A printer is now a must have in all offices, and their low price and operating cost points in the direction where all home users will have a good quality printer connected to their home computer as well. There are many types and solutions available, and the spectrum goes from $50 to several thousand dollars. It is rather easy to pick just the one that meets all your requirements should you be aware of the different variations and types available.
Printers can be grouped in many ways, one of the most often used organization is by color printing capacity and operating principle. Printers use one of the three most popular working principles. They can be either thermal, ink-jet operated, or laser guided. All three are viable in their respectable field but you need to make up your mind about it when choosing a particular model.
Thermal printers print fairly quickly and use no cartridge or toner what so ever, but the paper needs to be a special thermal version, much like in traditional fax machines. This is rarely used in desktop printers but is a popular solution in portable printers. The price is steeply set, therefore your desktop printing needs call for different technology.
If you are a home user and print every now and then, the inkjet printer may be the right choice. Up front cost of these printers is the lowest of all possible solutions and the operating cost is not high enough to pick a laser printer, should the monthly volume not exceed a few hundred pages.
Laser printers are more expensive but they give the best quality prints as well. Their upkeep price can be high for a home user, but small businesses can justify the purchase by putting considerable amounts of prints through it every month. The cost per page is the lowest with these of all three.
The latter two technologies can be found in network printers just as much as in printers that have to be connected to one pc at a time. A network printer can be either one that uses an ethernet cable to connect to the network, or can connect through wi-fi. Wi-Fi printers are the most comfortable solution of all, because there is no cable to worry about, there is no need to run a computer at all times because the printer itself can manage the sharing on the network.
It keeps the operating and management costs low for the operator and allows for easy installment as well. If there is one printer for different computers in a confined office space, replacements can easily organized and ordered, and it may be easier to justify a better quality shared laser printer as well.
Whichever solution you choose, the brand and manufacturer may be a point of interest. If you spend a few minutes of your time trying to figure out which printer is right for you, you can lower the upfront costs and operation costs as well.