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Inkjet Printers Buying GuideBuyers' Guide to Inkjet Printers Contents
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ With the profusion of printer models available in the market, buying the right one to suit your requirements and budget is no easy task. Whether you're printing high-quality family photos, creating professional proofs for clients, or quickly churning out draft text and graphics, everyone, it seems, needs a printer. The purpose of this buying guide is to help you decipher information about inkjet printers and make your choice an easier one.
The first step when you purchase a printer is deciding on whether a laser or inkjet model will be more suitable for your printing needs.
Lasers generally have more features and options than inkjets. Monochrome lasers hold from 150 to 700 sheets, with corporate models frequently holding 600 sheets as standard; colour lasers hold from 200 to 1200 sheets. More corporate laser products include 8MB of RAM, with expansion options permitting up to four or five times that amount for queuing multiple print jobs at once. Some offer optional hard drives that you can use to save complex forms and other preprocessed images or to store passwords for confidential print jobs, and they all have standard or optional Ethernet adapters. Another key differentiator between inkjets and their laser counterparts is the cost of consumables. If you print a lot of text, and don't really need colour output, then in the long run a laser printer will be the cheaper and faster choice. Although the initial price for a mono laser printer may be more than an inkjet, lower running costs, coupled with the low cost of replacement consumables such as laser toner, can make owing a laser printer a more viable option in the longer term. However, if colour is a necessity, or if you're going to be printing a lot of photos, an inkjet is most likely to be the best option. Colour laser printers exist, but prices are still high, with many sitting in the $2000 to $5000 price bracket. This may be okay for small to medium businesses which print a lot of colour brochures and advertising material (several hundred pages per month, for instance), but for residential users, colour inkjets are going to make the most economic sense. The concept behind inkjets will be familiar to most readers: ink gets squirted out of nozzles located within the printhead, which distribute the ink across the page as it is fed through the printer. It's less well known, though, that the technology itself can be broken down into two common types: thermal and piezo. Although both distribute ink in a similar fashion, the difference lies in how they transfer the ink to the page. In thermal inkjets, the nozzles located inside the printhead are heated to create a vapour bubble which forces a droplet of ink onto the paper. Due to the nature of the ink transferral method, many manufacturers refer to these types of inkjet printers as bubblejets. Manufactures producing bubblejets include HP, Canon and Lexmark. In contrast, piezo printers squirt pressurised ink through the nozzles by charging the piezo crystal located behind the nozzles in the printhead with electricity. Piezo crystals vibrate when charged with electricity and this, in turn, pulls and then pushes the ink within the nozzle. By varying the strength of the electrical charges, the technology causes different-sized ink droplets to break away from the nozzle. Also called the vibration method, the technology was patented by Epson and is consequently used in its range of inkjet printers. In practice, there is little difference between piezo and thermal inkjets, and long-held beliefs that piezo printers have more accuracy than thermal printers have petered out. There are several key specifications which consumers can use to differentiate between inkjet printers. Speed The speed at which the printer prints to a page will be listed under the term pages per minute, or ppm. These figures can be problematic for consumers, however, as printer vendors frequently cite ratings based on printing only the simplest text documents or printing at a low resolution, such as in draft mode. Speeds listed on the box, therefore, can be up to three times faster than the reality. Top level inkjets will boast of up to 20ppm in monochrome (draft quality), and 12ppm in colour, but if you're looking at a mid-range product, expect to see figures from 8ppm to 16ppm in monochrome, and 1.2ppm to 12ppm in colour (draft to best quality printing modes). Resolution and print quality The quality of the print from a printer is indicated by its resolution. Resolution refers to the number of dots in a square inch (dots per inch or dpi) that a printer can spit out onto a sheet of paper.  