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

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 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.

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 injet 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 compatible ink cartridges are a convenient way to allow highr volumes of photographic printing at reduced cost.

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%.

The page yield for a printer is calculated at 5% so if you are printing a leaflet with 100% cover it could reduce your page count by a factor of 20 - so 1000 becomes 50 But it does not stop there - if you are printing a solid dark colour you could be printing at more than 100% cover. The solution is obvious but needs stating, print in pastel shades where possible rather than solid colour, and try not to print in relief, it is usually more effective if a flyer for example is clean looking rather than too overpowering.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

Paper jams are common on most laser printers and less common on inkjet printers. Because Laser printers use heat to fuse (melt) the plastic toner from the toner cartridge onto the paper itself, they seem to foul up more often than inkjet printers in this respect. Type of paper is important, if you experience frequent paper jams, try changing the brand or quality of paper. Creased paper is usually caused by uneven transport through the printer. This causes the paper to be pulled against the side of the printer rollers and paper creasing occurs. One solution is to try cleaning the paper pickup rollers. If the paper pickup rollers are shiny, then there may be insufficient friction available to pull the paper throught the printer. In this case the rollers may need roughening with a scouring pad or similar.

Paper jams are also common when the paper drawer is almost empty & the printer picks up more than one sheet of paper. If you find that you have a paper jam, usually the warning light will ebe flashing & the printer will not accept any print jobs. Here are a few tips: It is important to remove all jammed pieces of paper with extreme care. Pulling at sheets may cause pieces of the paper to tear and stay in the printer, causing further jams.

Paper is very abrasive and incorrectly removing paper that is in contact with the process unit or drum may damage its surface. Once the error is cleared, the printer should automatically warm up and resume printing. It may reprint the jammed page, but this will depend on where the jam occurred. If jams occur frequently, try cleaning the printer and changing the paper as it may have become damp.

If you experience paper mis-feeds the first thing to check on is the paper itself.

If the paper has been in the inkjet printer for a considerable time without using the printer, I would suggest that you replace the paper.

If you have recently bought cheap paper on special offer and the printer misfeeds again it could be the paper, not all 80 gram (gsm) paper is the same.

If your printer does misfeed, then throw away the offending sheet as the pick up rollers could have made the surface of the paper shiny which would prevent it feeding through. Also check the paper path for small objects or small bits of paper.

Paper must be stored in a stable environment, it is not a good idea to store it in a cold or especially damp area.

Caution:

Laser printers use a thermal process to fuse the laser printer toner onto the paper, so do not under any circumstances use paper designed for ink jet printers, inkjet glossy or matte paper, thermal fax paper, art paper, plasticised paper, aluminium foil, carbon paper, bent, folded or creased paper, torn paper, slippery paper, perforated paper, acetate/ohp paper that is designed for inkjet printers or rough papers for Ink Jet printers

Although photocopy paper works perfectly well in ink jet printers it was not designed for these printers. Photocopy paper has a moisture content so you will find that when you print large images or photographs the quality is poor. For regular text printing although it bleeds a little it is more than acceptable (referred to as "wicking"). If you want presentation documents the answer would be a quality coated paper designed for ink jet printers or for photographs a glossy or matte coated paper.

If you find the ink does not dry quickly enough I would suggest you have bought inferior paper rather than an ink problem. Paper thickness can also play a part in quality. Most photocopy paper is 80 gram (gsm) but a 100gsm paper would be recommended for a CV or similar, because the printed end product looks much better. If you are printing photographs a thin glossy paper would be 140gsm a medium would be 180gsm and a quality thick paper would be 240gsm or more.