How to choose a printer for your home? A short digression on the types of devices for printing

In our time, there is a computer in almost everyhouse. And many PC owners sooner or later start to wonder where to print a document sent by e-mail, or a recipe found on the Internet. Given the relatively low prices in the market of modern devices for printing, it is much more profitable to have a printer or multifunction printers at home than to constantly refer to acquaintances who have the opportunity to print the information you need, or to look for a place where several sheets of text can be printed from your media.

Once a PC user is aware of this, hewill begin to ask itself another question - how to choose a printer for the house from all the variety of these devices on the market? First, let's figure out what the choice is to be made, or rather what types of these devices can be found on store shelves today.

Not taking into account professional devicesfor printing houses and advertising agencies, the cost of which fluctuates in the region of several tens of thousands of dollars, all devices falling into the category of "printer for the house" can be conditionally divided into several groups.

Inkjet printers. This category of printers can often be found next to a home PC. The name of the "jet" is due to the processprint, which is used in all similar devices. Ink in inkjet printers, when printed, falls on paper through special nozzles with small drops (trickles), the thickness of which does not exceed the thickness of the hair. Due to its low cost and ease of use, as well as the ability to print not only text, but also various graphic images and photographs, this category of printers is one of the most common on the market these days. The most famous and popular models are HP PhotoSmart D7263, Canon PIXMA iP4600 and Epson Stylus Photo R390.

Laser printers. This type of device is largelywins at speed of a press, in comparison with the inkjet brethren. But laser printers have one significant minus - monochrome (printing only in "black") devices of this category often cost no less than a good "jet", and a color laser printer will cost several times more than its inkjet counterpart. In addition, before choosing a printer, take into account that color laser printing devices are much more massive than "jet" and will take up more space. The recognized sales leaders at the moment are HP Laserjet 1018, Lexmark Optra E120n and Optra E120, Canon Laser Shot LBP2900.

Photo printers. For what these devices are intended, it becomesit is clear from their name. Conditionally they can be divided into two types - stationary and mobile. Images in them are applied by means of thermal sublimation (in other words, evaporation of the ink at high temperature), which allows obtaining a quality similar to the quality of photo laboratories. But before choosing a printer for your home from this category, you should consider how often you will print photos, and how much ordinary text or images do not require high quality, since the cost of printing from photo printers is quite high and when printing a sheet of "black "white" text, in fact, you will pay almost the same as for a full-fledged photo. The most popular models are EPSON Stylus Photo P50 and EPSON Stylus Photo T50.

But how to choose a printer for a home that will fitnot only for printing from a computer, but also allows you to "make copies" with a scanner and perform a number of other tasks? Do not reinvent the wheel - if you need a solution, not only for printing, but for other purposes, it's best to get a MFIs. Multifunction device (this is the meaning of this abbreviation),as it is already clear from the name, was created in order to combine several devices at once. Typically, the MFP includes an inkjet or laser printer and a scanner. This device performs functions as a scanner and printer, as well as a copier (and in some cases also a fax machine), taking up much less space than all this technology separately. Sellers and users recommend paying attention to the Canon PIXMA MP520, HP Photosmart C6283 and Epson Stylus Photo RX610.

But before you choose a printer for your home fromone of the above options, ask the seller how much of the consumables (ink, toner, ink) you need to print a certain number of pages on the devices you like and at what price you will be circumvented by these "consumables". This is necessary because the price of consumables in some cases will result in the cost of a "simple" printer, and some sellers simply "forget" to tell customers about it.