PRINTER BUYING GUIDE
Nowadays printers have become an important part of business. Whether or not you need an inkjet or laser printer would depend on what you print, how often you print, and how much your printing budget is. There are numerous documents that you may need to print and so understanding which printer is right for your business is an important decision to make. We aren’t all experts in printers which makes this decision quite difficult. That’s why we have created this helpful printer guide to help you choose.
Types Of Printers
COLOUR LASER
Laser printers melt toner powder onto paper to create a print. These printers have been the preferred choice for offices, small businesses and high-volume home printing Colour laser printers produce high-quality, colourful images.
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MONO LASER
Monochrome laser printers use the same technology as colour laser printers. They're often faster and cheaper than other types of printers, and best suited for producing large numbers of black-and-white documents.
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INKJET
Inkjet printers sprays liquid ink onto paper. They are generally cheaper and smaller than laser printers and can be used to print both text documents as well as high quality-coloured images. A variation of the Inkjet is an Ink Tank Printer.
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ALL-IN-ONE
An all-in-one printer is a device made up of multiple peripheral functionalities and capabilities, including printing, copying and scanning. The types of printers are also refered to as MFP, an acronym for a Multi-Function Printer.
Shop NowADVANATGES AND DISADVANTAGES
LASER
While laser toner cartridges are more costly than those of an inkjet printer, they can offer a greater yield along with vastly improved print speeds. If you find yourself regularly printing in large quantities, a laser printer is worth considering.
- Speed
- Reliability
- Efficiency in regard to text & documents
- Corporate use
- Photos and images
INKJET
Inkjet printers use ink cartridges which are usually cheaper to replace than laser toner cartridges - although the page yield is lower. If you aren’t anticipating heavy use or you predominately print high colour images, an inkjet printer will provide exceptional images without being too costly when new ink is needed.
- Photos and images
- Smaller spaces
- Lower upfront cost
- Home/small office use
- Cheap to run
- High volume
- Frequent printing
- Higher costs per page
INKS AND TONERS
INK CARTRIDGES
An ink cartridge is a component of an inkjet printer that contains the ink that is used to print on paper. Each cartridge contains one or more reservoirs of ink - CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Ink cartridges are designed to work only with inkjet printers.
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Toner cartridges
A toner cartridge, also called laser toner, is the consumable component of a laser printer. Rather than containing wet ink, they contain powder and are designed to work only with laser printers.s
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INK BOTTLES
Instead of relying on printer cartridges to produce a print, ink tank printers use a refillable tank system and ink bottles to handle printing duties. These printers feature integral ink tanks that can be refilled with ink supplied in ink bottles.
Shop NowTECHNICAL JARGON
PAGE YIELD
Page yield is the estimated number of pages that can be printed with
a printer cartridge. A laser printer’s toner cartridges can print a
significantly higher amount of page yield compared to an inkjet
printer’s ink cartridges.
Comparison
Ink cartridge volume: 135 – 1000 pages
Toner cartridge volume: 2,000 to 10,000 pages
PRINT SPEED
Print speed is the estimated amount of time it takes your printer to
produce a single print. The actual print speed depends on what you
are printing (text or images) what cartridges you are using (black
or color) the quality of the print and the paper type.
Comparison
Laser printers are built to accommodate the demands of a workplace
so they are engineered to print faster (between 15 to 100 pages per
minute, or ppm), while inkjet printers print slower at about 16 ppm.
DUPLEX PRINTING
Printing on both sides of paper is called duplex printing. Most printers offer the option of automatically printing on both sides of a sheet of paper (automatic duplex printing). Other printers provide instructions so that you can manually reinsert pages to print the second side (manual duplex printing).
SHEET CAPACITY
This refers to how much paper the printer tray can hold. Typically a personal printer holds about 100 to 150 sheets of paper in a single tray, while a business printer will hold a minimum of 250 sheets. Higher-end models may hold 500 to 1000 or more pages in a standard or upgraded configuration.
CONNECTIVITY
A network printer is any printer connected to a network, whether through Ethernet, Wi-Fi or even accessible via Bluetooth. A local printer would be cabled straight to the device that requires it, this is known as a USB conenction. Network printers can be accessed by multiple devices simultaneously on the same network.
