Where would we be without printers? They are the unsung heroes that keep our offices humming and everyone informed about what is going on. They print our homework, our reports, and plane tickets. Even though the world is supposedly heading in a paper-less direction, the humble printer remains an indispensable part of any home or office.

But what is the best kind of printer for you? It’s easy to buy a device with either too little or too much functionality, and it’s easy to spend more than you need to on a printer. This buyer’s guide should help customers to find a printer that ticks all of their boxes at a price that works for them.

What is the Best Type of Printer for Me?

The kind of printer you choose will largely depend upon who you are and what you want to use it for. If you are buying for family use in the home, you probably won’t need the most powerful printer on the market, but you will require a reliable all-rounder that doesn’t cost the earth.

Professional and specialist users like students might need something different. Students often need to print out large quantities of text in relatively high quality, making lower price-range laser printers an attractive option.

Other professionals like photographers and small publishers might want to go for a photo printer, particularly one with ability to interact with high-end digital cameras and smartphones.

Each kind of printer has its own strengths and weaknesses, so take a look at the choices on offer and find something that meets all of your requirements.

Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers work by firing a heated ink towards the paper, creating a very fine network of dots, which results in a high resolution printed image.

The best and most modern inkjet printers tend to be cheaper than their laser jet and multi-function competitors, making them the most popular choice for home use. They are also generally quieter to run, which may be a factor in some homes or workplaces, and they are also usually noticeably smaller than laser printers.

Inkjet printers are equally good at printing photos as text, which makes them suitable for most academic work or business documents. The only drawback of inkjets is that you will need to constantly update the ink supply. This ink is usually contained in separate cartridges, which can be expensive to replace if you use the printer regularly.

Laser Printers

Laser printers work in a completely different manner. In these devices, a laser beam generated by the printer is shone onto a drum, over which the paper is drawn. As the laser passes over the drum, it creates a pattern of static electric charge. Powdered ink called toner is shot onto the charged areas, clinging to the paper where a charge is present. To finish the process, a “fuser unit” presses the ink onto the paper.

The complexity of the technology used in laser printers makes them considerably more expensive than inkjets (although prices have come down rapidly in recent years). However, this is offset by their speed and their ability to rapidly print off large quantities of black text. This quality makes them a very common sight in paper-intensive offices. If you rely on professionally printed documents, a laser printer will generally be your first option.

On the negative side, aside from the price, laser printers are often larger and louder than inkjets.

Photo Printers

As their name suggests, photo printers have been developed specifically to print out high quality photographic images. However, buyers need to be aware that there is a wide variation in the photo printers on the market. Some are effectively just high resolution A4 printers, while others are specialist devices with photo cartridges and the ability to print in extremely high levels of detail.

Photo printers will usually be able to communicate with digital cameras and smartphones. Look out for models with the correct USB ports and memory card slots for your camera to connect to the printer.

Buyers should also remember that, while photo printers are great for printing off holiday snaps and smartphone images, they aren’t always superior for general printing – and will generally not be the best option for office tasks.

Multi-function Printers

Multi-function printers combine the roles of printers, scanners, photocopiers and fax machines. In other words, they seek to offer a complete suite of office functions in one device. They will be useful for anyone who needs to scan documents like insurance certificates, plans or licenses, although very few people tend to use them for fax communication these days.

There are a number of different types of multi-function printer on the market. For home users, an all-in-one printer is the best option. These devices are smaller, but still come with fax, print and scan as standard functions.

If you need a printer for office use, a SOHO multi-function printer (small office/home use) or a specialist office multi-function printer is a good idea. These printers are usually larger than home models, but have networking functionality which allows them to be connected to all of the workstations in an office.

Multi-function printers will usually come equipped with an Automatic Document Feeder, which feeds paper page-by-page to the different elements of the machine. With an ADF, heavy users can save a lot of time and effort, so if you intend to scan, print and fax, make sure that your multi-function printer has this feature.

Because they combine a range of functions, this kind of printer tends to be much larger than standalone inkjets or laser printers, which may disqualify them for home use.

