 Choosing a Printer
Color inkjet printers are, as a rule, the most suitable
for printing business cards. Of course, you can use a monochrome
laser printer, but the lack of color will be a major disadvantage
in most cases. Color lasers produce good results for color printing,
but are normally too expensive ($700 and higher) and justify their
cost only at large print volumes.
When choosing a printer, pay attention to the following
characteristics:
- The cartridge resource (number of sheets).
It allows to estimate the printing cost per page. Note, that the
cost of a cartridge may reach half of the printer cost!
Comment: Normally, the manufacturers quote the maximum
yield for 5% coverage (e.g. 400 pages). For business card the
coverage will be higher, and the maximum yield — lower. And
be prepared that the numbers claimed by the manufacturer will
be lower in real life.
- Print head resource. This parameter is important
for inkjets, where print head is not integrated into the cartridge
(many Canon printers). Replacement of the print head may cost
as much as the printer.
- Monthly volume. Determines the manufacturer-rated
workload to guarantee trouble-free performance. If handled properly,
all modern printers are reliable and will serve long enough.
Estimate the life time of your printer as 1-2 years
(there's no need to pay extra for reliability). But avoid the situation
when you need to buy a new printer after 6 months of use, because
the one you bought doesn't cope with its task.
If you plan to print more than 5 pages a day, consider
a more expensive inkjet or laser printer — or you'll be spending
too much on supplies.
Inkjet printers
The quality of modern inkjet printers can rival that
of a printing-house.
The leading manufactures are: Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Canon, Lexmark.
First, the good news — most inkjets are Mac OS X compatible
(can't say so for laser printers).
The rule of thumb is: NEVER BUY AN INKJET PRINTER
UNDER $60 — the print quality will be poor, and supplies — very
expensive.
The manufacturers do everything possible to bring down the
maintenance cost of the printers. For instance, Canon separates the print
head and ink tank on many of its printers. The print head life time is the
same as the printer's, and it can be replaced if needed. Printing head of
Lexmark printers is a part of an ink cartridge. So every time you install
a new cartridge you get new print head. Epson went the other way. Epson's
head is a part of the printer, not cartridge. This head is made by Epson's
special technology: it is more expensive but the company is sure that only
such technology can guarantee the best printing quality. But Epson printer
needs more care in use.
Also, notice, that mid-range and hi-end models use separate cartridges for
each color, which makes printing less expensive (you don't need to replace
the entire cartridge if just one color runs dry.
A separate class among inkjet printers are photo printers.
They are more expensive and allow to print color images with photo
quality. However, the quality advantage can only be seen on special
photo paper; for regular paper you'll see no difference. See
how to choose paper.
And finally: To prevent ink from drying up, it's recommended
that you print at least one page a week. Some printers clean up the nozzles
automatically every time you turn power on to avoid drying up.
Laser printers
Still, when monochrome laser or LED printers can be
used?
In spite of the faults (monochrome, higher initial
investment for the color laser, higher power consumption), laser
printers have important advantages:
- Supplies last longer, and the cost of a printout is much less,
than for inkjet printers.
- The prints are more resistant to humidity, friction, etc. —
which is especially important for business cards!
- Printing speed is higher.
- The printer is more suitable for daily office needs, so you'll
find it valuable for other tasks as well.
Special printers
There are special printers for special purposes, for
example label printers. Read Label Printers for more information
about label printers. Manufacturers of such printers produce special paper
for them — rolls of label paper of different width. These printers are
supplied with a program for label printing. If it does not satisfy your needs,
you can use an alternative program for label and envelope printing
Labels & Addresses.
Printer margins
Some printers are unable to print on areas close to the edges
of the paper sheet. Usually inkjet printers leave wider blank borders than
laser printers. If you are going to print “borderless” documents,
don't forget about this feature.
Some inkjet photo printers can print without blank borders only on paper of
specific sizes.
If your printer leaves blank borders, you will need to consider this, designing
your documents.
Where to buy online?
You can buy paper stock in the Internet. Below
you can find site links to place an ordered:
USA: [Amazon], [Office Depot], [eCost]
Canada: [Office Depot]
UK: [Amazon], [Viking Direct]
Germany: [Amazon], [Viking Direct]
France: [Viking Direct]
Italy: [Viking Office Products]
Ireland: [Viking Direct]
Austria: [Viking Direct]
Belgium: [Viking Office Products]
Japan: [Office Depot]
Netherlands: [Viking Direct]
Valeriy Ryazanov
Last reviewed: April 2008
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