Inkjet Standard Printer Buying Guide

What are you printing?

When it comes to technology, price is often top priority for most shoppers. Today, inkjet printers can be inexpensive ($60-300) and are designed with the home user, student or any user who doesn’t need to produce professional-quality documents. What you’ll print, how often you’ll print and how much you need to print at a given time is the best way to narrow down the selection of inkjet printers to the one that’s best for you. Consumers have learned the hard way that the upfront cost to purchase an inkjet printer makes a smaller wallet dent than the ongoing cost to operate one (ink cartridge replacement). Also, most modern inkjet printers don’t print PostScript fonts—if your printing involves postscript fonts, consider a laser printer.

Inkjet Print Quality

Inkjet printers print by spraying tiny dots of ink through even tinier holes onto the page. The more dots thrown per inch, the better the printout or resolution. Today, most inkjet printers have maximum resolutions of 4800 x 1200 dots per inch (dpi), which make it possible to print high-quality graphics and photos without having to rely on professional printers or photo labs. Many inkjet printers also include software that enhances photo quality by sharpening details or evening out color and tone. These enhancements can contribute to print quality as much as the printer’s resolution.

Ink Cartridge Replacement Cost

As we mentioned before, the upfront cost of your inkjet printer means less in dollars, than the long-term cost to operate it. The price you pay for ink is the best determiner of what the printer will cost you over time. Two key things to learn before you purchase any inkjet printer are how much replacement ink costs and how many pages each cartridge can print. Ink cartridges can cost as little as $10 (black ink only) and as much as $50 for a three-color cartridge. Usually, the less a cartridge costs, the less ink it contains. Ink cartridge page yields range anywhere from 300 to 1000, again, depending upon the primary print format (text, graphics, photos, or a combination of the three). Look for printers that accommodate separate black and color ink cartridges so that if you run out of color ink, you’re not throwing away good black ink and vice versa. Purchase ink in bulk for cost savings and familiarize yourself with your printer’s settings too—printing draft quality when that’s all you need saves money per page over the long haul.

Inkjet Print Speed (or someday my prints will come)

Inkjet printers are slow compared to laser printers, so if speed is more important than high-quality output, you’ll want to re-examine your printing needs and evaluate monochrome and/or color laser printers. Printing speed is measured in pages per minute (ppm), but don’t be fooled by manufacturers’ claims: advertised printing speeds are faster than what users actually experience. The complexity of the print job—a black-and-white text-only letter versus an 8 x 10 color photo for example—is what ultimately determines printer speed.

Output Capacity

Most inkjet printers come with a single paper tray that holds standard 8 1/2 x 11 paper. If you’ll be printing documents as well as photographs on a regular basis, consider printers that come with additional trays to hold the different papers you’ll be using. Inkjet paper trays typically hold 50-100 sheets, about the same number of prints you’ll get from the ink cartridge.

Need to know more?

• Caring for your inkjet printer
  http://printscan.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=printscan&cdn=gadgets&tm=10&gps=143_5_922_578&f=20&s...
• Top 10 Ways to Save Money on Printers and Printing
  http://printscan.about.com/od/printerscannerhowtos/tp/savingmoney.htm
• Getting the Best Out of Your Inkjet
  http://www.tech2.com/india/topstuff/inkjet/getting-the-best-out-of-your-inkjet/11461/0
• PC World’s Top 10 Inkjet Printers
  http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128187-page,1/article.html