Finding the Right Printer to Meet your Needs
The printer is essential to any business. They are used on a daily basis to print invoices, reports, and other documents. Since this piece of equipment is so important, it’s good to know what you are buying. There are really only two types of printers: laserjets and inkjets. Both have their own advantages which will be described later.The most important thing you need to remember when purchasing a printer, no matter if it’s a laserjet or an inkjet, is that the price of the machine should not be an important part of the decision. The real expense is the cost of the ink or toner that you will be using in the printer. The printer is a one time purchase while you will be buying supplies for it over and over. In fact, it's more cost efficient to sometimes buy a new printer rather than have it fixed or buy more ink to use in it.
If you plan on printing a lot of pages, a laserjet printer is your best bet in speed, quality, and most importantly price. Monochrome (black and white) laserjets have higher PPM (prints per minute) than inkjet printer, usually twice as many. On average, laserjet printers are replaced every four years after 100,000 prints whereas inkjet printers are replaced every 2 years after 30,000 prints. Laserjets can also be resold or donated to on-profit companies for tax deductions because of their durability. And although the initial cost of laserjet printer is higher than inkjets, the cost per page is significantly less. The cost per page on a laserjet averages 3 to 5 cents whereas inkjets average 8 to 15 cents per page.
Color laserjet printers are becoming less expensive and more common but are still quite initially costly compared to inkjet color printing. If you require color and only print low volumes an inkjet printer may be the way to go.