When buying a new printer, you find the printer which is right for your office environment. We have assembled a guide that will help you figure what type of printer is right for you. The key criteria to consider when a buying a printer are speed, print resolution, paper, ink cartridges and printer connectivity. Please review the following guide before buying a new printer.
The speed of a printer is rated in PPM (Pages Per Minute); the higher the PPM, the faster the printer can print. The speed of your printer can change based on what type of document you are printing. Purely text documents print at a faster rate then image files due to the amount of area on the page that will be filled with ink. Therefore the types of documents your office typically prints should be a guide to how much speed you actually need from a printer. e.g. if you print a lot of images, a higher speed printer would be right for your office.
Resolution is the quality of the images that your printer produces. DPI, Dots Per Inch, is the amount of dots (droplets of ink) used to make up the document being printed. Printer’s DPI can range from as low as 600x600 and up to 4800x1200. The more dots being used the better the resolution of the object printed. The only downside is the higher the DPI, the more ink a printer uses. Therefore if you are printing text documents it is recommended that a lower DPI is used such as 300x300. If you are planning on using your printer to produce brochures or other advertising, you would want a higher DPI printer in order to make advertising that looks professional. Make sure to look for a printer that allows you to change the amount of DPI it printers, so you can change the DPI to match the document you are printing.
A very important issue when deciding what a printer to buy is the types and sizes of paper that the printer can handle. You will want to make sure that your printer can at least handle letter and legal size paper because they are the standard paper sizes used in almost all offices. Some printers have the ability to print on to postcard and envelope size paper which can speed up bulk mailing to costumers and possible cut costs. The type of paper that a printer can print is another major factor in deciding on the right printer. All printers should be able to print on to basic paper but not printers can print onto transparencies or glossy paper. Make sure that if you plan on using a printer to print on different types of paper that it supports those paper types.
Ink Cartridges can become very costly when operating a printer. They may need to be replaced as much as monthly, therefore it is very important that you find a printer that either has long lasting cartridges or low cost replacements. Make sure that a printer supports colored ink cartridges if you plan on printing documents in color. Another thing to consider, many printers will only function with a few different print cartridges, not all HP printers support all HP print cartridges, therefore find out what print cartridges a printer will support and then check on their prices. This will allow you to know how much it will cost to replace a cartridge.
Connectivity is very important when looking for the printer that will fit into your office. If you are using the printer at your desk, make sure that it can connect directly into your computer. If the office is being used by many members of the office, the printer should be able to be hooked up to a network where people can print remotely and retrieve it from the printer.
The one thing to remember when looking for the right printer, make sure that it fits your office’s need. Otherwise the printer can cause more headaches then it relieves. Good luck in your hunt for the right printer.
