How to Buy a Printer
From the Editors of PC World Magazine
Introduction
From inexpensive ink jets to monochrome and color lasers, different printers are designed to do different jobs. Here's how they stack up, feature by feature. more
We unravel the mysteries of print speed, print quality, and maximum resolution--and tell you which specs are really important. more
Whether you want an ink jet for home use or a laser printer to take care of the whole office, we've got recommendations to make your purchase easier. more
The Big Picture
- Introduction
- The Big Picture
- The Specs Explained
- Printer Shopping Tips
For monochrome lasers--whose text quality is so good and uniform that models' output samples are almost indistinguishable from each other--breadth of features is a major selling point. This is good news for busy offices--for example, thanks to extra paper trays and more memory, lasers can print more efficiently; they also come with more-capable drivers, and permit easier remote management. As color lasers drop in price, more users can afford to add color to their workplace documents. The least-expensive color lasers we've seen so far cost about $1000.
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 only the simplest text documents, or printing in draft mode, and some don't include the time it takes for the PC to send a job to the printer. In any case, claimed speeds are frequently two, three, or more times the speeds you'll see in real-world printing. For the models ranked in our "Top Ink Jet Printers" chart (click on PC World's Top Rated Ink Jet Printers in the left column), 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. Similarly, vendors claimed graphics speeds ranging from 2.2 to 15 ppm, while our tested speeds ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 ppm.
Though you'll get similarly misleading promises from monochrome and color laser vendors, you will find faster speeds. In our tests, monochrome lasers printed text at 10 to 18 ppm; color lasers printed text about one-third slower, at 7 to 12 ppm. For graphics, color lasers' 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 they can't match ink jets in handling photographs. On the other hand, 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.
Resolution: Ink jet printers generally have a maximum color resolution of 2400 by 1200 dots per inch (dpi); newer models boast up to 4800 by 1200 dpi. But even if you plan to print a full-color 8-by-10 photograph, you're unlikely to see any improvement once you get above 1200 by 1200 dpi, which any ink jet on the market can achieve. In addition, many printers use software to interpolate an image and to smooth out patches of color, fill in gaps, and sharpen more-detailed sections. Such enhancements can affect print quality as much as the printer's resolution. The best way to determine print quality is not to look at the resolution specs but to print out a sample and judge for yourself.
Monochrome lasers usually have a maximum resolution of 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 these fairly modest resolutions for lasers suffice for printing sharp text and simple graphics.
Cost per page: For ink jets, the cost of ink has the biggest impact on the overall cost of the printer over time. Vendors generally 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. PC World's tests of individual cartridges show that 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 twice the amount of ink, so they cost less per page. Canon, Epson, and HP sell models with individual cartridges for each color instead of one cartridge for all three colors. Though you'll save small amounts of ink by replacing cartridges one at a time, the individual cartridges cost a few dollars more, so per page, they cost about the same.
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 their very high cost, however, in sufficient volume the cost per page of a color laser's cartridges is still less than for color from an ink jet, because the yields are much higher--ranging from 6000 to 12,000 pages.
Features: Almost all ink jets offer the same features: one paper tray that holds 100 or 150 sheets and 10 envelopes, minimal buffer memory, and no networking option. But a few vendors offer business-oriented ink jets that include higher 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, with corporate models frequently holding 600 sheets standard; color lasers hold from 200 to 1200 sheets. You can add trays that hold as much as 5000 sheets. Most corporate lasers include at least 8MB of RAM, with expansion options permitting up to four or five times that amount for queuing multiple print jobs at once (for a busy office, equip your laser with at least 32MB); some offer optional hard drives that you can use to save complex forms and other preprocessed images or to store passwords for confidential print jobs, and they all have standard or optional ethernet adapters.
Photo printing: Some 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, and 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 photographs. 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 print high-quality photo prints.
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.)
| Feature | Inexpensive ink jets ($150 and below) | High-end ink jets ($200 or more) |
| Print quality | Adequate to very good | Good to very good |
| An important consideration. While price doesn't always indicate the print quality of an ink jet printer, there is some correlation. Before deciding on a specific model, check our Top Rated Ink Jet Printers chart to see how it did in our print quality tests. | ||
| Maximum print resolution | 1200 by 1200 to 2400 by 1200 | 2400 by 1200 to 4800 by 1200 |
| Somewhat important. Resolution is the number of dots in a square inch that a printer can spit out onto a sheet of paper. More dots give you a finer level of detail, which is especially important with graphics but negligible with text. | ||
| Paper tray & ink cartridge capacity | 50 to 100 sheets | 100 to 250 sheets |
| Somewhat important. Expect that you will have to frequently add paper if you use the printer regularly, as most home-oriented models come with only one paper tray. Many inexpensive printers require costly cartridge replacements every 50 to 100 pages, which is usually about the maximum capacity of one paper tray. If you print lots of photos or graphics, you may have to replace ink cartridges even more frequently. | ||
| Typical cost of cartridge replacement | $20 to $50 | $20 to $75 |
| Somewhat important. The printer may be cheap, but the price and capacity of ink jet consumables will determine the lifetime cost of a particular printer. Before plunking down your cash, ask how much the replacement ink cartridges cost and how many pages each cartridge can print. | ||
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.
