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Laser
and inkjet printers allow you to print
professional-looking documents, such as
flyers,
spreadsheets and
brochures,
from home. When selecting a printer, you'll want to
weigh your budget against your desired speed and
colour accuracy. Find
out more here about the basic types of printers and
their pros and cons. That way, you can shop with
the right type of printer in mind.
Laser Printer
Advantages
Today's
monochrome (black and white) laser printers start
at £100-£300. This is pretty amazing,
considering that at one time, you had to spend at
least £1,500 for a laser printer. Advantages
of the laser printer include the
following:
Speed: A laser printer can turn out pages
more quickly than an inkjet printer.
Low cost:
Over time, toner costs for a laser printer will
total far less per page than refilling/replacing
inkjet printer cartridges.
Quiet
operation: A laser printer is generally quieter
than low-cost inkjet printers - which is a big deal
in a quiet office, where the printer usually
occupies a central location.
Best-quality
text: No inkjet printer - no matter how much
you pay for it - will ever turn out black text and
line graphics as crisp as a laser
printer.
Until recently colour laser printers were too
expensive for individuals or small businesses, but
there are now many models for less than £500
and these are viable alternatives to colour inkjets
for printing flyers, spreadsheets, and brochures.
With these advantages in mind, pick a monochrome
laser printer if most of the pages that you'll
print will be text and if colour isn't a
requirement. You'll be glad that you chose that
laser model after you've gone three months without
changing a single toner cartridge!
Inkjet Printer
Advantages
Inkjet printers
are still cheaper than laser printers. You can find
an acceptable colour inkjet printer for under
£100 anywhere in the UK, and they're still the
colour printing solution for the home PC owner.
Other advantages are as follows:
Versatility:
A colour inkjet can print on many types of media,
including craft paper, T-shirt transfers, and even
printable CD/DVD discs.
Smaller size:
This saves you space on your
desktop.
Larger paper
sizes: If you spend more, you can add a
large-format inkjet printer to your system that can
print 11-x-17-inch or larger items.
Inkjet printers have come a long way in the last 10
years. Unfortunately, the process is relatively
slow compared to that of laser printing and the ink
cartridges and the special papers can be costly -
so inkjets are best suited for home users and small
businesses with light printing needs. Inkjet
printers range in price from less than £100 to
as much as £800, depending on features, image
quality and paper-handling capabilities.
Photo Printer
Advantages
Some inkjet
printers use more than the four basic CMYK inks to
produce high-quality photos, so if you own a
digital camera and spend a lot of time printing
photos, you may want to pay a little more than a
plain old inkjet will cost or opt for a second
printer specifically for that purpose.
Photo
quality: The print quality is comparable to
that of professional photofinishing.
Memory
cards: A photo printer can print directly from
compatible digital cameras and most models also
accept storage cards such as CompactFlash,
SmartMedia, Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard or Memory
Stick.
Although a number of different sizes of photo
printers are on the market, most are smaller than
typical inkjet printers. A subclass of photo
printers or snapshot printers, is limited to 4x6 or
smaller prints; they can't handle standard A4
sheets, which is why they are suitable as second
printers only. If you're a serious amateur or
professional digital photographer, a photo printer
is worth the expense. They typically cost at least
£200.
For a home PC
owner, however, a standard colour inkjet printer is
the better path to
take.
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