Printer & Printer Supplies Deals & Offers

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 laserjet 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 – Multifunction 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.