What you need to know before you go to the store
First you need to decide for what purpose you need the printer. If you are a student, you can use a simple laser, which copes with printing of a large number of text documents (e.g., term papers or essays). Color inkjet printers are usually preferred by those who loves taking pictures and regularly print photos. However, such devices require frequent replacement of cartridges.
Toner in a standard laser printer, purchased for home or office, is enough for printing several thousand pages. The cartridge refill at any service center. This service is relatively inexpensive. If you have an inkjet printer, you always need to remember regularity of use. The fact that the paint is fed through a small nozzle. If to print rarely, the coloring particles clog the holes and the printhead, which leads to damage to the device. In addition, the original cartridges for an inkjet printer is quite expensive. Recently very popular are the so-called CISS – continuous ink supply system.
CISS – a few containers of toners, which are located near the printer. From them are tubes that feed ink into the device. Purchase paint for SPN, by the way, is much cheaper than original cartridges. The continuous ink supply system can be installed not on all models of inkjet printers. But even with the CISS installed it is recommended to print at least one color image per week.
A laser printer could print text or graphic information. One of their main advantages is speed of printing. Before you choose a particular model, calculate the approximate number of pages you are printing per month. Many printers have additional options that raise the price of a particular model. For example, the function of duplex – two-sided printing, built-in card readers and hard drives.
Laser or inkjet?
The cheapest printers – monochrome laser. They can only print in black. Such printers is usually bought for offices. Most models withstand the load print up to 5-6 thousand pages per month. Alas, monochrome laser printers, not for printing photos and images.
Color laser printers are characterized by high speed and quality printing. However, they are expensive, consume large amounts of electricity. If you print them photos, the image quality might disappoint you (compared to inkjet printers). However, this option depends on manufacturer and model.
Inkjet printers are relatively inexpensive, perfectly convey the color, but set of cartridges is enough for a very limited number of pages. Some models refuse to work with toner cartridges and original are very expensive. Thus, at a sufficiently low cost of the device will have to regularly pay a hefty price for spare parts.
