The current technological market offers many types of printers, each with characteristics and prices different from all the others. In fact, there are printers for home use, professional use, inkjet, laser, multifunction, and so on. Each of these types of printers has been created according to the precise use required by the end user.
If you need to buy a printer and you don’t want to get lost in the sea of types available in shops and online, in this article we’ll help you clarify the right printer model for your intended use.
THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE BUYING A PRINTER
Before buying a printer it is important to make some considerations that will allow you to choose the type that best suits your needs, avoiding wasting time and money.
First of all, you will have to understand the use you want to make of it: do you have to use it at home, occasionally, to print some text documents? Or do you need it for work and need to print large quantities of documents? Or again, are you a photographer and need an excellent, fast color printer?
And then: what is the budget you have available? How much space do you have in your home or office?
The answers to these questions are very important because they automatically guide you toward a certain type of printer. The one that best suits your case, discard all the others.
So let’s see in detail all the aspects you need to consider before buying a printer that meets your printing needs.
ORIENT THE CHOICE BASED ON THE TYPES OF PRINTERS
The types of printers on the market are divided into three main categories: inkjet printers, laser printers, multifunction printers
- Inkjet printers have an excellent quality/price ratio, are available in both black and white and color and have a small and compact appearance, which is why they are mostly used in the home. They are called “inkjet” because the ink is taken from the cartridge and sprayed at high speed onto the sheet. They are excellent for color photo or graphic prints and are among the cheapest models on the market. The only negative note is that their cartridges (both original and compatible) are quite expensive. And are not suitable for many prints because they have to be changed
- Laser printers use toners that hold far more printouts than cartridges, and their cost amortizes better by comparison. Furthermore, laser printers are more precise and faster than inkjet ones and connect via Wi-Fi to various computers. For these reasons, they are mainly used in offices where there is a need to print a lot, especially white documents and black ones.
The negative note of laser printers is their purchase price. Due to the characteristics mentioned above, is higher than an inkjet printer.
- Multifunction printers have been designed for both home and large office environments. Their main feature is that they combine various technologies in a single device: printer, scanner, copier, duplex printing, and (in some models) They are very functional for printing large quantities of documents, both in black and white and in color. The price varies depending on the model but is obviously higher than a home inkjet printer.
ORIENT THE CHOICE BASED ON THE PRINT RESOLUTION
If you need to buy a printer to print colored photographs or graphic documents. Before anything else you have to take into account the print resolution: the higher the resolution of the printer, the higher the quality of the print. The print resolution is indicated in Dpi (“Dot per Inch”, i.e. dots per inch) or in Ppi (i.e. “pixels per inch”).
Inkjet printers go from a minimum resolution of 300 x 300 dpi up to a maximum of 4200 x 1200 Dpi. Obviously, this distinction also affects the purchase price!
Thermal sublimation photo printers, on the other hand, generally do not exceed
300 Ppi and differ from classic printers in the way the ink is released, which occurs in gaseous form, creating precise nuances.
ORIENT THE CHOICE BASED ON THE CARTRIDGE MODEL
The number of prints an ink cartridge allows you to make is another aspect to consider before buying your printer. A simple calculation will allow you to quantify the maintenance costs of the printer so that you can evaluate the actual convenience and responsiveness of the printer you have chosen to your needs and budget.
If you use your printer a lot, it will annoy you to have to replace the cartridges every two weeks! Printers for home use, like most Inkjets, have cartridges with an autonomy of about 400 pages, while professional printers can even reach 5,000 prints with the same cartridge.
If you need advice on the best type of cartridge to use in your printer, click here
ORIENT THE CHOICE BASED ON THE PRICE
The price, as you will have understood from the previous paragraphs, therefore varies from printer to printer.
The cheapest printers range from 30 to 60 euros, have a low print resolution, have no display, and are used in the home.
When the characteristics of the printer increase, the price also increases: In the range between 60 and 110 euros we find printers that reach a resolution of 1200 dpi, have a higher printing speed and are equipped with a Wi-Fi interface and display.
High-end printers cost more than 150 euros and come with 4800 dpi resolution. They have a display, Wi-Fi interface, and SD reader and can print the front and back of a sheet automatically.
OTHER ASPECTS TO CONSIDER BEFORE BUYING A PRINTER
- SIZE: If you have limited space in your home or office, the best choice is certainly a small and compact inkjet or laser printer. If, on the other hand, you have more space available. If you need to print large quantities of documents and you have a decent budget. You can opt for a multifunction printer.
- SPEED: Consider that, generally, inkjet printers print a page every 10 seconds on average, while laser printers are much faster (about 20 pages per minute).
- PAPER FORMAT: All types of printers on the market accept the classic A4 format, while some larger models. Usually used in offices, also include the A3 format. The quantity of sheets that the machine can load is also a factor to take into consideration: some types of printers accept a few sheets, while larger ones can also contain entire reams.
- WI-FI INTERFACE: The most frequent and used interface nowadays to connect the printer to the computer is the Wi-Fi connection, which allows configuration and installation quickly and easily. Wi-Fi-connected printers can be installed on both home and company networks. And can also print documents sent from tablets or smartphones.
Now that you will surely have clearer ideas about the type of printer to buy. Take a look at our offers to quickly find the one that’s right for you!