There are several printers in the market for office and home use and selecting the one of best suited for your office can be a tedious task. However, having knowledge of the broad categories of printers and their advantages and disadvantageswill help you choose the right one.
Types of printers
Printers can be broadly classified into two categories, laser and ink jet. There is the third category of printer which is special purpose printer developed for the office use. The range and cost of these printers are wide and one needs to study their features, uses, pros and cons of all these printers before you make your choice.
Ink Jet Printers
Ink jet printers typically use a print head with nozzles that spray ink from the ink cartridge onto the paper. The ink jet printers have either one in black colour or two sets of cartridges one in black and the other in with cyan, magenta and yellow colours. The first prints the document only in black while the other prints in colour.
Ink jet printers are the first choice for the cost conscious and they also give good quality printing. Ink jet printers have the advantage of printing black and white document quickly. While the same cannot be said for colour documents.
Laser Printers
The laser printer uses a cartridge with toner and a compels system that uses a laser, print drum and fusing rollers. The printing components work together to generate positive and negative charges that help release the toner powder onto the paper to print the text and images. Laser printers are available in both monochromatic and colour versions. The laser printers are the first choice where speed is important.
While the recurring cost may not be high the upfront cost is normallyquite high.
Special purpose printers
Special purpose printers use dot matrix to produce invoices, a special paper and ink to produce receipts, and line printers that prints whole line at a time and use continuous feed. There are special printers for security printing like passports, edgeless printing for visiting cards and etc. Special purpose printers have extension of the printing from drying to stacking the printed material, like greeting cards for instance.
Considerations while making your final choice
The prices range widely in the printer market. When making a choice one must consider the long term cost of operation of the cartridge, ink and toner, as these can be expensive. It is always good to go to reputed suppliers of printers and cartridges like123ink.ca, who would guide you on your needs. One must also consider the extra features as many of the printers have scanning, copying and faxing facility.