Inkjets generally have a maximum colour resolution of 2400x1200dpi, with some high-end models boasting of up to 4800x1200dpi. But even if you plan to print a full-colour 8x10in photograph, you're unlikely to see any significant improvement once you get above 1200x1200dpi. In addition, many printers employ 'optimised dpi', which involves the use of software and proprietary technologies to interpolate an image and to smooth out patches of colour, fill in gaps, and sharpen more detailed sections. Such enhancements can affect print quality as much as the printer's resolution. Just as important as a printer's resolution is the size of the ink droplets it deposits on the paper. Just about every photo printer (more on these below) on the market is capable of producing droplets sizes measuring four picolitres or less (one picolitre is the equivalent of one billionth of a litre). Much smaller than this and the droplets will be imperceptible to the human eye. As a result, the best way to determine print quality is not to look at the resolution specs alone, but to print a sample and judge for yourself. Interface and operating system capability Virtually all inkjet printers now available connect to your PC system using a USB interface, with some offering both USB and parallel connections. There are many USB 2.0-ready printers available in the market, but don't be dismayed if you find your system doesn't support the newer USB standard. Although speed is certainly an issue when printing digital photos, in practice, the major bottleneck to the speed of the printer will be the actual print mechanism rather than the connection method. Also, few printers come with the relevant USB or parallel cable, so check that you have such a cable or you'll need to buy one. Likewise, make sure your PC meets the operating system requirements before choosing a printer model. Some entry-level printers may still feature printer drivers which support Windows 95, but you're most likely to need Windows 98 or higher, as well as a CD-ROM or Internet access to install the printer software. Paper size Unlike with laser printers, inkjet users won't be able to upgrade the built-in RAM capabilities of their printers. This shouldn't be too much of a concern for consumers, though. According to Epson, inkjets are a type of raster device, which means they only need enough memory to be able to process a line of data at a time. These types of devices rely on technology which requires the PC to render pages before sending them to the printer. In other words, the processing of the data happens on the PC, not the printer, as is the case with laser printers. This means that there is no need for large amounts of RAM to be included in the printer itself, and upgrading memory is redundant. RAM capacities nevertheless vary slightly across printer models. Entry-level desktop printers can come with as little as 768KB of RAM, while photo printers generally feature more built-in RAM: most come with at least 8MB of internal RAM. This is to accommodate the extra burden of printing high-quality, dense images. Memory Some inkjet printers targeted at the SOHO market will be slightly larger than those designed for residential users, to accommodate different paper sizes. These inkjet models could be worth looking out for if you do require larger or more specialised paper handling capacities such as A3, B5, A5, A2, index cards or transparencies. Which inkjet model is right for me? inkjet printers range from around $150 for an entry-level product (home) up to $900 for a state-of-the-art photo printer. The rule of thumb for deciding which type suits your needs is this: if the majority of your printing will be text and the occasional photo, then a printer between $150 and $300 should be able to fulfil the task. In most cases, you can simply select the printer that will be most cost-effective to run based on the cost of consumables (more on these later). Even the cheapest inkjet models on the market nowadays can produce decent-looking photo printouts on speciality papers, and all excel in producing crisp, clean text. The massive increase in the number of digital images being taken, coupled with the ease of use and simplicity of models now being released, is propelling photo printers into the mainstream printer market.  If you are looking for a printer specifically designed for photographs, then it could be worthwhile investing in a photo printer. Photo printers can offer contrasting features to standard inkjets, which benefit digital camera users. But be warned: they will come at a higher price. It's important to note photo printers aren't always souped-up inkjet printers. Most of the photo printers on the market employ either inkjet or dye-sublimation technology. Dye-sublimation (or dye-sub) printers work by diffusing gaseous dye over paper, producing high-quality prints free of the distinctive pattern of dots common to inkjets. Their output quality makes dye-subs popular in high-graphics environments, but their superior image reproduction has also allowed them to carve out a niche in the portable photo printer market. Although dye-subs have a reputation for being expensive, it is only partially justified. While large A3-sized dye-subs can get into five digit figures, portable photo printers (outputting pictures no larger than 4x6in) cost little more than a mid-range inkjet. Ink Types One of the bigger differences between photo printers and standard inkjets is that the former employs a wider range of printing inks to improve reproduction. Whereas standard printers use the basic CYMK (cyan, yellow, magenta and black) inks, photo