Buyers' Guide to Ink Jet Printers

Key Features

Speed: The marketing war among printer vendors has escalated so far that it has yielded utterly meaningless rated print speeds. Vendors frequently cite ratings based on printing the simplest text documents, or printing in draft mode; some don't count the time it takes for the PC to send a job to the printer. In any case, claimed speeds can be two, three, or more times the speeds you'll see in real-world printing. For the models ranked for our "Top Ink Jet Printers" chart, the rated text speeds ranged from 5.2 to 21 pages per minute. But in our tests, actual text speeds ranged from just 1.9 to 7.2 ppm--we clocked a printer rated at 21 ppm at just 6.6 ppm, for example. Similarly, vendors claimed graphics speeds ranging from 2.2 to 15 ppm, while our tested speeds ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 ppm.

Although you will get the same empty promises from monochrome and color laser vendors, lasers do outrace ink jets. In our tests, monochrome lasers printed text at 10 to 18 ppm, while color lasers were about a third slower, at 7 to 12 ppm. Color lasers' graphics printing speeds ranged from 1 to 3 ppm--up to eight times slower than advertised.

Print quality:Almost all monochrome and color lasers print razor-sharp text. Color lasers print color charts and other two-dimensional graphics well, but don't match ink jets in handling photographs. While ink jet photos can be beautiful, especially on glossy paper, most ink jet printers produce somewhat fuzzy, jagged text and can't reproduce fine detail in line art or graphics well.

Resolution: Most ink jet printers have a maximum color resolution of 2400 by 1200 dots per inch (dpi); newer models boast resolutions of up to 4800 by 1200 dpi. But a higher resolution doesn't always translate into a better-looking image; such factors as dot size also play a part. Many printers use software to interpolate an image--smoothing areas of color, filling in gaps, and sharpening more-detailed sections. These enhancements can affect print quality as much as resolution. The best way to determine print quality is not to look at the resolution, but to print out a sample and judge for yourself.

Monochrome lasers usually have a maximum resolution of either 600 by 600 dpi or 1200 by 1200 dpi, and color lasers usually offer a maximum color resolution of either 1200 by 1200 dpi or 2400 by 1200 dpi. Even the lower resolutions suffice for printing sharp text and simple graphics.

Cost per page: For ink jets, ink expenses play the biggest part in the overall cost of the printer over time. Vendors typically charge $21 to $38 for a three-color cartridge and $12 to $34 for a separate black cartridge. Usually, the cheaper a cartridge is, the less ink it holds; yields range from about 300 to 800 pages per cartridge. So a page of black text can cost from 1 to 7 cents, and a page of color, 6 to 18 cents.

Many vendors offer higher-capacity cartridges; though more expensive, they contain more ink, so they cost less per page. Several models come with individual cartridges for each color instead of one cartridge for all three colors. You'll save some ink by replacing cartridges one at a time, but they cost a few dollars more, so per page, individual cartridges cost about the same. If you expect to use one color more than the others--many of your documents have a red logo, say--consider a printer that uses individual cartridges.

Monochrome and color laser cartridges cost about 2 to 4 cents per page of black text, but color lasers have separate toner cartridges for each color, which can cost as much as $250 each (less for black). Even with the high overall cost, the cost per page of a color laser's cartridges is still less than for color from an ink jet, because the yields are so much higher--ranging from 6000 to 12,000 pages.

Features: Almost all ink jets offer the same set of features: one paper tray that holds either 100 or 150 sheets and 10 envelopes; minimal buffer memory; and no networking option. But a few more-expensive business-oriented ink jets have higher paper capacities, optional paper trays, ethernet or 802.11b wireless networking, and more memory.

Lasers generally have more features and options than ink jets. Monochrome lasers hold from 150 to 700 sheets, and corporate models frequently hold 600 sheets standard; color lasers hold from 200 to 1200 sheets. You can add trays that hold up to 5000 sheets. Most corporate lasers include at least 8MB of RAM, and expansion options let you add many times that amount for queuing multiple print jobs at once (for a busy office, equip your laser with at least 32MB); some models offer optional hard drives where you can save complex forms and other preprocessed images or store passwords for confidential print jobs, and they all have standard or optional ethernet adapters.

Photo printing: Various photo-quality ink jets include extra features such as a dedicated USB port for connecting your digital camera directly to the printer, built-in media card slots that let you plug in a storage card and hit a button for instant prints, or an LCD menu for selecting prints. Each of these options means you don't have to go through a PC. These printers can produce beautiful color photos. But don't rule out general-purpose ink jets, which can serve very well as photo printers, too. If you change the settings in the driver to "Best" or "Photo" mode and use premium photo paper, many inexpensive, sub-$100 printers can create high-quality photo prints.