Printer's Buying Tips

Selecting a printer for your workplace is not just going out to the store and picking up the cheapest one you can find. Neither is it just buying the most expensive, most full-featured industrial printer your budget allows. There is some more homework that needs to be done first:

Knowing your environment
It is paramount to know your printing needs and buy a printer that is not an over or under-kill with regard to your usage requirements. Other than setting a budget, do ponder these few questions first.

What Do You Print?
This is the first question that a decision maker should ask him or herself. If you are printing purely text documents on a small scale, then a basic inkjet printer may be all that is required. But if high volume and impeccable text quality are needed, a laser printer may be a better choice. Conversely, if photo printing forms a huge part of your printing, then you may want to narrow your choices to printers that have better photo printing features, such as six or eight color inks, built-in media cards readers etc. Also, if you need to print on a special type of paper, make sure that the printers you have shortlisted support it too. You should pay attention to the paper handling capability of the printer tray(s) too.

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How Much And How Fast Do You Print?
Speed is a nice thing to have in a printer, but it would be such a waste to buy the latest 25ppm (page per minute) printer if you are only going to use it once a day, or just for printing document drafts. If large volume and high-speed printing are necessary, then you can safely delete slower inkjet printers or even some low-end laser printers from your shopping list. Similarly, a laser printer may be more cost effective if you need a huge duty cycle of say 80,000 pages per month.

How Many People Are Using This Printer?
The number of personnel accessing the printer would directly determine the relevant specifications (such as connectivity) to look out for in the printer. A simple standalone with just USB connection would fit the bill of a single user; however, it may not have the networking interfaces, features and software for it to be shared among a large workgroup. Network interfaces, add-ons and certain management software often come as additional costs - therefore knowing how this printer is going to be deployed is essential.

What Is Your Existing Equipment?
All-in-ones (AIOs) are gaining popularity in the corporate environment (especially in SMEs); and for good reasons too. If you are going to discard your existing office printers, check if the three-year old scanner and four-year old copier need replacement as well. Most all-in-ones merge printing, scanning, copying and even faxing in one neat unit, which is a great space and cost saver. AIOs can come in the form of inkjets or lasers, further adding more flexibility and variety to choose from. Some of them can even double up as a dedicated photo printer with print quality that matches the photos printed in a photo-lab.

Do You Need To Buy A Printer In The First Place?
Unless the machine is suffering from unrecoverable damage or extreme wear-and-tear that prevents it to function at a satisfactory level, sometimes a wholesale printer change may not be the only solution. Many business printers nowadays (especially lasers) are modular in nature, which means specific features can be added on as and when you deem fit. If the 500-page paper tray found in your existing printer is not enough, check if it allows for another 500-page tray add-on. Similarly, if you already have a network printer, check with the manufacturer if you can upgrade it to an AIO or multifunction printer via modular add-ons.

Additional Things To Look Out For When Buying
Here are some printer related issues to take note of before you dash into your nearest IT store:

Look Out For Running Costs
In the case of a printer, its initial purchase cost is only half the deal. Running costs have to be taken into consideration as well. Supplies cost (such as the cost of ink cartridges for inkjets and the cost of toners for lasers) is a prime example of running cost. More often than not, the cost of the supplies can amount to more than 20% of the price of the printer. Cheaper third party inks are another option, but are generally not recommended. Most of the time, they produce inferior printouts, and in the case of printer malfunctions due to using such inks, the manufacturers would most likely not honor your warranty claims.

Check for O/S Compatibility
Due to the fact that most people use Windows as their Operating System, they do not really care about OS compatibility during their purchase. But if you are a Mac or Linux OS user, this is one area you should pay particular attention to. Not all printers work with the Mac, and even if ones does, sometimes the functions available vary according to the version of Mac OS installed. And even less vendors provide support for Linux systems.

Scrutinize the Specs
Specifications at a glance do not tell the whole story. This is especially true when it comes to speed. Some manufacturers may list the printer's draft mode printing speed on the brochure or packaging instead of its normal mode's print speed. The differences in the timings of both modes as well as their print quality can be quite diverse, so it is wise to verify the claims made by the vendors. For AIOs, look out for the scanner's and copier's specifications (such as speed and bit depth) to find a match for your needs as well. If faxing is important to you, make sure the built-in modem is at least 33.6Kbps. Advanced models can even do batch copying and faxing jobs.

The More Memory, The Better
While it is also important to have sufficient memory on your PC system, what we are talking about here is the printer's own memory. Make sure that the printer has enough memory to print at the resolution you want. In a network environment, this is especially important as the more memory the printer has, the more awaiting documents it can store. 8-16MB of RAM is okay for a SOHO user, but in a network environment, 16MB should be a minimum requirement to prevent bottlenecking of documents that are queuing to be printed.

Consider Support and Warranty Too
Always get a printer from a reputable vendor or manufacturer. Even the highest-end and costliest printer can also have an off day; so study and understand the level of support and the type of warranty (be it off-site or on-site) the vendor provides. Warranties can vary across different brands so it is wise to check what's covered and what's not. And always test the printer right after purchase so that problems can be rectified in the shortest time possible.

Conclusion
Buying a printer for yourself is already a difficult task, and this is all the more so in a business setting. There are many technologies in the market as detailed earlier, and each of them is suited for varying purposes. If your business environment is too complicated, and you need tailored solutions, you may want to seek professional help such as Lexmark's Printing & Solutions Showcase (PASS) that offers industry specific printing and solutions to businesses. For most SOHO and SME users, understanding your detailed office printing needs and matching them closely to the specifications of the printers should be fine. A little research on the Internet or reading review magazines such as HWM don't hurt too.