From purchasing and maintenance costs to paper, ink and toner; printing can be a high expense for any office space. This is why it’s important to make sure you choose the right printer for your business.
It may be a good idea to assess your printing needs before you purchase. Work out who needs to use the printer each day and for what type of jobs. This will help when understanding what functions the product will need. You’ll need to think about adding your printer to your office network, so it can be shared and used by all employees at any time. Here’s a handy guide on the different printers you can buy.
Inkjet
Inkjet printers are great if you have a small office and expect to do little printing. An inkjet printer has low start up costs as it uses traditional ink cartridges, which can be replaced easily. However, this type of printer is only cost efficient if you plan to not use it every day, otherwise using ink can be expensive in the long run. Inkjet printers tend to be slower than laser printers and the print quality of work documents can look fuzzy as it uses water-based ink.
Laser
Laser printers are perfect for businesses who need to produce a high-volume of pages. Printing is fast and the quality is sharp and precise. Toner cartridges are required, which is an extra cost that should be factored in, but they are considerably less wasteful than replacing ink cartridges. Due to the extra space in the loading trays, laser printers do tend to be bigger and bulkier and need some time to warm up before starting. Laser printers are not meant for printing graphic-heavy prints as the quality of image printing isn’t too great with most laser printers.
Multifunction printer
Many printers on the market have multi-functions which are great if you need a machine to aid several departments at once. A multifunction printer would be ideal for a busy office environment who may need the option to print meeting notes, fax invoices and copying presentations. Most all-in-one printers can perform double sided printing, scanning, copying, faxing in both inkjet and laser models. Choose accordingly depending on how in use you expect the machine to be.
Wireless
Print from anywhere with wireless connectivity. This type of printing is often called cloud printing and uses Wifi or Bluetooth to send documents to be printed, faxed or copied. A wireless printer tends to be smaller in size, which means it’s portable and can be connected to from multiple locations. This could be ideal for busy tech companies who may need printing from multiple of laptops, tablets and smartphones. If you are in shared office space, however, you should use a VPN router to encrypt your various devices to prevent data theft.
As you can see there’s lots of different types of printers with functions that can benefit your business. Make sure you do your research before buying as purchasing the wrong printer can have a financial impact on your business.
