New York, NY -- For us at Castle Ink, as well as other printer review sites, it is probably fair to say we have an above average understanding of everything involved in a printer. We also know that you as consumers or businesses count on us to provide you with information about these devices that manufacturers or even salesman at office stores may not be entirely forthcoming about. An article released on the website, PrinterComparison.com, their editor Sarah Meyer provides information about three such things. Admittedly, buying a printer is reasonably straightforward. However, as Meyer warns as technology moves forward, printers are capable of increasingly more tasks and sometimes consumers can overlook things that are important to understand before making a purchase.
“Not all features are the same”
The first category Meyer looked at was two-sided printing. There are two type of duplexing available when it comes to printing: manual or automatic. Sometimes the price of the printer may be an indication of whether the duplexing is automatic or manual, but not always. If this is a feature you are interested in but don’t want the hassle of flipping the pages, then you will want a unit that duplexes automatically. Here’s a little bonus tip from us at Castle Ink: if you can take a few minutes and figure out what direction your print is going to come out in, you can print only the odd pages of a document, then stick the paper back in and print out the even pages. It can get a bit tricky so we would recommend trying it on some scrap paper before you are scrambling to turn in a paper for school or a report to your boss.
The other area you have to watch out for is print speeds. If you see two different numbers, the higher one is likely to be the fastest print speed possible, but that it will be in draft mode. Depending on your printer, draft mode may produce some pretty decent quality output, but not always. The lower number will be the speed at which the best quality pages come out. This is usually at least one third slower than the draft mode if not more. If you need a faster printer, then you will need to spend the money to buy a laser printer. Personal laser printers are not as expensive as they used to be, however.
“The paper path is important”
If you are purchasing an inkjet printer, Meyer recommends finding one with a direct paper path if possible. She feels that any path that requires no bending or folding of the paper is the best (and most reliable one). The problem we have with that is that for anyone that prints a reasonable amount, is it really productive to sit there and feed one sheet through at a time? Selecting a printer with a reasonable input tray or cassette will likely save you some hassle. The only caveat with that is that we recommend finding a printer that has an accessible (from the rear) paper path so you can fix jams more easily. One feature that can also save some hassle is a paper tray with an automatic sensor which will adjust printer settings based on what you put in the tray.
“The many faces of networking”
Most homes and offices these days, especially where there is more than one computer in use, there will be a network in place of some sort. If you buy a network-ready printer, it can happily live on the same network as the computers and be shared by multiple people. Some printers will come with either Wi-Fi connections even so you can print from anywhere. This is definitely a convenience, but sometimes the most reliable means of printing is still a USB cable. Even if you have a multifunction device, it doesn’t mean that you can scan wirelessly (at least not easily), so think about what all you need first.
Some of the newest printers are nice in that they do not even require a PC or a Mac to connect to the Internet. Meyer notes that the Lexmark Prestige will allow you to print photos, use Google Calendars, and print stamps from the USPS. One of Dell’s latest printers, the 3335dn allows employees to print forms directly from the IRS or send information to a pharmacy.
