Tips for Buying a Printer: Imagine a world without printers. Your favorite novels like Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings would have remained in the writing desks of their respective authors. The Bible would have been inaccessible to numerous devotees. Public documents wouldn’t be mass-produced for the benefit of the general public.
Among all the technological advances, the invention of the printer is one of the most impactful. It has resulted in the proliferation of written communication. With printers, books, and documents have become more accessible to the public. Undoubtedly, printers have played an instrumental role in every person’s personal, academic, business, and public life.
So, before buying one, you must think it through. Remember these seven things that you should consider before buying a printer.
Technical Service Availability
Technical services must be available when choosing the brand or type of printer you’ll buy. Having printer experts being one call away saves you time and money in the long run. Tending to the issues of a printer could be tricky, especially when the issues are in the rollers or cleaning blades. Getting an expert to do it is always the smart option.
For example, when there’s a problem with a Kyocera or an Epson printer, you can immediately contact kyocera printer supplies or Epson technical services to help you. This ensures that your printer works as intended.
Printer Cost
Since there are a wide variety of printers, their prices also vary. It is crucial that you don’t go overboard with your budget. It’s just like buying other appliances; you must buy something you can afford, not what you might.
Aside from the printer price, it would be best to consider the cost of maintaining the printer and the prices of the inks needed. Always research the type of printer and the ink it uses before buying one. Printer manufacturers tend to sell cheap printers but very expensive replacement inks. It’s one of their money-making techniques to let buyers think they have saved money, even though they’ll spend much more later on.
Purpose of the Printer
It is critical to determine why you are buying a printer. What will its use be? Is it for home or office use? You can have the less high-end one if it’s for home use, as they’re much more affordable but are still reliable. Since its workload probably isn’t heavy-duty, a printer with fewer features is enough.
However, you need a printer with certain features if you intend to use it for office or commercial use. It would help if you had something that could operate a massive workload five days a week. Hence, choose a printer that can withstand heavy use while still printing quality outputs efficiently.
Printer’s Feature
Always look at what the type printer does other than print. Getting an all-in-one printer with copy, scan, and fax can be more cost-saving if you need these functions. With the additional features, your printer serves more than one purpose.
Type of Ink
Printers have three types of ink configuration, which are:
- Four-ink cartridges with a black cartridge plus different cyan, yellow, and magenta cartridges.
- Two-ink cartridges with a black cartridge plus a color cartridge.
- Inkwells where the printer draws ink from refillable wells instead of cartridges.
Among the three, inkwells are the most economical. Still, the type of ink to use depends on the purpose of your printer. A two-ink cartridge printer is already good if you print documents with fewer colors. If you’ll print documents with images, which requires much more color, a four-ink cartridge or inkwell printer would be the better option.
Printing Quality and Speed
You must check before buying a printer the quality of its printing outputs as well as how fast it prints. Different types of printers produce different quality outputs.
Laser printers would be the best for office use as they produce the best quality prints. However, they can be a bit costly compared to inkjets. But for home use, an inkjet would suffice as it still produces quality output sufficient for academic paper and leisure printing. Checking the printer’s printhead, printer driver, and printer DPI (dots per inch) is important as these parts affect its output quality.
Printer speed is also essential to consider, whether it be for work or home use. Slow printers can be a bit frustrating to deal with, especially if you have a deadline to chase. Hence, always check how fast a printer can print your work.
Printer’s Size
Since printers come in many sizes and shapes, you would likely want something to fit in an office or study while also ensuring that it’s easy to carry. However, this can be a bit tricky for those who want additional features on their printer.
The more function a printer has, the bigger it will get. So, for commercial prints, make sure you have enough space for them, as printers for this purpose tend to be heavy and occupy a lot of space.
Final Thoughts
A printer is essentially not a cheap purchase. Hence, when you buy a printer, you’ll have to distinguish which one will benefit you from the other options available. You must consider and weigh the pros and cons of the printer models you’ve looked at.
By following the seven guides above, you’ll be able to pick out a printer fit for your needs with little to no trouble. That way, you’re sure to meet your printing needs minus the hassle and frustration the wrong printer can bring.
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