How to Choose & Buy a Printer

A printer is an essential accessory when you?re buying a computer, and you?ll often need to buy it separately, so it?s important to choose a model that will suit both your budget and needs. Here are some useful hints and tips for things to consider when choosing a printer.

How to Choose & Buy a Printer - Types

Just as computers have evolved over time, through technological development and innovation, so have printers. Whether you're upgrading your existing printer or you're buying a computer and need a printer to go with it, it's important to buy a model that will suit your needs - whether it's for printing homework, photographs, artwork, diagrams, or anything else you want to keep on paper- as there different types of printer have different advantages and disadvantages.

The types of printer available can be put into four main categories:

Laser Printers - Combining efficiency with quality, laser printers are the fastest and highest quality printers on the market. Using static electricity to attract the toner (printer ink) to the paper, laser printers are ideal for large volume printing jobs, with some models producing over 60 pages per minute. Laser printers are usually more expensive than other types of printer, and costs go up significantly when printing in colour, but for many users they are worth the extra money because of the laser printer's time-saving rapid printing capability.
Inkjet Printers - The most popular type of printer for home computer users, the inkjet printer offers quality printing that is often hard to distinguish from printing produced by laser printers. Inkjet printers work by sending thousands of ink dots on the page, which is measured in dpi (dots per inch.) The higher the dpi, the higher the printing quality. Although this type of printing can be more prone to smudging, inkjet printers are the most affordable printers on the market and perfectly suitable for most home computer printing jobs.
Photo Printers - Thanks to the recent rise in the use of digital cameras, there are now many printers on the market which are specially designed to print photographs, and most models are capable of printing pictures that are comparable in quality to that of conventional photographs. Many models of photo printer can print directly from a digital camera or digital camera card reader without the need for a computer. Some photo printers are made for specific models or brands of digital camera, so you should make sure your digital camera is compatible with any photo printer that you're considering.
All-In-One Printers - With some models only marginally more expensive than inkjet printers, the all-in-one printer is popular because of its multi-purpose convenience - an inkjet printer, scanner and photocopier all in one handy unit, with some models also featuring a fax facility. If you need all of these functions, then it's worth considering an all-in-one printer as it will be cheaper and more convenient to use than separate devices, even if you think that you'll only use some of the functions occasionally use.

How to Choose & Buy a Printer - Features and Specification

Here are some features and specifications to look out for when choosing a printer:

Print Speed - Most printer models will have a set printing speed, which is measured in ppm (pages per minute.) This figure relates to the speed in which the printer will print a basic page of text with no images or effects, so the average speed will be less when printing a range of documents.
Resolution - Measured in dpi (dots per inch) the resolution determines the clarity and sharpness of the printing. The higher the dpi, the better the detail and quality of the printing. For printing text, a resolution of 300 x 300 dpi is sufficient, while photographs need a resolution of at least 1440 x 720 dpi.
Connectivity - Most printers use a USB connection so it's important to make sure that your computer has a free USB port. Printers will usually come with software so you'll need to check that your computer has the correct specifications for this software to run successfully.
Page Size - What size pages will you be printing? The most common size is A4 but some printers will print up to size A3 - ideal for posters and presentations.
Toner - Your printer may come with a toner cartridge so you can get printing straight away. Toner costs vary, so a seemingly cheap printer may work out to be more expensive in the long run if the toner cartridges cost more. It's less expensive to print in black and white, but you may still wish to have the additional option of printing in colour.

How to Choose & Buy a Printer - Warranty and Budget

When choosing your printer, read the warranty terms and conditions of the model that you want to buy carefully and compare them to those offered by other brands and retailers. Warranties cover you for the cost of repairs to or a replacement for your printer.

It's a good idea to set a limit on the amount of money that you prepared to spend on your new printer. If you're planning on buying a scanner or photocopier in the future, it's worth considering an all-in-one model, even though these are more expensive than other types of printer.

By shopping around online, comparing prices between different printer retailers and taking advantage of special offers and discounts, you could get a better model of printer than your budget would normally allow.