printers employ additional colours (light magenta and light cyan being common choices) to iron out impurities. Colour fidelity is another critical factor. It doesn't matter how vibrant the colours produced by the printer are if they don't match those previewed on your monitor or digital camera viewer. Consistent colour across compatible input and output devices is much easier now that Windows incorporates a built-in colour management utility, ICM (image colour management). Look for a printer that includes ICM or ICC (International Consortium of Colour) colour profiles that your image-editing application can use to ensure colour fidelity. Removable storage media In addition, photo printers offer more functionality than traditional inkjets, including being able to transfer your photos directly to the printer without needing to be attached to a PC. This is great for those who aren't looking to make sizeable changes to their photos before printing them. If you are looking for this functionality, choose a printer which is compatible with your digital camera's removable memory card format. Most direct photo printers support at least one of the three main types of memory card: Secure Digital (SD), CompactFlash or Sony's Memory Stick. Hewlett-Packard has recently released a range of photo printers that support all removable media formats, making the product choices for consumers even easier. As well as memory card support, some photo printers feature a small LCD image preview display. This allows users to set print options or even preview images before printing the final product. There are a few points to note. Even if the printer offers a high-resolution print quality, this will only apply if the photograph you plan to print has been taken at a similar or higher resolution setting. Bear in mind that if you've dropped the resolution setting to fit more on your digital camera's memory card, you are sacrificing the quality of the photo print. Similarly, high resolutions are generally only useful if you're using dedicated photo paper; it's wasted on more absorbent sheets. See more on paper types in the dedicated section below. So, like standard inkjets, the most crucial advice that can be given to anyone buying a photo printer is to examine the printout before buying. Another option which small to medium business users may want to consider in preference to a stand-alone inkjet or laser printer is a multifunction device.  MFDS are gaining popularity among home and small office users because of their easy manageability and convenience. An MFD incorporates a wealth of features - such as printing, scanning, copying and faxing capabilities - into a common housing, and is perfect for people with limited desk space or office realty. It can also save users money, as a good MFD will rival the combined costs of separate devices. There are varying types of MFDs. Basic devices will include printing and photocopying capabilities, while others may also provide fax and scanning functionality. There are laser and inkjet types: laser printer-based MFDs for relatively large volume output (over 1000 pages per month), or inkjet-based versions. The advantage is that you can determine your needs and buy the machine that has the most relevant features to meet them. Other considerations: Printer consumables  The biggest contributor to the running costs of an inkjet printer is the replacement of consumables. Ink costs money and will run out quickly, depending on what you're printing and the size of the cartridge being used. Generally, an inkjet cartridge will yield 300 to 800 pages per cartridge, but some inexpensive printers may require cartridges every 50 to 100 pages - the size of the paper tray. Before handing over the cash, ask how much the replacement ink cartridges cost and how many pages each cartridge can print. Prices range from around $13 for a black ink cartridge up to $80 for a colour photo inkjet cartridge. In particular, look out for the cost of colour ink refills. A disadvantage of many colour printers is that when a single ink cartridge runs low, you have to replace the entire colour cartridge. With six or more colours to a cartridge, this problem becomes even more pronounced. Some printers offer separate cartridges for each colour, so you can replace individual colours as and when necessary. This can result in a small saving in ink costs, even if the individual cartridges often cost comparatively more than a single set. Counterfeit ink Inkjet and printer toner cartridges have joined the ranks of counterfeit Rolex wristwatches and fake Nike sneakers. Around the world, Canon, Epson, Lexmark, and other leading ink makers are battling a rise in counterfeiters that are selling phoney ink packaged as the real thing. It is important to note that fake cartridges should not be confused with third-party products, which are clearly labelled as such and are compatible with various name-brand printers. Determining what is genuine at the time of purchase it difficult. If you do happen to buy the counterfeit product, the result is often leaky cartridges, poor quality printouts, fewer printouts per cartridge, dried up print heads and potential damage to printers. The best