| Feature | Small/home office lasers ($500 and below) | Corporate lasers ($750 to $2000 or more) |
| Print speed for text | 9 to 12 ppm | 11 to 18 ppm |
| An important consideration. This is the speed at which the printer can output full pages of text, which is the primary use for monochrome laser printers. Corporate lasers can print text at nearly twice the speed of home models. | ||
| Maximum print resolution | 600 by 600 to 1200 by 1200 | 1200 by 1200 |
| Somewhat important. Resolution refers to the number of dots in a square inch that the printer can output. More dots provide a finer level of detail, which is especially important with graphics. | ||
| Memory | 2MB to 8MB of built-in RAM | 16MB to 64MB of built-in RAM |
| Somewhat important. Printers queue documents in memory and store trueType fonts locally to produce the best output. More memory lets you print more documents more quickly, or upload more fonts for higher-quality text. Most printers let you upgrade RAM as needed without shipping the unit back to the factory. | ||
| Connections | Parallel, USB, optional ethernet | Parallel, USB, ethernet, optional IrDA |
| A minor consideration. A USB or parallel port is all that home users need to connect a printer to a single PC. Business users or those with home networks will want an ethernet port so more than one user can share the printer. Some high-end business models have an infrared (IrDA) port option, which allows notebook or PDA users to print by pointing their infrared ports at the printer. | ||
| Paper tray capacity | 150 to 350 sheets | 350 to 650 sheets |
| A minor consideration. Corporate lasers, designed for large offices where many employees share the printer, have two to three times the paper capacity of home models. | ||
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.)
| Feature | Inexpensive color lasers ($2300 and lower) | High-end color lasers ($2500 to $5500) |
| Print speed in color (full-page graphics) | Less than 1 to 2 ppm | 1.5 to 3 ppm |
| An important consideration. This is why you might spend the extra money: High-end color laser printers not only print higher-quality graphics, but they also output the pages more rapidly than less-expensive models. If you print a lot of color graphics, this will be the most important factor in your decision. But note that when we test printers, we often find that vendor-stated speeds are higher than actual tested speeds; see our Top Rated Color Laser Printers chart. | ||
| Print quality | Adequate to very good | Very good to excellent |
| An important consideration. Crisp graphics are the most important factor in deciding which color laser printer to buy. Our Top Rated Color Laser Printers chart describes the results we get when printing standardized test patterns and full-page graphics. Both color and monochrome lasers print text extremely well. | ||
| Maximum print resolution | 1200 by 600 to 2400 by 1200 | 2400 by 1200 to 2400 by 2400 |
| An important consideration. Resolution means the number of dots in a square inch that the laser can output. More dots provide a finer level of detail, which is especially important with graphics but negligible with text. | ||
| Print speed in monochrome (text) | 5 to 10 ppm | 11 to 15 ppm |
| Somewhat important. In general, color laser printers can print all documents--color or monochrome--faster than monochrome lasers can. | ||
Printer Shopping Tips
- Introduction
- The Big Picture
- The Specs Explained
- Printer Shopping Tips
Ink Jet Printers
- Ink jet printers might be inexpensive, but the cost of replacement ink can drive up the overall cost. Check the prices of ink cartridges, and find out how many pages each cartridge will print. Once you figure out how many pages you will print per month, you can determine the cost of the printer plus ink over the course of a year. Consider getting individual cartridges if you know you'll need one color more than others--for instance, if many of your documents have a red logo.
- Manufacturers often list faster print speed specifications on their packaging than we see in testing. The print engine of a typical ink jet can produce two to four pages per minute of text and one full-page, 8.5-by-11-inch photo or graphic in two to three minutes.
- Some color ink jets can print photos at a quality that approaches the level of a professional photofinisher. If you plan to use your printer primarily for photos or graphics, look for models that specialize in that type of printing. If you plan to print mostly photos, look for photo printers with extra features such as a built-in PC Card slot, an LCD panel that allows you to view and print an image without using your PC, and bundled image-editing software.
- Price does not necessarily translate to print quality or speed. Shop around, check the latest Top 10 Ink Jet Printers chart for the most recent test results, and research prices on PCWorld.com Product Finder before making a purchase. If you plan to print lots of photos, keep an eye on the Top 10 chart column where we list the print speed for full-page graphics.
Monochrome (Black and White) Laser Printers
- If you print lots of text-only documents, consider buying an inexpensive monochrome laser printer. These printers provide superior text quality compared with high-end ink jet printers.
- Some monochrome lasers cost as little as $200, making them a good deal for home users. If you need to print a lot of text and high-quality graphics, buying a good photo ink jet printer in addition to an inexpensive monochrome laser printer could save you money on ink and maintenance costs in the long run.
- Many monochrome lasers come with optional ethernet ports for networks. If you plan to use the printer with one PC, don't pay the extra money for an ethernet card.
Color Laser Printers
- PC World tests consistently find that color laser printers print color graphics more slowly than the printers' manufacturers claim they do. If print speed is a factor for you, always check the speeds listed on the latest Top 10 Color Laser Printers chart (see link in left column) before deciding on a model.
- Color laser printer toner cartridges are the most expensive consumable you can buy for a printer, but their yield is so much higher than an ink jet cartridge that, in the long run, color laser toner is less expensive on a per page basis.
- Color laser toner cartridges are also potentially hazardous to the environment. Make sure your office supply store or supplier accepts spent units for recycling.
- If you're not running a graphics department but still want to print color, you'll most likely choose an ink jet printer, which can create beautiful graphics at a tenth of the cost of a color laser. However, keep in mind that the inexpensive price of an ink jet is quickly surpassed by the cost of replacement ink.