What if I Need to Print on the Move?

Nowadays, technology is mobile. People have come to rely on smartphones equipped with digital cameras to take photos and fill their social media accounts with personalised content. However, there isn’t always an option to print out the images you capture, which is where portable printers come in handy.

These printers are compact and light, and tend to be designed expressly to communicate with iOS and Android mobile devices. They are usually wireless enabled and come with USB ports to accommodate smart drives. At the same time they are small enough to be slipped into backpacks, and could even be taken on holiday.

HP Sprocket Mobile Printer

Things to Look for When Selecting a Printer

Resolution

Whenever you buy a printer, you will probably come across a number describing the device’s resolution. This will usually be in the form 400x400dpi – or something to that effect.

Resolution refers to the number of dots that the printer can create per square inch and generally ranges from 600dpi into the thousands. 600dpi won’t deliver sharp images, but is fine for basic text. However, if you intend to print graphics or photos, you will need something much finer. Something around 1,200 dpi would be ideal.

If you simply need your printer for everyday administrative tasks, resolution won’t be a factor. The paper used by most people is of such a low quality that ink will bleed in any case, rendering the resolution a moot point. Resolution does become an issue if you are printing professional documents for clients or academic purposes.

Print speed

As you would expect, the print speed measures how fast a printer can turn out pages or photos and is measured in pages per minute. This could range from 8 pages for basic inkjets to 20 for advanced laser printers, and is usually included in the printer specs. However, buyers should note that PPM numbers are supplied by manufacturers, and they can be overestimates. It’s best to knock a couple of pages off the publicised numbers to get a more realistic reading.

Memory or Processor Speed

The most advanced smart printers on the market have to hold quite large quantities of data in their memory whenever they complete a print job. This isn’t the case for most inkjet devices, which only need to store a single line of data at a time, but it does apply to laser printers. If you prize speed and efficiency, then go for a laser printer with a powerful processor the enough memory to hold your images and text in their buffer. The speed difference can be considerable.

Dealing with Paper

All printers need paper – it’s in their job description. But the way they do so differs from model to model. On a fundamental level, look out for the in-tray and out-tray capacities of the printers on offer. Most people prefer a larger in-tray so they don’t have to replace their paper supplies regularly.

More specifically, not all printers can deal with all paper sizes. If you intend to print off large quantities of envelopes or you need to use unconventional paper sizes, check that your printer is able to accommodate them.

Some printers also have more dextrous paper handling abilities. For example, they offer duplex printing (on both sides of the paper). Look for printers that offer autoduplexing, the technical term for automatic double-sided printing. It can be a big labour-saver and helps to reduce waste.

Multi-function printers often feature Auto Document Feeders (ADF) which move paper between the unit's printer, fax and scanner as required, saving time for the user.

Finally, not all printers can handle stiff materials like card. If you want to print off table settings or invitations, make sure that your chosen device has a “straight-through” print path that doesn’t bend the card out of shape.

Accessibility

The days of simple one or two button printers have long gone. Nowadays, printers usually feature details touch screen interfaces that allow users to configure them in multiple ways. There are also models that can be controlled using a dedicated remote (particularly from HP), and can also be operated using a smartphone app.

Connectivity

The way we communicate with printers has changed hugely over the years. Now, families with five computers or iPads in the house can print from any room (or even miles away) at the touch of a button. Increasingly, wi-fi connectivity comes as standard with printers, but make sure that your preferred printer offers it.

More advanced printers also offer the ability to print from the Cloud, creating a virtual bridge between your workplace and your home, and allowing workers to access key documents remotely. This is becoming more mainstream as services like Google CloudPrint and Apple AirPrint become more common.

Many also use the PictBridge system to enable digital cameras to directly connect with them, cutting out the need to transfer photos to laptops before printing. However, regular digital camera users should also ensure that their printer has memory card readers and USB connections to maximise their connectivity options.

