Five Helpful Hints For Buying A New Printer

In spite of the "paperless office" that was supposed to be ushered in by the common use of computers, there is more printing done today than ever before. And that means that printers and their supplies have to be replaced on a fairly regular basis, whether you're printing at home or in a business.

The wealth of features available in today's printers is outstanding -- printing of high resolution graphics, digital reading of memory cards, even allowing you to fax or scan printed documents! But before you make a decision, there are some basic considerations that you need to think about.

First is the long-term cost of the printer. Some of the best available color printers won't even cost you $100, but there is a downside to buying a printer than inexpensive -- color ink cartridges might cost you more in the long run than it costs to buy the printer.

You want to find out as well the costs of replacement ink and whether generic or refilled cartridges would be available if you are buying a printer in the "budget" or "economy" line.

The second thing to find out would be whether full size ink cartridges are available in your printer of choice. Majority of printers available on the market have considerably less ink on their "starter" cartridges when compared to the normal replacement cartridge.

The printer may not seem like such a good deal when you have to buy a new set of ink after printing 40 or 50 pages.

Next, consider the cost of the black cartridge. Most individuals prefer black and white to color printing to save up on their colored ink. Some printers have considerably larger black cartridges than others, and if you do a lot of black printing the larger cartridges can save you a lot of money in the long run.

The fourth consideration would be the type of documents you would be printing. If you want to be able to print your own digital photos you should look at one of the many photo printers on the market.

But since these printers can be quite costly in comparison to others, you'd want to choose something else if you normally don't print photos. Instead, opt for a laser printer -- compared to an inkjet printer, the cost of maintenance is not that high.

Lastly, think about whether you really need all those extra features like faxing, scanning, photocopying, etc. These colorful options might give you the hottest printer on the block, but it won't be worth your money if you rarely use them.

As an aside, these tempting extras do cost extra money. Tell me now, is it really worth an extra fifty cents or a dollar to photocopy documents at home when you can spend a nickel or a dime to do the same at the local department store?