Know what you want your printer to do
What you intend to print will determine the best printer for you. If you’re mostly working with shopping lists, concert tickets, or travel itineraries, excellent print quality is arguably less important than print speed and price. If you’re using your printer for professional materials or photo printing, then color accuracy, printing quality, and features like borderless printing will be primary considerations when choosing the right home printer.
Inkjet versus Laser or other types
The two main types of home printers are Inkjet and laser. Both have different benefits and pitfalls. There also other choices if you have specific needs.
- Inkjet: Inkjet printers spray tiny droplets of colored ink onto a page to produce images and words. They use multiple pots of wet ink that shoot from multiple jets to create a wide gamut of colors. If you use the right glossy paper, the picture quality is excellent. If you’re printing a mix of images and words in your home office, you should use an inkjet printer. Brochures and webpages look best on an inkjet printer.
- Laser: Laser printers use a dry toner and heat to print pages. The toner is attracted to a charged area — shot by lasers, hence the name — then heated onto the page to make it stick. They are especially good at printing high-volume documents that contain little imagery. That being said, more and more laser printers can print decent images, and in color, so they are becoming more versatile. Use a laser printer if you’re printing large documents or need a lot of volume. Toner can be expensive, but it lasts much longer than Inkjet ink.
- Other: Plenty of other ink types on this list are helpful in special niches.
- Thermal printers use heat on special paper to print sticky labels. Perfect for people who send a lot of packages.
- DTF printers print onto special film that can then be heat-transferred onto material like t-shirts and jackets. Great for small creative businesses
- Sublimation printers use special ink to allow you to print on paper, then heat press onto mugs, tumblers, and other merchandise. Also great for small creative businesses.
- UV printers spray special inky resin onto materials and use UV to cure it. Great for medium-sized businesses that want something very special.
Print only versus all-in-one
All-in-one printers are almost ubiquitous at this point, and if you’re looking for something for a small home office, there’s no reason not to get one. Scanning and copying built-in alongside printing just makes sense for a small business.
However, if your printing needs are just photography-based, or one of the other niche types on this list — like sublimation or thermal printing — then an all-in-one may not be worthwhile. You want a printer that does one job very well, rather than a jack of all trades.
Budget
Another factor to consider is the cost of ink and ensuring you have enough ink to print everything you need. (There’s nothing more frustrating than having a printer but no ink in the tank.) Inkjet printers use liquid ink to print, whereas laser printers use toner cartridges containing powder. Even if you’re getting a great printer deal, be sure to research how to refill the ink, so you can choose the best printer for your overall budget. Some new printers include an ink subscription in their original price tag, so that may be something to consider.
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