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Best Printers 2023
Home printers can print essays, articles, recipes, coupons, and maps, and so much more. However, there is an overwhelming number of printers available on the market.
Choosing the best can be a pretty annoying task. This is where my guide comes in to play its role. It will highlight the important points that you need to keep in mind before buying a printer.
When you have the right kind of printer at home, you will be able to get a hard copy of anything you find on the internet or your computer.
But some prints do need some serious resolutions, and if you think most of your prints will be the same, then you need to carefully choose or end up going through that frustrating return process.
Keep the following points in mind when buying the best printers. So, come, let’s dig right in!
Laser vs. inkjet – which one is better?
The first question that you need to ask yourself is which printer will cut it for your home use? Inkjets have cartridges in them, and these cartridges are filled with ink. These printers apply them wet directly to the paper. The ink gets dry pretty fast, though.
On the other hand, the laser printers have toners in there, a type of dust ink that will bond with the appear to produce fast results. Laser printers are highly efficient in their use of resources when they produce results.
There are color inkjets as well, and they can print anything no matter what. They can handle different fonts, different diagrams, graphs, glossy photos, and so much more. Plus, these printers can surpass laser printers in terms of print speed as well.
Laser printers are still a pretty good option for an office setup because most of the prints will be monochrome. Therefore, you can purchase them at a pretty reasonable price. If you’re looking for the best resolutions, you need to go for color laser printers, but they are pretty experienced.
Multifunctional printers – are they worth it?
These multifunctional printers come with faxing and scanning features as well. Plus, they can print. You can find them in both laser and inkjet versions.
MFPs for home use is a pretty sensible move because you won’t have to buy a separate scanner and a printer. There is not much price difference between the regular ones and the MFPs, so why not go for them?
The inbuilt scanning function is always useful because you can scan directly to your computer. But the faxing feature is not that of a hit and is better suitable for office use unless you have your office in the home.
Photo printing – always a good option
Who doesn’t like to print photos? If you are more interested in printing photos with family and friends than doing your homework or printing recipes, go for a photo printer.
They will not be as flexible as the other printers, but the print quality will be extraordinary. You will have to go for some additional print costs.
Speed and resolution are also going to be key
In the past, different manufacturers used to claim that their printers are super-fast. This is what they referred to as page yield back in the day, and it was different from ink to the toner cartridge. Nowadays, everyone uses a standardized set of tests to level the competition.
PPM
It refers to the page per minute and is the speed of the printer. It can be pretty straightforward, but it can become seriously complicated within no time. For instance, PPM for B&W is entirely different as compared to the color. The PPM for black and white is around 15 to 20 pages, while the fit colors are 10 to 15 pages.
DPI
DPI stands for dot per inch, and it refers to the ability of the printer to be applied per inch on the paper. This spec is going to tell you more about your printer and its better resolutions. If you’re looking for highly detailed images, this is the right option to go for.
The newer models can improve the resolution significantly without altering the DPI, so it’s not the ultimate spec that you need to consider before buying.
Duty cycle
This number will tell you how many pages will be printed per month. Your printing per month needs to be a lot lower than the duty cycle, otherwise your printer will experience plenty of wear and tear over time.
How can you connect your printer?
Another important feature here is the connectivity options that your printer comes with. Modern printers come with multiple connectivity options. They are equipped with Wi-Fi as well as cloud computing.
There are different kinds of projects, and each has its connectivity requirement. Other options are available, including USB, NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, SD cards, and cloud computing. With different connectivity options, you can conveniently get a device connected to your printer and start printing remotely. Printers have come a long way in this department.
How much does the ink cost?
You also have to consider the ink costs and paper costs as well. There is not much ink consumption for home users, so the price is very much bearable. But for offices, it is going to be a significant issue, because they need frequent prints.
Paper is also the same concern because it will add to the overall ink cost as well. Being a homeowner, you might not have to deal with this problem. Both ink and paper will add up a big amount if your consumptions are pretty high and fast; this will happen in an office setup.
Final Words:
The best printers are great at producing fast-paced printouts. You can use them to print anything from text to graphs and full-fledged photos. These printers also come with plenty of connectivity options. So, you can link up any device with your computer and start saving or printing.
