8 Things to Consider Before Buying a Printer
In the age of computers and laptops, use of printers are growing by leaps and bounds. Most of the organisation including schools, colleges, hospitals, photography studio, internet cafe and government organisations use printers on daily basis. Printers are available in the markets in various ranges depending upon the functionalities. One needs to consider some important factors before purchasing any Printer.
If you are planning to buy one for your use, double check the following factors:
Purpose
What is the purpose for which you want to buy a new Printer? If you are a photographer, you would need a photographic printer. A photographic printer is mainly meant for printing photos with much more clarity than regular printers. The time taken to print HQ photos might be somewhat more than printing documents. Also the cost involved would be more in case of printing photographs. If this is just for printing regular office documents, it is better not to go with the photographic printers. So before purchasing, make sure the printers suits your need.
Printing Cost per 1000 pages
Some of the printers would cost you very less compared to the other printers available in the market but the effective cost for printing 1000 pages would be much higher than the printers with higher cost.
Most of the HP printers are available for cheap price but cost of printing is much higher. It won’t make much difference if you use the printer occasionally. For any heavy office use, it is very much advised to look into the cost of the toner/ink before making any purchase.
It also depends on the use of the printer. The older the printer will be, the higher the cost per page will be.
Regular or Occasional Use
It is one of the very vital points to consider before buying any printer. The ink that is used in the tonner gets dried if not used for some time, as a result of which, it becomes unusable. One should opt for the printers whose ink does not gets dried up quickly.
Functionality
Now-a-days with the advancement of technology, we have multi functional printers in the market. Beside printing, the same machine can be used for scanning as well as making photocopies.
It has been seen that, in organisations specially educational institutes, beside a printer, a scanner and a photocopy machine is also required. So companies have integrated 3 machines in one and now-a-days they are available in 3 in 1 Printers.
If you are in need of all 3 machines, it is better to go with 3 in 1 rather than buying scanner, photocopy machine and printer separately.
Price
Do not be fooled with the initial price tag. Investing in a printer is not an one time job.
Warranty
Look into the warranty period. Minimum warranty to look for in a printer for office use is 1 Year. Most of the printers come with a manufacturing warranty of 3 years.
Cost of the INK
Cost of the toner/ink used in the printer should be on the lower side.
User friendly
The printer should again be user friendly mainly when you are purchasing it for the office use. There would be multiple users in any organisation and they should be able to use the printer without much difficulty. You need to buy a printer that can be installed in almost all systems. The drivers should be easily available.
Tip: Check out the reviews online before buying any printer.
