7 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Buying a Printer

September 24, 2020

7 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Buying a Printer

Printers are well-loved machines. Inkjet and Laser printers are its two most popular variants. You’ll often find big laser printers at work and compact Inkjets at home. However, it is wiser to understand their differences before you put your money on either. Let’s dive into the questions that you need to ask yourself before buying a printer for your home office or business.

1. Do you know the difference between Inkjet and Laser printers?

• Inkjet Printers: They drop ink through jets or small nozzles on the surface of the paper.
• Laser Printers: Also called Toner Printers, they use a combination of heat and toner dust. This powder gets attached to the paper and produces intense prints. However, they do need more than a few seconds to get up and running.

2. Do you generally print in color or black and white?

Do you print reams of black and white documents? Get yourself a laser printer. These printers are great for bulk greyscale printing and require only a black toner to do the work. They baulk at producing complex graphics and can’t blend tones well.

For professional color prints, an inkjet printer is more useful. We are talking crisp photos, uniform tonal blends, and high resolution. Also, they can print on fabrics as well as different types of papers like photo paper or textured pages – something laser printers aren’t able to. So, while laser cartridges are suitable for medium-quality colored prints, many high-end inkjet models find a place in the best photo studios.

3. How many pages do you need to be printing at a time?

Choosing a printer by usage is a safe bet. If you need just a few pages regularly, an inkjet printer should be your priority. An Inkjet printer is the best printer for printing needs around the house, for instance, school projects or home offices. Their printing trays can accommodate only a hundred or so pages at a time.

However, a laser printer is your best option if you plan on getting a printer for your workplace, especially if there is a vast need for printing. One positive side of this printer is it can handle massive printing loads without incurring damages to its parts.

4. How fast do you want to print?

Some laser printers can churn out as many as a hundred prints per minute. As for the inkjet machines, most of them stop at around fifteen to sixteen pages per minute. If you find yourself queuing up for grab at the printing machine, get yourself a new one. For fast and high print loads, buying a laser printer is the best deal.

5. How many prints can you get out of your cartridge?

In other words, what is the print yield? Whether your printer uses toner or ink cartridges, there is a limit to the number of pages they turn out before they need replacing.

For inkjet printers, it could be anywhere between a few hundred to a thousand. On the other hand, laser cartridges do not provide anything less than a few thousand. So there’s less worry about changing cartridges ever so frequently.

6. How much does it cost to print a page?

Printing cost is based on your cartridge. Its yield and price decide the cost of printing one page on your printer. Toner cartridges get your more prints than inkjets but are also more expensive. At the same time, when you count the yield, you will be surprised to see the low prices.

For example, if the price of an inkjet cartridge is $15 and its yield is 120 pages, then its cost per page will be ($15/120=$0.125) 12.5 cents per page.

Meanwhile, if a high-yield black toner cartridge costs $120 and has a page yield of 9,200 pages, then its cost per page will be ($120/9,200=$0.013) 1.3 cents per page.

That’s almost a 10x cost difference!

Hence, calculate your printing cost taking into account all such factors.

7. How much does a printer cost?

The short answer is, it depends. For example, some desktop printers can go for as low as $500. In contrast, some high-end multifunction printers can go well above $30,000 or more!

There is no shortage of high performing printers in the market catering to different budgets. As a general rule, laser printers are pricier than inkjet ones. But they make up for it with their price per page and print capacity.

Ink tanks are less expensive and are ideal for smaller printing loads when spending a bomb on toner cartridges don’t make sense.

Both Inkjet and Laser printers are well-loved products. As more and more features get added to printers, they are taking up the functions of other useful devices like copiers and scanners. Reputed brands offer additional security features along with after-sales services and warranties. What you need to purchase finally comes down to your print budget, and the finer details of your job.