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Office Equipment |
How to choose a printer
Below is some information to help you decide what sort of printer you require.
Home vs. Office. For home users who print documents occasionally and for
various purposes such as school projects, a color ink printer would be
sufficient. The entire family will enjoy the colour output. For office users who
print daily, the speed and reliability of a laser printer will be appreciated.
For a well-budgeted office, it's recommended to have both types of printers to
meet the requirements of different purposes.
Black-White vs. Colour. To most people laser-printing means black and
white and ink printing means color. Color printing has come a long way. The
result could be amazing. It's great for banners, brochures, newsletters, report
covers, art design, marketing materials, greeting cards, and other fun projects.
However, ink printers are often slower, costs more per page, requires more
frequent change of ink cartridge, and is more prone to reliability issues.
Laser printing is much more mature now. It's fast, reliable, and inexpensive.
It's great for documents, simple graphics, and faxes. However, it's mostly only
black and white.
USB vs. Parallel. A USB printer allows you to connect it to a computer
without powering down the computer first. Coupled with plug and play technology,
a USB printer is very easy to set up and share bring computers. In comparison, a
parallel printer requires restarting a computer after connection and
disconnection.
Color Laser. If you plan to print color documents often and have enough
money for the initial capital investment, a color laser printer is recommended.
The initial cost is obviously higher than a black/white printer and a color
inkjet printer combined. However, the actual printing cost per page is lower
than if you have the color page copied by a commercial copier. The printing is
much faster and more reliable than an ink printer. The result is often
astonishing!
Multifunctional. A multifunctional printer/fax/copier makes sense for
saving space and money. It's often less expensive than buying a separate
printer, fax machine and copier. This should however be intended for light usage
of each and all functions. For instance, if you expect to receive many faxes
every day, it's better to have a stand-alone fax machine; otherwise the faxing
function would interfere with the printing and copying functions. A separate fax
machine often has special functions that allow you to manage the faxes better.
(We recommend a software fax program in a PC to receive and print incoming faxes
and a stand-alone fax machine to send faxes). Another drawback of the
multifunctional is the reliability. The more functions one machine has the more
chances for breaking down. If any of the functions is broken and you send the
machine for repair, the other functions are affected as well.
Wireless vs. Network. If you plan to share a printer across different
rooms that are not networked, this is a good idea. You can put your computer in
one room and the printer in another. This is especially useful for laptop and
other mobile devices that a hardware connection is often undesirable by
definition. However, with the increasing popularity of Ethernet networks at
office and home, the need to have a wireless printer is diminishing.
Connecting a printer to a network through the parallel port of a computer is
simple and inexpensive for a small network. However, this connection is often
troublesome for an administrator since the on time of the printer depends on the
on time and reliability of the computer it is connected to. If the computer's
identification is changed, the administrator has to change the port settings on
all the other computers that use that printer. An easier way to connect a
printer to a network is through a jet direct card or adapter so that the printer
has its own identity and is connected directly to the network.
Dot Matrix. With the ever-falling price of color ink printers,
black-and-white dot-matrix printers are virtually dinosaurs for home usage. It's
only used now in offices to print invoices and receipts that require duplicate
copies. One thing that ink or laser cannot replace dot matrix is the impact
printing that can result in duplicate copies in one run.
Brands. Printer is one computer product that we recommend choosing by the
brands. All printers have moving parts, which could cause reliability problems
down on the road. Name brands with relatively long history of printing
technology are of the choice if the prices and specs are similar.
Price. This is somewhat contradictory to the brand choices. Printer
technologies are for the most part mutual now, resulting in severe competition
and a buyer's market. Giving the same specs, it's OK to choose a printer by the
price, especially for budget-conscious users.
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