Printers

Buying Guide:
Printers

Buying Guide: Printers

There are a huge number of printers of all shapes and sizes in the market today and it
can be a daunting task to work out which printer best suits your needs.
There are a number of things that need to be considered before buying a printer and
this guide is here to help you make sense of the different types, specifications and all
the jargon.

This guide is split into various topics to help make it easier for you to work out what
printer you need. These are:
What types of printers are available?
How is the printer going to be used and what will it be used for?
Print speed and resolution.
What additional features do you need?
Running costs.
Jargon Buster.

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Buying Guide: Printers

What types of printers are available?

There are a number of different types of printer available at the moment and these are
all suited to different printing needs and budgets.

The two main types of printer that are currently available are laser and inkjet printers.
Both types of printer come in many different forms, with different features and
capabilities.

Laser printers

Laser printers rapidly produce high quality text
and graphics on plain paper. Laser printers
use a photographic drum to attract electrically
charged toner and transfer it to paper, where
the image is fused using a heated roller. Laser
printers are split into two types, personal and
workgroup. Personal laser printers are, as the
name suggests, more suited to home/home
office use where they are connected to a
single pc. Workgroup laser printers are
designed for use in an office/school
environment and have features that are
tailored for multiple users. They support
printing over networks either as standard or as
an additional option and offer a variety of other
features which can include larger paper trays
and duplex (double-sided) printing.

Inkjet printers

Inkjet printers can produce pages of crisp text
and rich photo prints but are relatively slow
when compared to the print speeds of most
laser printers. Inkjet printers create the image
or text on the page by emitting droplets of ink
through a series of nozzles in a print head
whilst the print head is moving back and forth
across the page. After a strip of the image is
printed the paper is moved on by a motor ready
for the next line to be printed. Inkjet printers are
not normally suitable for use on a network
unless they are used with just a couple of pc’s.

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Buying Guide: Printers

How is the printer going to be used and what will it be used for?
There are a couple of things you need to consider when deciding what type of printer
you are going to buy. You need to think about how the printer will be used and what
the printer will be used for.

The majority of printers in schools today are networked so that the whole school can
use them all of the time. These printers are often photocopiers and are used to print
and scan as well as copy.
When a printer is used in this way a network enabled laser printer is the best option as
they have inbuilt memory and can queue print jobs in their memory if needed. Inkjet
printers are unable to cope with the volumes of printing that is normally done within a
school’s network but they can be networked and used by only a couple of computers,
for example, in the school office.
If the printer will be used to print
cheques in the school office then
you must choose an approved laser
printer and use it with original toner
rather than compatible toner, as it is
the combination of both the printer
and its toner that is approved.
Schools ICT have a dedicated
section in our shop for printers that
have been approved for cheque
printing and regularly check for
newly approved printers that are
suitable for use in schools.

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Buying Guide: Printers

Print speed and resolution

Print quality, speed and resolution are all things that need to be considered to ensure
that you are getting the right printer for your needs.

Printer manufacturers state the print speeds and resolutions as part of the printer
specifications. Whilst these figures are useful to compare different printers, they often
have little or no bearing on the performance you will actually get.

Print speeds are usually listed as
different figures for colour and black
and white printing and are normally
the maximum speed the printer can
do. In reality the speed at which the
printer prints can be slower that the
stated speed as this speed is usually
for a basic text document printed at
the lowest possible quality. The
speeds listed for laser printers are
usually not far off the actual speeds,
but the speeds for inkjets can vary a
great deal from those listed.

The print resolution refers to the number of dots per inch (dpi) that can be printed,
measured both vertically and horizontally e.g. 600x600dpi. In theory higher resolutions
produce images and text with sharper, finer details. In practice, however, this is not
always the case as there are other factors that improve the overall resolution. Many
printers now have software to enhance the overall resolution and some use six colours
to create better looking images. Some printers also use colour dots in different sizes or
intensities which subtly improves the appearance of the resolution.

The type of printer and the
resolution both affect the quality of
the printed page; as does the
software the printer comes with.
This software can give you control
over the resolution and quality of the
print as well as the number of
copies, paper size and orientation.

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Buying Guide: Printers

What additional features do you need?
A lot of printers come with a range of additional features some of which are more
useful than others. It is worth looking at the additional features before deciding which
printer to purchase to ensure that you are only paying for the features that you will use.
Some printers offer duplex (printing on both sides) printing, which is a useful feature as
it can be used to reduce the amount of paper you use.

Laser printers are available as mono (black and white) or colour printers, so if you are
looking at a laser printer but will only be printing out text with no colour then it is worth
looking at the mono printers as they are much cheaper to run.
Most printers can hold up to 100 sheets of paper, which is fine if you only print a few
sheets every day. If you do a lot of printing then it is worth looking for a printer with a
larger paper tray, as you won’t need to refill the tray as often. Most printers allow you
to print on different type and thicknesses of media (paper, card, envelopes etc.) as
well as different sizes, but it is worth checking that the printer you are looking at allows
you to print on all the types that you will be using.
Multifunction printers are very useful in smaller spaces where you need more than just
a printer. These printers are available as both inkjets and lasers and also feature
scanning, copying and sometimes fax capabilities.

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Buying Guide: Printers

Running costs

Although the printer type, features and print quality are the most important things to
look at when deciding what printer to buy you should also consider the cost. The initial
cost of the printer is just the start as there are other costs to consider when deciding
which printer to buy.

Whilst inkjet printers are relatively cheap to purchase they can be very costly to
maintain, due to the cost of consumables. Laser printers cost more initially, but they
can save you money in the long run, even with the cost of consumables.

Laser toners cost a lot more than inkjet
cartridges but they do last a lot longer,
typically printing out anything from
2,500 to 10,000 pages (although some
claim to print up to 30,000) compared
to the 100 to 800ish pages an inkjet
cartridge can do. These figures are the
advertised figure from printer
manufacturers and are likely to be a lot
higher than you would actually get.
Like anything with printer
specifications, the number of pages a
cartridge can print are based on the
lowest quality print at 5% paper
coverage.

Laser printers also have other parts, such as imaging drums and transfer rollers that
need replacing every so often. The cost of these also needs to be considered when
looking at printers. The frequency of replacing these parts depends on how much
printing you do.

Printer manufacturers also
normally state a monthly
duty cycle in their
specifications. This is the
number of pages the printer
can produce in a month
without increasing repair
costs.

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Buying Guide: Printers

Jargon Buster
One of the worst things about looking at printer specifications is understanding all the
jargon and abbreviations. Hopefully the following list will help.
Cost per page is the price you pay to use and maintain your printer.
DPI (dots per inch) is the number of ink dots that print on a square inch, represented
by a vertical and horizontal measurement, such as 600 X 600 dpi. More dots per inch
result in finer detail, which makes text characters sharper and colour images cleaner.
Duty cycle is the manufacturer rating for a printer's recommended monthly workload,
measured in pages per month.
Media capacity is the amount paper that can be stored in the printer’s paper trays.
Media type is the types and thickness of paper, envelopes etc. you can print on using
the printer.
Memory, measured in kilobytes (KB) or megabytes (MB), stores the text and graphic
information for printing. More memory allows a printer to handle multiple jobs and
move quickly through a work queue.
PPM (pages per minute) is the manufacturer rating for the speed at which a printer
can print a document at low resolution. Speed is affected by document content and
size.

Contact Schools ICT for further information

For more information and prices for the full range of printers we supply visit
www.schoolsict.co.uk/shop or contact the Schools ICT Development Team on
 01609 53 6086 and choose Option 2
: [email protected]

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