In 1985, an entry-level black-and-white (b&w) laser printer cost upwards of US$2000. Inkjet technology was just coming to the desktop at that time, with Canon and Epson leading the way with affordable color printers, starting at a mere US$300 or so.



At today's prices ? starting as low as US$19 ? color inkjets qualify as impulse buys. In fact, if they break down after the warranty expires, it doesn't make sense to fix them, as the repairs would cost more than a new printer. And today's laser printers can be had for under US$100, or less if you catch a sale or send in a rebate coupon.

Still, if you are a serious computer user ? student, hobbyist, artist, engineer, writer and so on ? you should never buy anything computer-related on impulse. Always do some research, always shop around and always get good, neutral advice if you are confused or undecided. This article will give you the basics of print technology, and a quick way to choose the right printer for you.

What's the job?

Because of the varied strengths of laser printers and color inkjets, and some users? need to print in large formats, some homes and offices will have several different printers. However, most people (and even most businesses) do certain kinds of work regularly and may need just one printer. Therefore the first question would be, ?What will you use the printer for?? Answering this first query will determine whether you need color or b&w printing, and laser or inkjet technology.

First, let's consider the average family computer usage. Dad needs to do some office work at times, balance the checkbook, print some photos taken with his digital camera and so forth. Mom wants to make fliers for her book club, and the kids have plenty of homework with charts, maps and such. This situation demands color, certainly, and color inkjets, as we've already learned, are quite inexpensive.

Of course, the printer manufacturers don't expect to make their profits on the printers. They make their money on the ink. Even no-name cartridges, or refill-them-yourself kits, are an ongoing expense that you must consider. If you expect to do a considerable amount of color printing, you should seriously consider spending a bit more for color laser technology. Luckily, your overall per-page cost will be perhaps an eighth or tenth of what it is with inkjet color.

On the other hand, there are home users and small offices that don't need color, but do need to print so much that the black ink cartridges alone would become a large expenditure. For under $100, you can get a b&w laser printer whose ?starter? toner cartridge even yields 1500 pages. A standard one, costing between US$50-75, will output 5000+ average pages (considered to be 8-12% paper coverage). This would be the wise choice for a writer who needs to print a chapter or even a whole book, engineers doing one-color schematics and others who will be printing upwards of 40-50 pages per day.

Laser-like precision

The first laser printer ? Apple's b&w LaserWriter, long since discontinued ? was a $4000 investment in 1985. Today, color lasers can be had for as little as US$200 (less on sale) and there are a spate of models in the under-US$400 range from such top manufacturers as Samsung, Hewlett-Packard and Brother. If this sounds like more than you want to pay, you need to factor in the consumables before making the decision about what is ?affordable.?

As stated above, a standard toner cartridge for a consumer laser printer will yield 5000+ pages, at a cost of from one to three cents per page, per color. A b&w page, from either a b&w or color laser, therefore costs up to three cents, while a color laser's four-color printing increases the page cost to perhaps 10-12 cents. Over time your savings on toner versus ink will more than make up for the greater initial cost. If you are deft with accounting and figures, you can make the calculation yourself based on your regular workload.

At the office

All of these considerations apply in the corporate world, as well. And other factors come into play, too, like the added efficiency of networked printers, which means added expense for the Ethernet port. In addition, many offices find that multifunction devices that also copy, scan and fax can save both time and money. Centralizing the functions helps reduce operational overhead by limiting the number of cables and lowering the power consumption of the office peripherals.

Another factor in the business environment is output size. If you need large-format printing, you will pay considerably more for the printer you choose. Past a certain point, usually the 11x17 tabloid size, lasers thin out in the product offerings and high-resolution, ?proof quality,? large-format inkjets take over. With the right kind of paper and the proper settings, these devices produce stunning color images that are quite lifelike. Design agencies, newspapers, magazines and commercial ?quick printers? will often have at least one high-resolution inkjet on site.

The ?quick? decision

You may have invested just a few minutes in reading this article, and you might want to continue your research if you are unclear about the relative merits of the different printer types and technologies. However, if you know what you want to do with your printer, you probably know right now which one is right for you. Or you may decide, as many home computer users and small businesses have, to get an entry-level b&w laser printer for all the letters, reports, chapters and verse you want to output, and a solid, mid-range inkjet (US$100 gets you a fabulous one) for your photos, images, artwork and flyers.

Some industry prognosticators believe that inkjet technology will evolve into pro-level pre-press devices for printing precise, color-matched proofs of magazines and such. Laser technology, b&w and color, will power the printers used by most everyone else. But no one knows when this will occur, so in the meantime, you have some choices, and can get great printing technology of both kinds for a modest sum.