INKJET PRINTERS BUYING GUIDE

Because of their low cost, ease of use and reliability, inkjet printers are a popular choice for personal use and small offices. Inkjet printers have an edge over laser printers when printing graphics because they work by dispersing precisely measured dots of ink onto a page. Generally, inkjet printers use three basic colors, cyan, yellow and magenta, along with black ink to create the final colors. Inkjet photo quality printers use a six or seven color ink process to produce photo-quality images. With an array of features available on inkjet printers, it is important to determine your needs up front to make the most informed buying decision.

Product Types:

Personal
Personal inkjet printers are commonly used by a single person or by a few people within an office or at home and are ideal for desktop or mobile use. The printers are slower than network printers with a higher cost per page, but they have the lowest acquisition cost.

Network
Network inkjet printers are used by several people within an office space. The printers contain an interface that allows them to connect directly to a local area network. Printing speed is much faster on a network printer compared to personal printers, resulting in a lower cost per page. They can also handle a variety of paper sizes and types compared to personal inkjet printers.

Workgroup
Workgroup computers are utilized by a few people within a workspace. The printers are smaller and slower than high-speed network computers, but are network ready for workspaces.

Features to Consider:

Color Cartridges
Less expensive printers use color ink cartridges that contain three or more colors in a single cartridge. When one of the three colors runs out, you have to throw away the entire cartridge and replace it. More expensive printers use separate cartridges for each color, so that when one color runs out you can just replace the empty cartridge without throwing out any ink. Some photo-quality printers use a special ink cartridge to provide additional ink colors.

Duty Cycle
One of the main cost differences between low-end and high-end inkjet printers is not simply the features. More expensive printers have a heavier duty cycle, which means they are able to produce more pages over a shorter period of time without breaking down.

Resolution
The printerÕs resolution directly affects the quality of the final print output. A rule of thumb when choosing a printer based on resolution is the higher the number, the better the print quality. Some contemporary standards for resolution are as follows: 600x600dpi, 1200x600dpi, 2400x600dpi.

Media
Media refers to the standard media types that the particular printer can output. Media types are materials such as copy paper, premium paper, glossy photo paper, premium glossy photo paper, semi-gloss photo paper and transparencies. For photo printing, the best results are achieved by using photo quality paper.

PPM (Pages Per Minute)
PPM is the rate at which the printer can output complete prints. There are a number of ways manufacturers gauge this output rate. The first rate comparison to look out for is between Black & White and Color. Color prints will take longer than B&W prints as they are using all the print heads to create their output. The second PPM to look for is the print rate based on quality. When sending a file to the printer for processing you have options for the quality level of the output. These qualities are generally listed as Draft, Normal and Best.

Paper Capacity
The Paper Capacity of a printer is the number of blank sheets of paper the printer can hold for a single run in its paper tray. It is common for printer to hold 250, 500, 1000 or even more depending on the model type. There are two ways that paper capacity can be gauged, on input and on output. Input capacity is the number of blank sheets the printer can hold in its input tray without causing errors. Output capacity is the number of printed sheets the printer can hold in its output tray after pages are printed.

Memory
Memory, or RAM, is a way of storing data from the prints that are sent into the printers queue. The more memory you have, the more prints you can send to the printer at once without causing errors on the printer side. Common memory sizes are as follows 32MB, 64MB, and 128MB. Some printers also have the capability to be upgraded to greater levels of memory

Interface/Connectivity
Interface refers to what type of cable and connector is used to connect the printer to the computer itself. The two standard types of interfaces are parallel (printer port) and Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connections. With photo printers there are some optional interface devices such as flash card readers, media stick readers or USB interfaces for printing directly from digital cameras or memory cards.

Network Printer Software
This is an option in some printers that allows for greater control of printers that are used over a network. There are many types of network printer software out there, it best to look for ones that include the following drivers; HP PCL 6, HP PCL 5e, PostScriptš Level 2. These are common options within these types of software.

Buying Tips:

1. Determine the feature that ranks as your highest priority to make your buying decision. Is it resolution and quality, cost or printing speed?
2. If you will be printing many color photos or illustrations, consider a printer with separate ink cartridges. Additional memory, or RAM, can speed up the printing process for complex graphics.
3. Photo printers are designed especially for printing photographs. If you need to print charts, graphs or text, you may want to purchase a second printer for those needs to save on printing costs.
4. Review and compare manufacturers warranties.
5. Consider the size of the space you have available for a printer in your home or office to help in the buying decision.