Selecting the best home printer

Nowadays, home printers are pretty inexpensive peripherals to own as part of your computer set-up and often, people will just go out and pick one up off the shelf without giving it much thought. However, using the guide below will help you to choose a printer which suits your personal needs just perfectly.

Does it really matter what printer you buy?

Are not they all the same? A printer is a printer so in this regards, yes - they are all the same. However, there are many key factors to take into consideration. For instance, two printers by different manufacturers may be roughly the same price but will one be better than another?

Things to consider

What will you be using it for? Do you intend to use your printer just for printing or would you like it to have additional functionality? For a few extra pounds you could buy an all-in-one printer which will usually have a scanner built-in and also photocopying capabilities. Not only will this save you from having to buy a scanner in the future, but it will also save valuable space.
How much printing will you be doing?
Just how much printing will you be doing? If you plan on doing a lot, then it is worth finding out how much ink the printer will use as inkjet printers can have costly replacement cartridges which will soon add up. Speed
The speed needs to be taken into consideration. If you are regularly printing things at home and in bulk, there can be nothing worse than waiting for a print job to finish so you can proceed with something else. Find out the printer's page per minute (PPM) rate. Quality of print What do you plan on printing? If you plan on printing lots of photos, then home photo printers are probably your best bet. Buying a printer which is not capable of printing high quality photo-like prints could leave you sorely disappointed in this respect. Paper size
What sort of paper size will you be printing on? Whilst most printers print up to A4, home printers printing up to A3 are becoming increasingly popular. Could or would you make use of this larger print size? Cartridge price Once you own a printer, you will never stop paying for it. Why? Cartridges. Check out how much cartridges cost for the printer you are considering, both original cartridges and third party ones. Printer price Now that you have chosen your printer, shop around! Many pounds can be saved by doing a little research and comparing costs.