Printers

Nowadays, printers are becoming necessity at home also. However, while purchasing a printer for your home needs, you need to keep in mind many variables.

Single function printer or All in one printer: If you had a printer which serves only one purpose-to print, you will be bored. If you want to perform any other action like scan or copy, you have to approach the nearest cyber cafe or your friend’s house.

If such is the case, you are the right candidate to know about all in one printer. It saves you money and it is cost effective too.

All in one printers do the normal printing, in addition, they will scan and copy also. These printers are also called multi-functional printers since they will perform multiple tasks. All in one printers can come in black and white or colour capabilities for printing and copy. However, while scanning, you can choose your own option whether to scan in colour or black and white while you are saving the scan into your computer.

You can also insert the chip of your digital camera into the port of the printer and can directly take the print outs.

Wire line or Wireless Printer: The all in one printers are normally plugged into the network cable and connected to your computer. Some of the all in one printers also come in wireless capabilities. Wireless printers can be configured to be in the Wi-Fi network and once they are in the network, we can give the prints from a networked computer. However, the networks are wireless. Hence, it is not necessary that the printer is plugged to network cable.

However, since the printer uses a wireless network, there is always a chance of misuse. Hence, your network must be secured and accessible only to yourself.

The selection of printer also depends on the ease of mobility. If you can carry the printer in your two hands and can walk to all distances in your home that would be a good printer. In case of offices however, there is less stress on mobility. Further, in case of offices, the requirement would be that the printer can print to different sizes of paper. However, at home, there is no other requirement than A4 sized printing. These printers offer custom printer accessories and good quality of lasers, desk trays etc.

Inkjet or Laser Printer: Inkjet printers are low cost printers. They use nozzles of ink which is sprayed on the paper. Inkjet printers come in black and white and colour varieties. However, nowadays it is very rare that one purchases black and white inkjet printer. The speed of inkjet printers is lower than laser printers. Some inkjet printers are very slow. There are two methods in which the ink is sprayed into the paper.

The thermal bubble method – In this method the ink in the nozzles are turned into small bubbles by heating the ink, which are then sprayed on the paper.

The piezoelectric method – In this method the ink is pushed out of the nozzles into the paper by small vibrating crystals, by the use of electricity unlike the above.

The most basic difference between the two methods is that the quality of image that comes out in prints using the second method is better than the first one.

Most of the printers used in offices and cyber cafes are inkjet printers. Inkjet printers are affordable, low cost and easy to carry around.

However, if you want the printer to print with speed, laser printers are for you. Laser printer will print very fast and will not compromise on quality. Laser printers use laser beams which are directed on to the drum.

Laser printers also come in black and white or colour. They are well known for printing high resolution prints. A resolution is the number of dots per inch.

There are also many varieties of laser printers available in the market.