Schools, colleges, universities or offices a good printer is a necessity of every place. The day to day, lowering the cost of laser printers makes it a suitable choice for everyone. A laser printer is easy to use, provide printouts of exceptional quality and high quantity.
However, it is significantly essential to select the best company, place and, model of the printer for efficient functioning. Along with a good printer, you also need some excellent quality laser transfer paper. If you are planning to visit the market to buy the best laser printer, you might be questioning yourself about “what to look for in your new laser printer?”.
So here in this article, you will get to know the specifications which you should keep in mind while buying a new laser printer:
Paper handling
Generally, the printer works on A4 size papers, which is the standard size used for printing. If you desire to print A3 size paper as well, then you should buy the printer having this particular quality. A printer can also print on thick paper, cardboards, and envelopes. To check this quality you should read the specifications written on the printer.
For offices, the standard size printing tray can carry up to 250 paper sheets at a time since no one has time to change the paper tray frequently. Therefore, you can look for options providing extra printing trays because of the heavy printing use, especially in offices.
You should also know the paper handling capability of the printer. It should print both sides of the paper automatically. The speed of the printer should be sufficient while turning the papers to save time. It should also make multiple copies at a time by connecting with ADF (adopt document feeder).
Ink
There are three types of ink feet for printers:
- Inkwell: the inkwell does not require frequent refilling of ink. It works efficiently,pocket-friendly, and the right choice for the long term.
- Two cartridge ink: It has one color ink cartridge and another black ink cartridge.
- Four cartridge ink: It has a black ink cartridge, and the rest of the three have cyan, magenta, and yellow color. It is is also known as CMYK.
Cost
Printers are available in a wide range of prices, depending on the quality and specifications. You can buy the one according to your budget. Sometimes printers are cheap, but their cartridge replacement is expensive. So have precise knowledge about the cost of ink refilling and maintenance of a printer before buying it.
Functionality
While buying a printer, you should know about the functions it performs like printing paper, making multiple copies, scanning, receiving and sending a fax, connecting to USB, Wi-Fi connectivity, and using data through different apps. The overall cost of the printer depends on the functions it provides.
Power consumption
Before buying a printer, you should check its average power consumption. You should select new laser printers with a deep sleep mode, which helps in saving power.
Easy to operate
No one has time, especially in offices to spend on printers working with the delicate operation. Therefore it is crucial to select a printer that is easy to operate like touch screen printers.
We understand touch screen smartphones or laptops very well, so we can have a better command of touch screen printers. You can quickly, and in just one swap, can change the printing tray option as well.
Space consumption
We all have noticed large printers in offices, which remain in the same position for years. They consume a lot of space and makes it challenging to change the cartridge or refill the paper tray.
Therefore, if you desire the expeditious and smooth performance of a printer, you should look for a smaller compact size.
Color or monochrome
The printers may be monochromatic, colored, or photo printing type. If you only want to print documents regularly, then the monochromatic printer should be your choice. For paint color documents, you should go for a color printer. The color printer requires more frequent maintenance.
The third type of printer gives the best quality print to photos. It can print pictures of 4 x 6 inches. The size of photos is small, and this type of printer does not function at a high rate. At a time, it can only print a few pictures.
Scanner
Most laser printers have a scanner attached to them. The scanner is crucial, especially for university projects and office work. It helps in providing a scan of an original document.
In a printer, you can look for duplex scanning property, in which you don’t need to turn the pages. The automatic fitting of paper will save time and energy. It will also speed up the process of scanning. This property does not have a lot of effect on the cost of the printer.
Quality and speed
Laser printers provide the best quality prints, but their maintenance is quite expensive. There are various factors on which the quality of a printer depends, like the printing device, and the quality of the ink injected to the printer. The dots per inch tells about the quality of a printer.
The speed of the printer is significant especially in areas where bundles of pages are printed regularly. We all have witness printers working at a snail’s pace. So make sure you select the printer which works speedily. The speed of the printer is found out by prints per minute, and an average printer speed can vary from 5ppm to 30PPM.
Printing capability
Printing capability or duty cycle of printers tells the number of pages they can copy in a month. It is imperative to know about this quality, especially when you are buying a printer for your office where you need to print hundreds and thousands of copies.
The printing capacity can vary from 5000 to 25000, or it can even be as high as hundreds of thousands of printing copies. A new printer will work efficiently, but regular maintenance keeps it running on the same duty cycle.
Connectivity
Many printers can connect USB for the exchange of data. The printer should also have accessibility options, which is helpful in offices. Through this option, a group of employees can share the same data.
Conclusion
There are several laser printer companies; statistic tells that people prefer canon and Hp laser printers the most. However, the above specifications will help you in selecting the right printer. And you cannot check this property online; instead, you need to visit a laser printer store, to notice how much noise does the printer makes. You can select the print of your choice, which makes comparatively less noise.
