Almost every one of us regularly needs to print documents - they are required at the housing office, polyclinics and at the place of work. And some of us love to print photos, putting them then in the family album. All this can be done somewhere nearby, using the services of a photo studio or some other similar type of store. But it is much more convenient to print at home! If you also thought about it, then you are on your way to buying a printer! In this article we will try to tell you about all the nuances of choosing such a complex peripheral device.
Printer type
If you thought that all printers work on the same principle, then you have been very mistaken for a long time. There are three common varieties of such devices.
Jet printer
If you are seriously limited in budget, we recommend that you consider buying an inkjet printer. Such devices are printed with ink inside the cartridges. Almost all inkjet printers are capable of color printing. Any shade is achieved by mixing colors, which is why printing is done using several cartridges. In cheap models there are four cartridges, whereas in photo printers their number can reach six.
Pros: not very high cost of budget models; high print resolution.
Minuses: high cost of a set of cartridges; low print speed; if the printer is not connected to the computer for a long time, the ink can dry.
Laser printer
Not less popular type of such devices. However, budget models can only print black and white documents. If you need color prints, you will have to look towards models whose cost is equal to a couple of tens of thousands of rubles. And even they use only four colors for mixing, in connection with which one should forget about photo quality. But buyers of laser printers rejoice over the long life of cartridges. Usually, their replacement is required only after 1000 printed pages.
Pros: high print speed; long resource of expendables.
Minuses: low print resolution; color printing is available only in expensive models.
Hard ink printer
It is easy to guess that such devices are printed using the same ink as their inkjet counterparts. However, the structure of the ink is still different - they are a kind of briquette. Such printers are capable of printing around the clock, so reliable. But they are also incredibly expensive - it makes no sense to buy such a monster home or even in a small office. Most often, these devices are purchased by various photo studios and very large offices ..
Pros: excellent print quality; high reliability; high print speed; minimum cost of printing.
Minuses: very high cost of the printer; high noise level; large sizes.
Purpose of the printer
With the type of printer is the easiest to determine after you understand exactly where and for what purpose this device will be used. If the device is placed in a small office, it is very likely that it will not be used to output color prints. That is why a black-and-white laser printer is often installed in such premises — it is rather cheap, and it consumes a long time for consumables.
For home use, you can buy both a laser and inkjet printer. It all depends on whether you wish to print photos using such a device. You should also focus on the frequency of use of the device.If you can easily not print documents for a whole month, then it is better to look towards the laser models. In inkjet during this period ink can dry out - at least the top layer. If the printer after such a long "hibernation" and wakes up, then this process will be the most painful.
You should also understand that at home you will need a printer that works with sheets of A4 paper. And somewhere in large enterprises this may not be enough. For example, a company that provides printing services must have a device that prints on sheets of A3 format. And self-respecting printing houses and advertising agencies should have a wide-format printer at their disposal. But this is not the topic of this article, as the owners of such enterprises will not read it for sure.
Printer management
All printers are primarily sharpened by receiving commands from the computer. However, some models have an LCD display and a few buttons on their board. Usually, in addition, they get a memory card slot and wireless interfaces. All this allows you to print documents and photos without using a PC.
Wi-Fi and Ethernet
If the device has at its disposal an Ethernet port and a Wi-Fi module, then this means two things. First, you can even send a document to print from your smartphone — you need to enter a special URL in your browser or use the application developed by the printer creators. Secondly, the device can be connected to the router. In a word, printer management is simplified - the entire office will be able to use it, no matter how many computers it has.
SD card slot
The presence of a slot for a memory card also simplifies the work with the printer, but not so much. At any time you can print a document or image stored on an SD card. However, you need to understand that the printer understands not all formats. If you want to put on paper the logo stored in TIFF format, you will have to use a computer.
Print speed
From each other, printers differ in print speed and the first printout time (warm-up time). No device can instantly start printing by displaying the first page already 5 seconds after receiving your command. Usually it takes much longer to warm up - up to half a minute in budget models.
You should pay attention to print speed if you intend to print a large number of documents. And certainly this parameter is important when using the printer in the office. Do not forget that in the characteristics of the device they write ideal numbers that are achievable only in the case of printing at low or medium resolution.
To speed up the process will help duplex printing function. If the selected printer has it, then the output of two-page documents becomes a trifling matter. In this case, you can not be afraid that you put the sheets in the tray on the wrong side, which is why even pages will print "upside down."
Consumables
No printer can work forever. Such devices have many consumables, we already mentioned this at the beginning of the article. In particular, laser printers can incorporate cartridges and a photodrum. All this needs to be replaced regularly. Therefore, you should think about what funds you are willing to spend on printing. As a rule, inkjet cartridges are not very expensive, but they need to be changed regularly. Laser printers require large but less frequent capital investments.
Printers with two cartridges are not recommended for purchase, when the second one contains three colors of ink at once. If one of these colors ends - you have to replace the entire cartridge, which is very expensive. Now imagine a similar situation where each color is represented by a separate cartridge. His replacement will incur lower costs.
Most Popular Manufacturers
If smartphones and tablets produce almost everything that feels like, then the situation with printers is the opposite. Now there are only six large companies whose products can be found on store shelves. This is not counting the specialized equipment for printing houses and very large offices, which are produced Konica, Oki and some other companies.
Good home printers creates Epson. A distinctive feature of some of her creations is the presence of a proprietary system of continuous ink supply. It allows you to save money by regularly printing photos and documents. On the production of low cost devices specialize HP and Canon, although even in their range there are more advanced models. Also very good printers creates Samsung - against the background of competitors, the South Korean products are distinguished by their design. well and Xerox Recently, she has concentrated on stamping office printers with high print speeds and a roomy paper feed tray.
Photo: itdistrict.ru
Common Customer Mistakes
- Many consumers believe that laser printers are much better than inkjet. And how are they then surprised by the low print resolution! Indeed, laser models are being improved much more slowly than jet models. If you are going to print out color documents and photos with such units, then you have to fork out!
- Many more buyers believe that they will have to change the cartridge from a laser printer only once every two years. In fact, such a periodicity of replacement can be achieved only with a very rare printing of documents. Insanely rare. Usually one cartridge of such printers is only enough for 1000-1400 pages. Only in more advanced and office equipment, the resource is doubled or even tripled.
- Finally, not every person when choosing a printer focuses on reviews, reviews and comparative articles. And in vain! Sales consultants do not always give competent advice - most often they offer to purchase the goods, the sale of which will bring them more money. That is why we recommend reading our materials. "7 Best Inkjet Printers" and "11 best laser printers". If your chosen model is present in one of these lists, then you can safely go to buy it.
- Some people believe that after buying a printer, they will be able to print photos in batches - it will be cheaper than using the services of the nearest photo lab. No matter how wrong! Often the situation looks the opposite way. The reason is the high cost of cartridges. You can achieve comparable prices for printing one photo only by installing a CISS or purchasing a model with refillable cartridges.
