News

The way to solve this query is to do some serious thinking as to what uses you will need the printer for, and then to research the market for those kind of printers by going to the different printer review web pages. You might even join technically inclined forums such as PCreview or Whirlpool 

But for now, lets go back to the required uses you might have for a printer. One way to make the determination of the right printer for you is to set out your requirements for the printer, and these can be broken down as follows, assuming that the minimal requirement is met in each case:

1. Speed of printing pages – (a) not important, (b) sometimes important, (c) very important

2. Quality of print – (a) not important, (b) a required level (c) very important

3. Colour print – (a) no requirement (b) occasional colour (c) photo quality

4. Usage – (a) printing only (b) copying, faxing, and scanning

5. No of users – (a) just your  individual computer (b) a few users in a house or a small office (c) many users

It is important to answer each of the above questions keeping in mind the adage ‘champagne tastes – beer budget’. In other words selecting the best of everything to find it is way above what you can afford. What’s the point in saying you want high quality print with colour when you only need a printer to maintain recipes and household account records.

Aside from determining the above factors, you should also put the four above requirements into a priority. For example, if you are a photographer just starting out with a limited budget your priority would probably be along the lines of 3, 2, 1, 4, and 5. The normal home requirement could be 2, 3, 4, 5 and 1.

 It ‘s very much a matter of individual perception – but what undertaking this exercise does is allow you to establish what your hot points are. For example, if you run a business that produces large volumes of documents such as a legal firm, then your requirement would be OF A PRIORITY as follows:

1 -Speed of printing pages -  very important 

5 - No of users- many users

4 - Usage - fast copying is a high requirement

2 - Quality of print - sometimes important

3 – Colour print - no requirement

In this case, the decision making is basically revolving around the fact that we do a lot of printing and we have 5 solicitors and 3 clerical staff all with printing requirements, that quality, as long as it is acceptable quality is not a high priority, and that you never use colour.