Everyone with a computer could use a printer; after all, would you really consider your home computer system to be complete without one? Whether you want to print out your digital photos, print out some homework or print out a hard-copy of a presentation for work, having a printer to go with your computer is a necessity. But what kind of printer do you need? Laser printers are certainly fast and print in very high quality, but they tend to be large and expensive. Other types of printers, such as dye sublimation printers and dot matrix printers, serve niche roles and often have hefty price tags. For all-around printing quality at a price that home-users are looking for, look for an inkjet printer. This inkjet printer buying guide will help you understand how to buy an inkjet printer that will match your printing needs as well as your budget.
If you've ever walked into a computer supply store and seen rows and rows of printers, then you may find choosing a single one to be a bit daunting. Fortunately, if you understand what you really want your printer to do, you can then narrow down your choices very quickly.
So when you're shopping for an inkjet printer, consider the features and whehter or not they meet your needs.
Color printers were once considered a luxury, and they sported some high price tags. Nowadays, color printers are available that are as inexpensive as any black and white printer. Of course, you get what you pay for -- meaning that a very inexpensive color printer may give less than satisfactory results, especially if you're printing your digital photographs or other vivid, high-resolution imagery.
When you see an inkjet printer that only prints in black and white, that printer is probably optimized for printing text at high speeds and high quality. These printers are great for small offices or for students, but they probably aren't the right choice for the home user wanting the flexibility to print in color when they want to.
DPI, or Dots per Inch, is a measurement of how finely-detailed a picture the printer can reproduce. Formally speaking, DPI is the "resolution" of the printer. For years, when text was the majority of what printers were expected to print, resolutions such as 300 DPI and 600 DPI were common. (If you go back even further, you saw even lower resolutions such as 180 DPI, but those are less common now.) When you're printing text, 600 DPI gives you very clean, sharp text. Many printers that can print text at 600 DPI will also be able to print at 300 DPI, which will typically be faster but the results will be of a lower quality. A good rule of thumb is that, if you're printing something just for yourself to read, 300 DPI should be fine (unless, of course, you really want your printing to look nice); however, if you're printing something to give to someone else (such as homework or a resume), you'll want 600 DPI to make a good impression.
In recent years, however, digital photography has become commonplace and many people now want to be able to print out their digital photos. You can get a specialized photo printer for printing photograph-sized images at very high quality, but that printer will be less useful when you need to print out 8 by 11-inch documents, such as homework. If you're looking for a great all-around inkjet printer, be sure you look for one that can print in colors at high resolutions.
Countless inkjet printers can print a very nice-looking page. Many can reproduce a color image so that it looks sharp and vivid. However, some printers may take a very long time to do so. In short, the higher the printing speed of an inkjet printer, the more expensive you can expect it to be.
Black and white printing is nearly always faster than color printer, and inkjet printers can typically print pages of text anywhere from a few pages per minute to several pages per minute. Printing in color can be a very slow process for a printer to do well; so, printers that can quickly print a high-quality color printout can get expensive in a hurry. When you're shopping for your inkjet printer, be sure to weigh the speed of the printer against how much you want to spend. But if you expect to print out large text documents, you may well find it worth the cost of a printer than can print a dozen or more pages of text per minute at the DPI you want.
This is often one of the most overlooked aspects of buying a new printer. While most every new printer will come with an ink cartridge, you're undoubtedly going to need to buy new cartridges before long. Of course, the more printing you do, the more often you'll need new ink cartridges. Unfortunately, the longevity of ink cartridges can vary wildly from one manufacturer to another; one vendor's ink cartridges may only produce a few pages of colored printouts before it has to be replaced, while another vendor's ink cartridges might last for several dozen (or possibly several hundred!) color printouts and still be ready for more.
Some inkjet printers take a single ink cartridge that contains all of the ink. These cartridges are convenient, but consider how you'll react when your cartridge runs out of one color of ink -- you can either print everything in the wrong hue or pay for a new ink cartridge. Neither choice is optimal.
Often, a printer will take one cartridge for black ink and another for colors. This is much preferable to the first option; now, when your color cartridge starts to run out of a specific color, at least you don't have to replace your blank ink cartridge at the same time. While the thought of buying multiple cartridges may initially push away some buyers, you should realize that, in the long run, you'll probably save money by not having to replace ink cartridges that still partly function.
