Printer technology has evolved over such a short period of time, taking functionality and performance to new levels.

Laser or inkjet? Colour or black and white? A multifunction printer that scans and copies? Find the right one for the job. Whether printing high-quality family photographs, school projects, invitations and craft projects or documents for work and the office, we’ll help you upgrade to the newest technology or choose the best printer for your home or office.

What to consider when buying a printer?

Before buying a printer, you must identify what you will be using the printer for and how often, to ensure you purchase one that best suits your needs.

• Printers for home are often used sporadically and for simple tasks such as printing birthday invitations, bills, assignments, and photos. Integration with a scanner might also be helpful when uploading hard copy documents onto a laptop or computer.

• Printers used in offices will need to handle printing large quantities of black & white and colour documents at regular intervals. Integration with a photocopier will make it easy for employees to share hard copy documents.

• Photographers and freelance creatives will need a high-quality printer to bring out intricate details in their work. The ability to print on specialty photo paper is also a must-have for photographers.

Home, Student or Office use?

The type of printer you purchase will depend on your budget and where you are using it. For an office environment, you may wish to spend a little more money to ensure your printed documents are smudge-free and look professional.

However, if your requirements at home are less demanding, there are plenty of cheaper options that will be adequate for your needs.

Types of Printers

Laser Printers

Uses static electricity to attract and hold toner to the page. More expensive than most printers, they nevertheless produce high-quality prints with no smudges. Perfect for an office environment as they are designed for printing large quantities quickly.

Inkjet Printers

Popular for home use, inkjet printers squirt tiny dots of ink onto the page to produce the end result. Slower than laser printers, they are cheaper but still offer excellent quality. This is an economical option for printing high-quality documents.

Multifunction Printers

These devices combine various devices into one, such as a printer, a scanner, a photocopier and even a fax. These are more expensive but are great if you want to save on space.

Features to consider when choosing a printer

Print Resolution

The print resolution is important for every type of user, as it determines the quality of your text or image on the page. This is the maximum number of dots per inch (expressed as DPI) that can be printed. The higher the resolution, the more detailed the final print results usually are.

The average inkjet printer today usually has a 1200 x 1440 DPI, while the average resolution of a laser printer is 1200 x 1220. Wide-format and A3 printers will usually have higher DPIs to match the larger printing sizes.

Print Speed

Speed may be a factor if you intend to get a lot of use out of your printer, particularly in office environments. Print speed is measured by IPM, which stands for impressions per minute. It’s determined by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) so that each printer is held to the same accord and can be compared for consumers.

Sheet Capacity

While sheet capacity doesn’t affect your printing as much as speed or resolution, it can make for a more streamlined, convenient experience. The sheet capacity refers to the number of paper sheets that can be stored in the printer, ready to print. A large sheet capacity can be helpful in instances of large printing quantities, so you don’t have to refill the printer during the process. This makes them great for offices and small business work.

USB, Wireless or Wi-Fi Direct

Being able to connect your printer to your computer is vital, with most models using a USB port. Alternatively, you can connect over a wireless network. Wi-Fi Direct capabilities streamline the setup of a printer, allowing you to begin using the printer almost immediately. Printers with Wi-Fi Direct connect directly to your Wi-Fi connection, meaning you don’t need to plug it into the router. This is a great, convenient option for home users.

You may also want to purchase a printer that has a memory card slot, so that you can print photos or documents directly from that.

Processor and Memory

Processor and memory considerations are only likely to be important if your printer is going to be dealing with large workloads, most commonly in the workplace.

Opting for a more powerful processor and increased memory means your printer will be able to queue more documents and adequately handle tasks sent by numerous computers.

Paper Handling

An important consideration when wondering how to buy a printer is what kind of paper formats can it handle? You may need to print off large spreadsheets or envelopes, so make sure your device has A3 functionality and other formats to tackle these tasks.

Automatic Document Feeder

An automatic document feeder allows you to scan and copy documents, feeding the pages through automatically, saving you time and effort.

Ink & Toner

Ink and toner can be expensive. In fact, they can quickly overtake the cost of your printer. Ink is required for printers that run on inkjet technology and is what the printer uses to produce images on paper. They come in different coloured cartridges that you can slide into most printers, but with continuous ink models, they come in a bottle that you use to manually fill the device.

Toner is a powder-like substance that sits in laser printer cartridges and drums and creates the image on the page. It is important to find a printer where replacement ink cartridges and toner can be found easily and at a reasonable price.