The different types of printers available to you today can be confusing; from pint-sized portable photo printers to printers that copy, scan, fax, staple, collate, and more; and everything in between. Here, I hope to give you some insight into what is best for you…

Inkjet printers

Most home printers sold today are inkjets.  These are often very inexpensive upfront, but you may end up paying many times more than that in ink costs over the printer's lifetime. (Generally, the lower a printer's, the higher the cost per printed page). 

Inkjet printers usually print in colour, and often use multiple colour ink cartridges. Their photo quality is almost always superior to laser printers, while the reverse is true of text quality.

These are made by all types of manufacturers out there, and are clearly one of the most popular types of printers. They are ideal for the type of person who does not have any specific way they want to print. This makes it ideal for home use, since it allows one to print all kinds of things with reasonable quality.

Pros:

Smaller and cheaper than laser printers, can produce good quality colour prints

Cons:

More expensive running costs, slower to print black text pages than a laser

Inkjet printing costs per page are higher than colour laser printers

Laser printers

The laser printers are known to be very good when you need to print large batches at very fast speeds, which is usually at the compromise of quality.  However, if you are printing items such as documents, you are hardly likely to notice the difference in quality between a document printed by a laser printer and one printed by an inkjet.

Their cartridges are a bit expensive, but print more than a comparable inkjet cartridge. If you choose the right one, it might turn out to be cheaper to use in the long run, especially if you print a lot as each toner cartridge may yield thousands of pages instead of the handful you can print with an inkjet cartridge.

Pros:

Fast prints and good value printing for black-and-white pages

Cons:

More expensive to buy, bulkier and often noisier than inkjets

Specialty printers

These focus on specialised tasks such as printing photos, labels or mobile printing.

Portable document printers

You may find you need a printing solution that is as portable as your laptop or camera.  Some can print wirelessly from mobile devices.  Some print at A4 size, while many are restricted to a smaller sized output.  Some pack their own battery power – either a rechargeable battery pack or they use normal batteries – while others need to be plugged into a wall outlet for power.

Photo printers

These are printers that have been designed to only produce photos.  Of course, you can use them for other types of printing including documents, but the fact that they are specialised means that doing this will have consequences. For instance, if you use them to print documents on a regular basis, it might turn out to be a lot more expensive compared to printing the same using an inkjet or laser printer.

Label printers

These small printers are built to print labels, envelopes and even postage. While many document printers have special printing modes for labels and envelopes, a dedicated device may be a better for you.

All-in-one printers

These combine printers (normally inkjet), photocopiers and scanners in one package.  If you think that you will be using all these features, it would be a good idea to get this sort of printer since it’s cheaper and will take up much less space.

Pros:

Can scan, photocopy and fax as well as print

Cons:

Tend to be larger models that take up more space

Wireless printers

Wi-Fi connectivity is now a given for all but the cheapest printers, which still need to connect directly to your PC or laptop via a USB connection.  In most cases, it is a feature worth paying for.  Not only can you print from all the computers in your home, but many wireless printers will print from other devices, such as a smartphone or tablet. In fact, you can even print remotely, using bundled email-based ‘eprint’ services or services such as Google Cloud Print.

Pros:

Allows you to print from smartphones, tablets and computers wirelessly

Cons:

Traditionally more expensive, but prices have fallen

What, where next…..

To find the best printer that will deliver high-quality prints at a pleasingly low cost, answer the following questions:

• Do you need prints fast, or is quality more important?

• What sort of documents will you print the most?

• Will you print from one computer, or lots of devices?

• And how much do printing costs matter to you?

Clarifying your needs will help you narrow down your selection.

If still wondering which is best for you get in contact with Highway direct, or visit one of the Support Sessions closest to you (details in the Highway Calendar). 

Not only will you get the advice your after but we may be able procure the printer you want and assist with the installation as well.