Choosing An Inkjet Printer For Your Home Office
All inkjet printers are the same right? Well no….far from it to be honest. That freebie printer you got with your new desktop or laptop computer most probably will not be suitable for business use. At best it’s a personal printer. This is where most people slip up. The salesman said the printer would do anything you wanted it to do. He was right… wasn’t he? Well no his job is to sell you something (anything) before you leave the store. These guys all work on commission and that’s just a simple fact of life.
What most home office workers will wind up with is a photo realistic desktop inkjet printer designed for home and family use. Home office use and home use are two totally different things. Somebody working from a home office will usually need to print multiple documents per day. A family member may need to print a few documents per month…. or even less.
If you use a low spec printer for high volume work only one thing is going to happen - the printer is going to burn out quickly. Printers have moving parts and they more you make them move the faster they’re going to wear out. It’s that simple.
Look at your printing requirements. Will you be printing a lot each day or just a few pages? How much color will you need to use in documents if any at all? Base your purchase on your actual business requirements and not on the slick salesman who sticks a brochure for their Super Duper Model in your face.
Realistically you’re going to need an inkjet with a high ppm (page per minute)count. I’d recommend looking for something in the region of 15 - 20 ppm. Also try to avoid the photorealistic models - unless you’re going to actual print a lot of photographs. The replacement ink cartridges for these can cost an absolute fortune.
Also make sure that consumables (cartridges etc) for the printer are available instore and an ongoing basis. There’s nothing worse than buying an inkjet printer only to find that you need to order the replacement ink from Taiwan or worse that the parent company went broke and there is no replacement ink available - ever.
Finding the right inkjet printer for you may mean searching around in a few stores - both online and offline but the reward is more than worth it. You’ll have a reliable and useful piece of office equipment for many years to come.