Taking this idea to the extreme, you'll find inkjet printers with up to four separate ink cartridges: one for blank ink and three others for colors. This is your very best choice in how to save money by not replacing ink cartridges while they still have ink -- after all, you'll never have to replace one of the cartridges until it's actually out of ink. Buying this kind of printer may simply be too much overhead for some users; but, if you're comfortable shopping for just the right replacement ink cartridges and opening your printer to install them, then this is a great choice.
The days of printers having to connect to your computer through a parallel port are largely a thing of the past. Even the lowest-end printers will easily connect to your computer via USB. For extra flexibility, look for a printer with networking capacity, such as an Ethernet connection or a wireless connection. It's becoming easier than ever to find a printer that can connect to your wireless network, making it a breeze for everyone in your home or on your network to share the same printer, and giving your great flexibility in where you place your printer.
Aside from printer, there are several other features you might be looking for. For example, you might want your printer to also be able to scan images or act as a fax machine. These kinds of all-in-one printers are often built on inkjet printer technology.
If you expect to do lots of high-volume print jobs, you may want to look for a high-capacity paper tray or possibly an inkjet printer with the option to add a second (or even third) paper tray. And if you want your printer to be able to print on both sides without requiring the tedium -- not to mention the paper jams -- of you manually turning sheets of paper, then look for a printer with auto-duplexing.
This is another factor than is all too often overlooked. There are many names in the printer business, many of which have been around for many years; some of them have established a reputation of making high-quality, durable printers with long-lasting ink cartridges that are easy to replace and drivers that are solid and easy to install. Other manufacturers, unfortunately, have built a reputation for making low-cost printers, with little else good to say about them. Try not to be lured in by an incredibly low-priced printer that appears to meet your needs; if you evaluate the criteria from this buying guide, especially things like the price and longevity of the ink cartridges, you may quickly find that the bargain printer is little more than a waste of money just waiting to happen.
How can I print to both sides of a page with my inkjet printer?
The simplest way to print to both sides of a page is to look for a printer that supports auto-duplexing. Unfortunately, this feature can make a printer fairly expensive, so there are some manual approaches to printing to both sides of a page. First, you can simply print one page, then take that printed page and put it back in the paper tray so the printer prints to the other side. This has some real complications, however: It can be tricky to orient the page so that it actually prints where you expect; if the ink from the first page hasn't dried yet, you may just have a mess on your hands; and you may find that, after you've handled a sheet of paper, it tends to jam -- often because some static electricity got passed to the sheet while you handled it, and now the sheet is attracted to surfaces inside the printer.
The savvy computer user can find a nice compromise by printing all of the odd pages of a document, putting that entire stack of papers back into the paper tray and then printing all of the even pages. By not handling the pages individually, there's less risk of a large static electricity buildup on any single page that may lead to a paper jam. Also, the approach means you want have to sit and wait for every page to print so you can turn it over and start a new print job -- which is just as tedious as it sounds.
Can the whole household or office use the same printer?
Absolutely; even if your printer only offers a USB connection, you can tell the computer to which it's connected to share the printer over the network. For a more convenient way to share the printer, look for an inkjet printer with either Ethernet or wireless networking support. Printers with wireless networking support are becoming quite commonplace (and less expensive), and once the printer has been set up to connect to your wireless network, it's a breeze for everyone else on the network to share that printer. You can even move the printer to anywhere within the wireless network's range -- no more having to make a space near your computer for your printer to sit.
Can I refill my ink cartridges or use refurbished cartridges with my inkjet printer?
Many printer manufacturers will tell you not to use refilled or refurbished ink cartridges in your printer; some may go so far as to say that using refilled ink cartridges in your printer will void your warranty. One on hand, the manufacturer has no quality controls over refilled ink cartridges, and a damaged ink cartridge could render your printer completely inoperable. However, many people have successfully used refilled ink cartridges, either refilled by stores or refilled themselves with ink refill kits, with no damage to their printer and no loss in quality. Be sure to weigh the possible risks before you use refilled or refurbished ink cartridges in your printer, especially if you want to preserve your printer's warranty.
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