Printers & Scanners
Entry Page to Printer Reviews |
Everyone needs a good
printer for their home based business! The problem, ah,
opportunity is that there is a plethora of printers, printer
technologies, vendors and pricing that it just seems easiest to purchase
the printer being "pushed" by the company you are purchasing your system
from, or the one that you find fastest that is in your price range on
Buy.Com, eBAY or Amazon.Com, or even one from a manufacturer you've
purchased from before.
However, we believe that purchasing a printer is
actually an important investment in your home-based business. And,
we also believe that you need to not only choose the "right" technology,
capability, and price, but also understand the long term costs of
operating that printer. What do inkjet cartridges and laser toner
costs add up to over time? Many folks have purchased a printer they
though was "price competitive" only to find the cost of cartridges and/or
toner eating into their monthly supplies budget in a "big way". So,
first let's talk about technology, and then we'll explain how we've
"divvied" up the printer market and what to look for in general when
purchasing a printer.
Technology
We're going to cover the two main printing technologies
used in home-based businesses (there are others, Dot Matrix for high speed
line/serial printers - most often used in large corporations for printing
invoices or large amounts of data on continuous forms, receipt printers
for credit cards and very high end color printers for copying and photo
shops):
- Ink Jet Printers - Ink jets place very
small droplets (smaller than a human hair) of ink on the paper to create
the printed text or images. These droplets or dots of ink are
placed precisely with resolutions (you'll see the abbreviation "dpi" or
dots per inch) up to 1440x720 dots per inch. Of course the ink
comes in various colors to attain both black and white and color
printing (and in cartridge combinations that are specific to the printer
and manufacturer).
There are two main ways ink jets place the dots on
paper.
- Thermal Bubble - Used by Canon and HP. Using
this method, resistors create heat, the heat vaporizes the ink and
creates a bubble. As the bubble expands the ink is pushed out of
the nozzle (300 to 600 on an average print head) onto the paper.
When the bubble bursts, it creates a vacuum that pulls more ink into
the print head.
- Piezoelectric - Used by Epson. A piezo
crystal is placed at the back of the ink reservoir of the nozzle.
A charge is placed on the crystal causing it to vibrate - inward
forces ink out of the nozzle - outward pulls more ink into the
reservoir.
So what are the "deciding" factors in your ink jet
purchase?
- Cartridge and paper cost! How many pages can
you print from each cartridge? What is the per page cost?
This is a big factor!
- Print speed! That inexpensive printer could
take days to print a color document with lots of graphics.
- Memory! As always, more is better (improves
print speed!)
- Paper compatibility! Will it print on the
paper, envelopes, borderless photo paper you require for your
business?
- Interface to your PC (or camera)! Wireless?
USB 2.0 (speed again!), parallel port? Make sure your PC (or
digital camera) and printer are port compatible.
- Laser Printers - Laser printers use a
photoreceptor (that big drum that turns inside the printer) made of
photoconductive material. This photoreceptive drum is given a
positive charge by a charged roller or a charge corona wire. As
the drum turns, a laser beam moves across the surface discharging
specific points (the text and images to be printed - an electrostatic
image). Once this pattern is in place, the printer coats the drum
with toner (the fine, nasty black stuff that comes out of the toner
cartridge when you drop it!), which clings to the negatively charged
areas on the drum. The drum then rolls over the paper and the
paper pulls the toner powder away from the drum. The paper then
passes through the fuser (two heated rollers) that melt the toner powder
(very quickly!) and fuse the toner to the paper. Whew!
Laser printers are, in general, initially more expense
than Ink Jets, however, the quality of the print is almost always
superior, they are much faster and their long term supply costs tend to
be lower (toner cartridges and fuser rollers last much longer than ink
jet cartridges!). If you plan on doing a lot of printing - choose
a laser printer!
But beyond technology differences, we've divided your
printer options into six main categories:
- Black and White Laser Printers -
the office "work horses" for printing documents of all types.
- Color Laser Printers - want to
make a "good impression"? Print your own color brochures and
newsletters? A color laser can make it happen.
- Photo Printers (most using Ink Jet technology)
- printing photos and standard documents as well (although some
are very specialized and print photos only)
- Standard Ink Jet Printers - office
"work horses" for those of you who need to printer lower volumes of
documents.
- Mobile Printers (using Ink Jet technology) -
compact and light ink jet printers you can take on the road with
you.
- Multifunction Printers (using both Ink Jet and
Laser technologies) - offering a variety of functional
combinations - fax, copying, scanning, printing. These printers
are designed with one function considered the "primary" by the
manufacturer, so it's important to choose the multi-function device that
is aligned with your business' primary need.
As you can see, there's a lot to think about before you
choose the "right" printer for your business. Just need to print a
document now and then - an ink jet is probably the best choice. Need
a device that "does it all" (you don't do a lot of anyone one thing but a
little of a lot), then a multi-function device is the solution.
Produce high end documents with graphic images - a color laser is a good
investment. Just print like heck (and don't need color) a good black
and white laser is for you. Photography important to your business -
a photo printer might be "the ticket".
Ready to purchase that printer??!! Let's go.
Flatbed scanners have become an intrinsic piece of almost
every home office. Like many other technologies, scanner prices have
dropped significantly since they arrived on the market and you can now purchase
a very good scanner for under $150 and an excellent one for under $400.
Why a scanner? Have you ever wanted to send a hand drawn
image to a business partner using email (not fax) and retain good drawing
resolution? Have you ever received a document that you needed the data
from, but would have to retype because you didn't get it electronically?
Would you like to be able to capture printed images or documents to add to your
Web site? If you need or want to do any of those things - buy a scanner!
Ready to take a look?
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