and color ink cartridge life for each of their printers. They gave details regarding the number of pages to expect from a cartridge. This is very important information, since each printer uses a specific type of ink cartridge. Although most of these cartridges cost between $25 and $40, they hold different amounts of ink.

Connection

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 will allow you to use either of these ports. If you have the choice, the USB connection will be easier to set up and faster to use. If the printer is USB 2.0 and you have USB 2.0 ports on your computer, the communication between the computer and the printer will be very speedy. If the printer is USB 2.0 and your older computer has USB 1.1 ports, the printer will still work fine, it will simply communicate with the computer at a slower speed.

Warranty

As usual when purchasing computer-related equipment, it is important to check out the length of the warranty and the strength of the technical support team. You may also want to see if the printer manufacturer has a toll-free telephone number and check on their support hours.

Software

Many printers today come with additional software. You should make your printer selection based on the print quality, speed, and other printer features. However, be aware that some of the additional software may provide a compelling reason to purchase. The software should not be the basis of your decision on a printer; consider it a bonus. But check out the software as well, judging it on its stand-alone merit. Often the software is geared specifically to either the home user or the office user. Whether you are getting software for making T-shirt transfers or printing business cards, it should fill a real need for your home or your office.

A Great Time to Buy

Again, go for it if you are considering one of today's attractively priced printers. But take the time to do your arithmetic. You don't want the money you saved on the purchase price of the printer to be gobbled up by the cost of the paper and print cartridges.