Printing by the numbers

Culture | July 27th, 2016

By Chuck Solly

Space prohibits me from doing a full-blown comparison of computer printers. There are many kinds and features, but what I can do is point you to a type of printer based on your printer needs.

Inkjet and laser printers have been joined recently by a new type: 3D printers.

We'll start with the inkjet printers. They are by far, the cheapest printer type. I have seen them on sale over the holidays for $50.00. These printers are meant for intermittent use or probably less than 1 ream (500) sheets per month. They require the use of ink cartridges to feed the tiny ink nozzles that color the paper.

To make things more difficult for you, there are hundreds of ink jet printers to choose from. Features include wired or wireless communication, linking to your tablet or smartphone, printing envelopes, faxing and copying, legal size printing, scanning to anywhere (Facebook, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.).

The feature list is long but offset by some problems. Ink nozzle clogging is often a problem for users. The biggest complaint against ink jets is certainly the price of replacement ink cartridges. That fifty dollar printer I mentioned earlier will cost you a set of cartridges every ream and a half of paper. Prices range from $25 to $50 per set for the cheaper printers.

Feeding these cheaper printers ink feels like buying expensive wine for unpleasant guests.

Recently, the Brother Corporation introduced an excellent ink jet printer that comes with 3 sets of ink cartridges that 12 Super High-yield ink cartridges provide approximately 7200 black pages / 3600 color pages.

I would imagine that this type of a deal is making the other printer manufacturers very nervous. They make huge profits on the ink and very little on the machines. A loss leader if you will... The page yield of this printer makes it very cost-effective.

Base your selection of a printer on your particular usage. Are you printing mostly black and white? Do you print very ink-intensive photos? How many copies do you make a month? Do you need a scanner or a fax machine built into your printer? What about print quality? Do you use glossy or matte paper? Most of your typical ink jets will produce decent quality prints.

So why do we need Laser Jet Printers? Lots of reasons. Laser printers range from personal printers to small office printers to large office monsters. Generally speaking, the laser or color laser will result in faster printing, cheaper printing, and more trouble-free operation. The downside: Cost ranges from $250 to $2000 or more. The cartridge sets range in price from $125 to $500. The yield per set of cartridges is much better however.

3-D printers are fairly new in the marketplace. They have been in industry for quite a few years now, but recently they have been downsized for the desktop.

They use a tiny strand of heated plastic (various types) and a traveling head to deposit the plastic on a platform in layers to build up a form. If you need small plastic parts in small quantities this is the machine for you.

Here, just as in the ink jet category, there are hundreds of machines to compare. This type of printer is probably for the more advanced user because of the large number of variables involved.

You have some work to do if you need a new printer. The choices are many and varied.

I want to talk about computer monitors next week, or if you have something else on your mind, email me.