Things To Know When Buying A New Printer

Regardless of the "paperless office" is supposed to be delivered by the general use of computers, there is more printing done today than ever before. And that means that the printer and supplies they need to be replaced fairly regularly, whether you are printing at home or in business.

Current printer offers many features - high-resolution photo printing, multi-function printer / scan / fax, digital memory card readers and more. But before you make a decision, there are some basic considerations that need to think about.

The first is the long-term cost of the printer. You can buy a color printer is very good for well under $ 100 these days but the catch is most of the cheaper models have expensive ink cartridges.

If you are thinking about buying a budget printer, find out how much ink costs to replace and is there a generic or refilled cartridges available for it.

Second, find out whether your printer is considering including a full size ink cartridges. Many printers these days come with "starter" ink that has a lot less ink in them than a standard cartridge.

The printer may not seem like such a good deal when you have to buy a new set of ink after printing 40 or 50 pages.

Next, consider the black cartridge costs. Most people print black and white is much more than they do of colors. Some printers have a black cartridge is much larger than others, and if you do a lot of black printing the larger cartridges can save you a lot of money in the long run.

Fourth, consider what kind of things that will be printed. If you want to print digital photos on your own you have to look at one of the many photo printers on the market.

If you're not printing photos, however, photo printers generally cost more to operate than other options. You might be better off with a laser printer that has a lower operating cost than inkjet.

Finally, think about whether you really need all the extra features such as faxing, scanning, photocopying, etc. Sounds great to have all these options, but most people rarely use them, if at all.

And considering the cost of other features as well. Do you really want to make a copy at home that could cost you $ 0.50 to $ 1.00 per page when you can get them for 5 to 10 cents on the local copy shop?