bet to reduce your odds of getting stuck with a bogus cartridge is to buy only from authorised resellers. Paper styles Photo printer buyers also need to consider the quality and cost of the paper they intend to print on. The type of paper you use to print photographs will greatly affect the quality of the output. Photo quality or glossy paper is best for optimum results when printing full-colour photographs; indeed, printing full-colour photographs on plain paper in standard mode will generally soak the page and curl it, resulting in a virtually unusable printout - not to mention a huge waste of ink. There's a wide range of photo paper styles and accessories on the market: premium, glossy, coated, transparency paper/film, banner paper and T-shirt transfers. Different sizes area available, including panoramic and 6x4in. A problem that plagued early photo papers was fading over time. To offset this, some paper manufacturers have introduced archival quality papers which, when used in conjunction with pigment-based inks, guarantee the colour-fastness of an image for a number of years (HP claims its photo paper is fade-resistant for up to 65 years, for example). If you are keen to keep your photos for a long time, you may need to invest in these high-grade accessories to ensure the longevity of those prints. Most manufacturers mark on the paper packaging what type of printing the stock is suitable for, so check to ensure that the paper is fade-resistant, or colourfast. On a final note: we recommend you use paper and ink cartridges made by the same manufacturer, to ensure the optimum quality of your pics. printer manufacturers often develop specific types of ink to work on various styles of paper. In tests of inkjet photo printers, PC World found using the same type of consumables as the printer gave the best image printing results overall. When we tried using HP photo quality paper in Epson and Canon printers, and vice versa, we found results were well below par (splotchiness and poor ink absorption were two drawbacks). Cartridge duty cycle ratings printer manufacturers give their products cartridge duty cycle ratings to indicate how many pages users can expect to print on average from a single cartridge. These can be a good way for consumers to compare the lifespan of ink cartridges across different types of printer models from the same printer manufacturer. The cartridge duty cycle figure is usually displayed in the following way: 130 pages at 5 per cent coverage. While the first figure is self-explanatory (number of pages), the second figure could cause some confusion. What the manufacturer is referring to is the approximate percentage of the page the ink should cover in order to be able to last for the number of pages specified. It's important to be aware that if you are planning on using the printer to print colour brochures or documents which feature a lot of thick, black text, your ink usage will be much higher than what is suggested by the manufacturer's rating. After all, 5 to 15 per cent coverage, which is what is commonly referred to by manufacturers in their duty cycle ratings, is a small amount of ink to a page. Users with more demanding printing needs can expect to replace the cartridge well before they reach the number of pages stated in the duty cycle rating. The printer driver is important when choosing a printer for two reasons: it acts as the interface software between your PC and the printer, and it is the access point that allows you to control the media stock and print quality from your desktop. If you can, try to have a preview look at the printer driver interface. It's important to find one that is easy to use for you, and doesn't feature too many complicated setup options. How much control over the quality of the printout does it give you? How easy is it to switch the default paper size from Letter to A4 (a surprising bugbear in a number of printer drivers)? How well does it allow you to manage pending jobs? Perhaps most importantly, what kind of feedback does it give you about the printer status - how much toner is left, what is the printer currently doing, and why is the printer not working the way it should? Once you've made your initial printer purchase, you should check the manufacturer's Web site regularly for updates and patches for the printer driver. These are frequently updated to provide functional improvements, which may further enhance your prints. Software extras If you've bought a budget scanner in the past, you were probably pleasantly surprised by the avalanche of free software CDs that came with it. But don't expect printer manufacturers to display the same generosity. Although a couple of manufacturers do bundle Adobe Photoshop Elements program, most printers come with little more than software drivers and basic printing utilities.
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Almost all basic inkjets offer the same features: one paper tray that holds 100 or 150 sheets and 10 envelopes, minimal buffer memory, and no networking option. A few vendors offer business-orientated inkjets that include higher capacities, optional paper trays, Ethernet or 802.11b (wireless) networking, and more memory.