Beginner’s Guide to Printers

We all need it from time to time, but when buying a new printer for home or office, how can we make sure we get the best offer for our environment or situation.

Printer Type:

There are many types of printers available for purchase in stores or online. For this article, we will only focus on printers that are most likely to be used in a standard home or office environment.

Inkjet Printer

This is the most common printer found around the house. They can vary in price depending on specifications, performance, features, and final print quality.

Inkjet printers usually consist of a set of ink cartridges and a print head consisting of a series of small holes where ink is applied to paper to produce the final print.

The lower end inkjet printer has two inkjet cartridges, containing yellow, cyan, and magenta. The other cartridge is black. Inkjet printers with higher specifications may have separate cartridges for each color so that replacement is efficient. They might also have seven or more cartridges to increase the color range, but the price is high.

Inkjet printers can print images and text on a variety of media formats, plain paper, photo paper, cards, and envelopes, etc.

High-quality photo printing usually comes with a higher price tag, especially when looking at A3 size inkjet photo printers.

Laser Printer

Most people only find laser printers at work, but over the past few years, manufacturers have tried to make inroads into the home user market with cheaper models aimed at exposing them into our homes.

Laser printers work by etching images into the paper with a laser that charges the area where the laser has passed. Fine dust, better known as toner, is then blown onto the paper surface, because of the nature of the toner attached to the part of the paper that was previously filled by the laser. After this process, the paper passes through a hot roller that fixes the toner to the paper to produce the final print.

Laser printers can use for a variety of printing tasks, but most models are available for home use only for black and white printing. There are color models available, but extra fees apply.

The most common use for black and white laser printers is for someone who wants to print letters, faxes, information, or bank statements. As mentioned before, color laser printers come at an additional cost, but if you have them, images and even photos can print. It is important to note that there may be limitations on the type of paper, and research might need to do.

Multifunction Printer

There are a large number of manufacturers that produce multifunction printer devices for home use. This printer allows several tasks to be completed using the method. Most allow photocopying, printing (usually inkjet printers), scanning documents to a computer, and some enable faxing if there is a telephone line. The quality of the printing and scanning functions often depends on the price.

Also, some multifunction devices allow printing directly from menu cards and cameras without the need for a computer as many inkjet printers sold today.

What should you buy?

Well, the final decision is ultimately yours, so below are a few pointers to help the decision-making process.

• Write a list of all the tasks that you want to do on your printer.
• Find out how often you print various types of media such as photos, text pages, receipts, etc. because this will help determine what will be the primary role of the printer.
• Make sure that the printer is compatible with your computer’s operating system and that you have the USB port that required for the printer
• Try to examine replacement Inkjet Cartridges or Laser Toner Cartridges to see how much you might spend in the future when replacing ink or toner. This is one of the essential points to consider because this can be expensive.
• Find out if the printer of your choice equipped with the cable provided to connect it, or maybe you want a wireless printer.

As mentioned earlier in this article, there are many types of printers, and this article only discusses the basics of the printing mechanism but is a useful guide for anyone considering buying a new printer.