In the market today there are many different brands, designs, and functions of printers. Buyers may find themselves over whelmed by the numerous options available. Among the newest of options in the personal printing realm is the once only business feasible all-in-one printer/scanner/fax. Over the years the prices and features on these particular units has made them extremely attractive to the everyday consumer. With the vast range of options and features you may be asking yourself exactly how much printer do I need to accomplish the tasks I need done. In this article I will attempt to help you figure what you need in a all-in-one printer as well as places to find that perfect home or business unit.
My first bit of advice is to never purchase a printer without seeing it in action. Most of your retailers are usually more than helpful in providing a demonstration of the models you are interested in. This is the 1st step in the buying process and will give you an idea of speeds, quality of print, and some of the features available. You will find that same brand printers tend to have many of the same components and like print quality. The differences between models under the same brand will be features, print speeds and duty cycle. Ask for the demonstration pages and write notes on the sheets as to how long it processed before starting to print and then how long it took to shoot out the first page. These numbers become more important the more you use this device. It will be to your advantage to look at the printers in the stores and then compare the pricing to online retailers as many on-line stores can offer drastic savings to you.
Now that you have an idea about the quality and speeds of the printers, it is time to decide what type of printer to buy. Are you looking for a printer that will last a long time, be more economical to use, and provide years of trouble-free operation? Then you should consider staying with the laser printer options. The laser printer will offer better image resolution while using regular paper, a higher page count per consumables refill, a lower cost per page due to the lower cost of toner and higher yields as well as faster output. The drawback to the laser options are their price.
Ink-jets are the alternative to the laser printer. Over the years, inkjet technology has made huge improvements in quality, speed and usability. The units themselves run less in cost than their laser counterpart but the operation cost over time eliminates the gap. The biggest advantage to having the inkjet is its ability to handle a vast array of paper types. Due to the high heat produced by laser drums, medium such as transparencies, glossy papers, heat transfer paper, etc. can only be used in the inkjet. This makes the inkjet attractive if you plan to do much printing of photographs or craft related projects such as printing on fabrics, iron on transfers or any thing that would require low heat.
There are many options on printers today including, touch screens which drastically improve setup time and document management at the printer. Many models also have features such as scan to e-mail, scan to drive, scan to desktop, fax, etc. The models usually either will have the fax capability installed or it will just have print and scan. This can save you a few bucks if you don't need the ability to fax directly from your printer. The ability to scan direct to e-mail is an essential part of any document solution as e-mail has become the single most utilized way to communicate between individuals over distance. Some of the devices have photo ports which will allow you to plug into a USB device and provide access to the files on it through the touch screen so that you can view, print, edit, delete or transfer directly from your printer without the need to use your workstation.
1. In the previous paragraph, I discussed a few of the broad array of available features on todays all-in-one printers. Now, I would like to mention a few of the more obscure that may be of interest to you as a user.
2. Auto duplex allows you to utilize both sides of the paper for print without the need to re-feed the paper through the unit.
3. Wireless Network connectivity
4. Automatic Document Feeder which will automatically feed multiple pages through the scanner so you don't have to
Scan and print resolutions ranging from 300 dpi to 2400 dpi
Utilizing the information in this article should help you to find that perfect document solution for your needs. Check out the Ngema On-line Electronics Store for great deals on Multi-Function / All-in-one Printers.
John Wood is a staff writer and web administrator for Ngema Promotions. His specialty is technical writing for reviews and how-to articles. Check out more of his work at http://ngemapromotions.com
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