Here are a list of steps to help you choose the best printer for your needs

1. Which type of printer do you want?

Things to consider:

• Will you be needing to print in colour? Or will a Mono (black and white) printer satisfy your needs? Is an A4 size printer enough or do you also print A3, letter, envelope sized documents?
• Laser or inkjet printer? Laser printers are more often used for high volume printing as their cartridges have much higher yield than inkjet. This makes laser printers ideal for students and businesses. Inkjet printers tend to produce higher quality colour print.

2. What else do you want the printer to do?

Some printers have multiple functions such as scanning, faxing, and other finishing options such as stapling. Maybe consider purchasing a multifunction printer as it is normally more cost effective than buying the printer, scanner and fax machine separately, and definitely easier to maintain.

3. Consider your budget

Not only consider the cost of the printer, but also the cost of toner and ink cartridges. Over time ink, toner and paper costs may exceed the cost of the printer several times.

The ongoing running costs of printers are generally quotes in cents per A4 page. You can calculate this by dividing the number of pages an ink or toner cartridge can produce by the price of the cartridge.

4. Looking at the features and specs

• Will you be connecting your new printer to a network (n) so multiple users can connect to the same printer?
• Also look for resolution (dpi) over 1440dpi is generally considered a good resolution.
• Speed of the printer, measured in pages per minute (ppm). This is essential to look at if you are printing in large volumes.
• Do you have the right computer operating system to support your printer driver software? Look at the System Requirements before buying
• Paper handling, what sizes and thickness of paper can be printed?
• Do you need a duplex (double sided printer) (d)?
• How many trays does your printer come with? And can it be expanded?