When you are coming to replace or buy a new printer, you are gong to be confronted with a bewildering array of choice and a lot of terms that you may think are nothing more than techno babble. Here we are going to look at some of the key features and terms that you can expect to encounter and what they mean so you can make an informed decision as to what printer is right for you.

Laser Printer

A laser printer will be quicker and produce a sharper print quality than its cousin, the inkjet printer. The toner cartridges for them are also more expensive but they do last considerably longer than the equivalent inkjet cartridge. You will also find that a laser printer is able to handle non standard paper sizes which is useful when you are printing labels and envelopes for instance.

Ink Jet Printer

An ink jet printer is usually the choice for general all round use and they are a reliable work horse. Today the general advantages over laser printers with color reproduction have largely been eroded as has the price differential. Ink cartridges tend to be cheaper than laser printer toner cartridges but you will need far more of them. An initial cheaper outlay for an ink jet can be more than offset by the relatively higher price of buying sufficient ink cartridges to produce the same volume of print as a laser printer. Printing speeds are lower than for a laser and you tend to find that ink jet printers are used more in the home than in a business setting where higher quality and speed as well as the cost becomes a necessity.

Consumables

Consumables is a generic term for anything that you will use to run your new printer and typically this means the printer ink and toner cartridges. The price of consumables needs to be taken into account when you are buying a printer as this class of items forms the largest part of your total cost of ownership of the hardware. It is no accident that a cheap printer price usually means that the printer ink cartridges are substantially more expensive than those for a printer that tends to have a higher initial cost and many printer companies look to consumables to produce most of their revenues and profits rather than from the sale of the hardware.

Memory

All printers will have memory which is used to store the document temporarily while it is being printed out. It also handles the processing that is required as well as controlling the printer functions.

Bottom line, the more memory you have the faster the printer will work.

Drivers

Drivers are the software that handles the communication between the printer and the computer. Make sure that when you are buying a printer you have the drivers that are needed to do this or you may find you have bought an expensive ornament to sit by your desk. You can download most printer drivers from the internet so this is not such a big deal and you should check periodically for driver updates to help maintain your printing process.