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Help and Information on Which Type of Printer is the Best for YOUR Specific Requirement.

Which Computer Printer to Buy?

Firstly look at what you want to use it for - if you like to print in colour, but never print large runs, then desktop inkjet printers are the way to go.

All the popular inkjet printer manufacturers, for example: HP, EPSON, CANON, BROTHER, LEXMARK etc offer a range of excellent value for money inkjet printers.

The disadvantages of using inkjet printers is the cost per page as the original manufacturer's ink cartridges are usually not cheap. Using the excellent range of Jettec (Jet Tec) compatible ink cartridges, the cost per page comes down, as these compatible cartridges are cheaper than the manufacturer's own printer cartridges. The logic behind the high cost of genuine printer ink cartridges is that the inkjet printers are initially very cheap to buy, so the manufacturers make their original printer cartridges more expensive, to compensate for the cost of the printer in the first place. From an end user's point of view, all you really want is cheap printing.

If you do high volume colour printing for flyers or other disposable advertising media, then a colour laser printer is the essential way to go. The colour toner cartridges are expensive, but far outlast inkjet pinter cartridges & therefore they work out cheaper from a cost per page point of view. If all you do is black ink printing, then a standard monochrome laser printer is what you need. Laser printer toner cartridges last a long time when used in a normal domestic or small office environment.

Buying a Printer - What you really need to know

Universally important when selecting a printer is the cost of running it relative to what you want to use it for!

If you buy a Monochrome Laser Printer, this is great for general use, cheap to run, the toner cartridges last for a long time and allow high volume, cheap printing. Obviously this is not ideal if you intend to print photographs as there is no colour printing facility. With a monochrome laser printer, when the toner cartridge eventually runs out, it may seem expensive to buy replacement, but always remember that a toner cartridge will outlast the equivalent inkjet cartridge many times. A colour laser printer is an oprion if you wish to print lots of copies of items like advertising posters, but for dedicated photographic printing, inkjet printers are the most popular choice. With inkjet printers using manufacturers original ink cartridges, the cost per photograph is high. The higher the photographic resolution, the more ink the printer uses to create the image. Jet Tec (Jettec) compatible ink cartridges are a convenient way to allow higher volumes of photographic printing at reduced cost.

Examples:

HP's (Hewlett Packard) "Smart Printing Technology", the print cartridge confirms that it has been properly installed, alerts you when the toner cartridge is running low and tells you how many printable pages are left from that toner cartridge. Cost per copy - approximately 5p. This feature is for cost comparison only, we divide the manufacturers stated copy count into our selling price of the cartridge. The manufacturers stated copy count is based on 5% A4 paper coverage. If you are printing photographs this number is reduced by the coverage which could of a factor of 20. In other words 500 pages @ 5% = 25 pages @ 100%.

Using Commercial Laser Printers and Copiers:

It may seem attractive to pay for colour copies on a cost per copy basis but there are a few drawbacks. The agreement only usually last for three years and the seller has the opportunity to charge more after this time Consider the mix of printing as most print runs involve very little colour and furthermore are usually in text format which involves very little cost. The average cost of printing a text document is less than 1p so if you are charged more than that you need to ask yourself why? One reason could be that you print leaflets on a regular basis and what proportion to the total number of documents is the leaflet printing Part of the per copy cost is service, but if you bought a machine with a warranty - how often would you require a service.

What is the cost of the copier and how long do you expect to keep it?

A quality copier should last 8 to 10 years depending on use, so the question would be when would I need to change it. If you are told at the outset that it is 3 years before being classed as obsolete this is a political answer. Obsolete generally means that the copier is no longer manufactured, that does not mean that the parts are no longer available and manufacturers have a legal obligation to provide parts beyond that time. Our experience is that parts including fusers, photoconductor kits and toner would be available for more than 5 years after production of the copier has ceased.

Many obsolete printer items are available from Toner Ink Online.

Parts for obsolete printers:

If your supplier states that parts you require are no longer available for your machine, please telephone us on 01924 402337 and we will do our very best to provide the part required.

Back to cost, again it is relative to the quantity printed. One way would be to go through your invoices for the past twelve months for copy paper, printed stationery - including invoices, statements and payslips. Then carefully consider the mix between leaflets and other print runs. Work out how many copies will be printed over the life of the machine and divide that into the machine cost.

Ink Jet Printers

If you are looking for your next inkjet printer here are a few useful tips:

The main consideration should be how much does your inkjet printer cost to run - not how much does the printer initially cost to buy. During the life of a printer you will spend more than six times the money on ink cartridges (even if you use Jettec compatible inkjet printer cartridges) than on the printer in the first place, so it is vital you get it right first time.

Inkjet Printer Types

- Four colour inkjet printers -

Generally speaking a four colour inkjet printer is suitable for general text printing, colourful image print such as leaflets and projects for school and domestic applications. When printing photographs the images should be quite good for regular holiday snaps but for portrait or intense graphical images you may be disappointed. Example of which could be that skin tones do not always reflect the detail you are looking for.

- Six Colour Ink Jet Printers -

The six colour inkjet printer has all the attributes of the four colour inkjet printer in terms of printing capabilities but when it comes to printing photographs it is in a different league. The extra two colours are Light Cyan and Light Magenta. You may think why do I need a Light Cyan and a Light Magenta well the answer is that when it comes to delicate tones the four colour printer is able to achieve this by placing the dots of ink further apart, thus giving the appearance of a lighter colour. When you have the lighter palate available to the printer the dots can be closer together so that you end up with nearer match to the photograph you desire.

- Top of the range Eight colour Photo Inkjet Printers -

I would not really recommend this type of printer for general printing such as text documents, school work or business printing as the cost of ink cartridges could be prohibitive. But for printing photographs on the right type of paper the images are stunning, the colours are sharp and crisp, portraits would probably require a makeover on a photograph editing program like "Photoshop"as you could probably see every pimple. These images are created by the use of additional colours such as red, green or orange. There are other printers that concentrate on half tones of grey scale and can have up to three black ink cartridges to their range. When purchasing a top of the range photo printer do consider the type of images you are going to print out and the cost of replacement cartridges before you part with your money.

All in One printers

All in one basically means it prints, it scans and it copies - some will even function as a Fax machine. Ideal for many applications if space saving is required.

HP Laserjet Printers - Special Feature

HP Laserjet 4, Hp Laserjet 4+, Hp Laserjet 4M, Hp Laserjet 4M+, Hp Laserjet 5, Hp Laserjet 5M, Hp Laserjet 5N

These HP Laserjet printers although old, must be the most reliable printers ever manufactured by Hewlett Packard and although they may be a little slow by modern standards, the HP Lasejet series of printers offer one of the most cost efficient printers in use today giving a copy cost of only .8 pence (point 8 pence) per copy, which makes these HP Laserjet series printers very cheap to run.

Example:

HP 92298X Black Toner Cartridge - Page yield is 8,600 black copies @ 5% coverage

If you already own one of these HP Laserjet Printer models, by now, the printer has already paid for itself many times over.

Apart from a maintenance kit every 100,000 copies, you only need to buy the toner.

The following are related to this item:

HP 92298A Black Toner Cartridge Original - HP 92298A Toner Cartridge Compatible - HP C2001-67915 Maintenance Kit Original.

Jet Tec Compatible ink for Epson inkjet Printers

Jet Tec Compatible ink for Brother inkjet Printers

Jet Tec Compatible ink for Canon inkjet Printers

Jet Tec Compatible ink for HP Deskjet Printers

Jet Tec Compatible ink for Lexmark inkjet Printers

Jet Tec Compatible ink for Dell inkjet Printers