Ink issues

Whether you use a laser printer or an inkjet, you will need to deal with ink cartridges at some point. However, as noted above, inkjet printers tend to require more regular cartridge changes, resulting in higher long-term ink costs.

Inkjets often use three different cartridges to produce their images – cyan, magenta, and blue. When one of these is depleted, the printer may still function, but quality drastically falls, so have a stock of replacements on hand to ensure smooth operation. Sometimes inkjets feature only a single cartridge, which makes changing cartridges less fiddly, but means that when one colour runs out, the whole printer shuts down.

The cost of replacing ink cartridges has given rise to an industry supplying recycled and replacement cartridges. These products may seem attractive, but they come with risks attached. For example, different printers require subtly different inks and cartridge shapes. If you purchase a faulty cartridge or one containing the wrong ink, it can lead to the printhead (nozzle) of your printer being blocked. In worst-case scenarios, this can cause the printer irreparable damage, so it makes sense to properly source your cartridges.

How to Try Before You Buy

As with most electrical products, it pays to try before you buy when purchasing a printer. Manufacturers make big promises about the quality their devices can achieve, but when it comes down to it, you need to see for yourself. When you head down to the merchants like Argos or Currys featured on HotUKDeals, make a point of asking staff to print out a text and graphics test page. All printers have this function, and staff should be happy to do so.

Text

Look closely at the text on the test page. Modern high quality printers should be able to turn out smooth, precise letters with no breaks. Each letter and each word should be distinct from the others and the fonts should be crisply printed, with no blurring around the edge. On the largest letters, look at the quality of the black ink. It should be solid and pure, with no brownish tinge. There should also be no splatters of ink in what should be blank white space.

Graphics

The graphics sample text should include a selection of geometric shapes, with different styles of shading. Look for smoothly curved edges, seamless transitions from light to dark in the colour gradients and a balanced, natural looking spread of ink that is neither overpowering nor weak. Warning signs include stripes of colour across the page and stark gradients – both of which suggest that the printhead is not functioning properly.

What about 3D printers?

The most advanced form of all printers is the 3D printer. These devices are really very different to the inkjets, laser printers and multi-function devices discussed above, but they could come in handy at home or for businesses.

They work by turning virtual images of 3D objects into a finished product by adding layers of plastic on top of each other, allowing you to create anything from Christmas decorations to 3D birthday party invitations.

In the past, 3D printers have been seen as extremely expensive toys, but now cheaper models are available from merchants at HotUKDeals at affordable prices, opening up a whole new world for home uses.

What Extras Can Enhance My Printer?

Printer users have a wide array of accessories to choose from if they want to get the most out of their purchase. Some of these make up for deficiencies in their device. For example, while many printers are marketed as LAN ready, they don’t always include the peripherals needed to connect with a local network, so USB cables could be required.

Other useful accessories include larger (or smaller) input trays, and output bins with different compartments for A4 and A3 documents or envelopes.

If you opt for a portable printer, it might also be a good idea to invest in a specialist printer bag. Brands like HP, Brother and Zebra all manufacture stylish bags with compartments for the printer, paper and cables. Inkjet users could also purchase cleaning kits to keep their printhead in peak condition.

How to Buy Your Next Printer

Before heading down to your local electronics retailer to buy a top of the line laser printer, take some time to shop around for the best deal. Major retailers in the UK are constantly discounting printers from the world’s greatest brands, and all of them can be found at the HotUKDeals printer pages.

Our users are always scouring the retail world for savings, allowing us to list them as they are announced. At our printer pages, you can find discounts on brands like HP, Brother, Canon, Dell and Epson from merchants like Amazon, Argos, Tesco, John Lewis, Currys, PrinterBase and EBuyer. If a retailer is slashing the cost of their printers, we will let our users know in no time.

A good time to seek out the best bargains is around Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November, when the festive retail season really gets going. But there are plenty of other times to look as well. After Christmas sees massive reductions, while older (but still high quality) models tend to be reduced when products are updated.

Whatever kind of printer you need, you can find it at a discount by checking out the HotUKDeals printer pages.