Picking The Right Printer - Guide

General Personal Use:
If you need a printer for your house, you can’t foresee all the reasons you or your family might need a printer, but you know you don’t want to go to Kinko’s every time you want to print directions, you need a versatile printer. You probably want something cheap, and something that won’t require much maintenance.
Solution: These days you can find a small color inkjet printer for under $150. Inkjet printers may be a little slower than the printer you use at the office, but the print-outs of vacation snapshots will last, and you’ll still be able to make your credit card payment.

Speedy Personal Use:
Think you generally fit into a home use category, but just don’t have time to wait for hours while your dissertation prints line by line?
Solution: If you print more than 50 pages a day, or you print at the last minute before your meeting, you may want a laser printer or a more expensive inkjet model, you can still get away with spending around $200 for either option. Don’t forget to select lower quality prints for drafts or quick copies, this option is available in most software such as Microsoft Word, and saves time and money.

Quality Personal Use:
If you don’t care how long it takes, but you want the best quality product for the least amount, you need a photo printer.
Solution: A photo inkjet printer is a good solution if you ever want to use your printer for anything other than photos. If, on the other hand, you know you’ll never need to print anything but digital shots, you can go with a snapshot printer, which can only print on glossy paper up to a certain size, depending on how much you want to spend.

Portable Personal Use:
If you travel, or move a lot, you may need a smaller printer that connects easily to a laptop or a couple of different computers.
Solution: Printing manufacturers make printers specifically for this reason, but you’ll pay for the convenience. If you don’t have to buy a portable printer, consider buying two printers, and keeping one in each location. Both Canon and HP make portable, single-use models of their regular printers. Don’t accept a portable printer that weighs more than around 4 pounds, you can do better.

General Business Use:
For small offices or home business, you’ll want a printer with multifunction capability, meaning you can fax, scan, copy, or print. Sometimes these printers also come with network options, meaning you can program passwords or other handy business utilities.
Solution: Look for an all-in-one model that you can afford. Spending more than $100 is usually worth it if you get features like auto document feeding or duplexing (double-sided printing). Most businesses will save money in the long run with these options. Of course, if you have a large business, get a big printer that can hold multiple paper trays.

Speedy Business Use:
So your business took off, or you’ve been put in charge of updating the office printer; you need a printer that copies and feeds quickly and efficiently, and has network utilities.
Solution: You can go with something called a “workgroup” laser printer, or if you think your needs are more modest, save money with an inkjet printer. Either type of printer intended for business will provide the network utility you need for multi-person offices, but the inkjet won’t handle quantity as well, so you may end up with more paper jams. But in spite of their troubles with bulk, inkjets will give you the option of larger formats.

Quality Business Use:
If you don’t use a lot of paper, but when you do, you need high quality product, you won’t necessarily spend more than another business, as long as you’re willing to sacrifice a little speed.
Solution: A Photo Quality printer, for example, a Canon PIXMA Photo Printer, will do the trick for around $500. If you aren’t willing to sacrifice volume and features, you’ll need to spend more. If your business cranks out the paper, don’t skimp, pay for a better printer to save money on paper and ink eventually.

Portable Business Use:
Whether you sell postcards or need to print out PowerPoint presentations on the fly, there may come a time when you have to get a portable business printer.
Solution: For this type of business use, you can probably get away with the same portable models used for personal use. Portable technology improves in leaps and bounds, and the 3 or 4 pound printers you buy today will likely soon have better younger siblings available, so don’t use up the budget for what you can get now, get what you need until more is offered.

The Bottom Line:
You might need two printers. If you want compact, go with an all-in-one printer. But if you have specific tasks in mind, and one printer doesn’t seem to have all the features you want, don’t be afraid to buy two separate printers and use each when the other won’t do. Buying two printers for $200 will still cost you less than the $500 or more you might end up shelling out for that perfect machine.

What brand? That depends too, but HP, Canon, and Epson are all brands that have passed the test of time. Remember this final tip: depending on the manufacturer, often price difference will get you better speed or features, but quality will remain similar across the board.