How to Buy a Printer

The Specs Explained

• Introduction
• The Big Picture
• The Specs Explained
• Printer Shopping Tips

Given the wide variety of printers available on the market, we've made a specific chart for each of the three most popular types of printers: Ink jet printers, monochrome (black and white) laser printers, and color laser printers.

Ink Jet Printers

The slowest but most affordable type of printers, ink jets shoot tiny sprays of colored dyes through microscopic holes in a print head onto pages, one print-head-height row at a time. High-end ink jet printers offer resolutions of up to 4800 by 1200 dots per inch, which makes them suitable for printing high-quality graphics and photos, albeit much more slowly than a monochrome or color laser printer would.

Ink jet printers are inexpensive printers for the masses, designed for home users, students, or anyone who isn't concerned about the highest text quality. A high price does not necessarily indicate excellent graphics. We've found a few low-quality ink jet printers in the highest price ranges, and some really great printers in the lowest price tiers. The real cost of an ink jet printer comes not from the price of the unit itself, but from the ongoing cost of replacing ink cartridges. Printer manufacturers use a business model similar to that of razor makers: You can buy a great razor for very little money, but you spend a lot replacing the blades.

Our Top Rated Ink Jet Printers chart, updated every other month, shows how well the most recently tested models performed. (Compare the latest prices for ink jet printers.)

Monochrome Laser Printers

From home offices to businesses, monochrome laser printers offer the best balance between price, print quality, and speed. Almost ubiquitous in the business world, any office with a PC almost always has a monochrome laser printer as well. Home users might choose a laser printer over an ink jet printer if they print a lot of text documents. Prices for monochrome lasers have dropped to a low of under $200 for a personal printer, making them a viable alternative to ink jets. For almost the same price as an ink jet, some monochrome laser printers are faster, produce much better text quality, and are less expensive to maintain because laser toner cartridges are much less costly than ink jet cartridges. PC World publishes a Top 10 Monochrome Laser Printers chart three times a year.

If you need color, you'll probably want an ink jet printer--but if you have the space, it's almost worth it to buy both. You'll need to replace those ink cartridges less often because you won't be using them for black text, which may end up costing less in the long term.

Color Laser Printers

Designed for offices where color brochures, photographs, or graphics are paramount, color laser printers are among the most expensive printers you can buy. Few home users will need a color laser printer. We test the current and newest models every four months for our Top Rated Color Laser Printers chart. (Compare latest prices.)