So many choices.. How do I decide?
Jan 12 '02
The Bottom Line I think the informed you are about the printer before you buy it, the happier you will be when you start using it.
When deciding on which of the many Inkjet printers available they're a few things you need to consider first. What are you going to use this printer for and how much are you looking to spend?
What are you going to do with this printer?
The reason this question is first, because if you don't consider what you are going to print you can;t match the printer to your needs. Contrary to popular believe not every printer is capable of printing photo quality prints. The manufacture may say it can, but it has been my experience that saying it can and actually proving it after you buy it are completely different. What size of prints are you looking for matter a great deal. If you plan to print 8 x 10 pictures and maybe a 11 x17 calendar, you must buy a printer that is capable of handling what is called tabloid paper. If you only plan to print 4x6 photo's and letters and no larger than 8x10 pictures than a smaller inkjet will work fine.
Is this printer being used in a personal use environment or is it a high volume business environment? Mind you this can be either in a home office or a traditional business setting. The question remains the same, some home businesses have a printing volume equal too to greater than a traditional business setting. The reason for asking this question is inkjet printers are categorized into to basic categories: personal use and business use.
Personal Use
These printers are designed to handle low volume and high quality images at specific speeds. Printers are rated by their ability to print at a given speed and still generate acceptable quality prints. The inkjet printers that fall under the personal use category are designed to be used at home on small household projects like family greeting cards, personal letters, occasional pictures of family. These printers are generally small, compact and relatively quiet. These printers are broken down into two sub categories Photo or Professional or General use.
Photo or Professional
As you maybe able to guess what these two types of printers can do. These printers are capable of creating high quality photo images, they use specific ink cartridges and printheads along software enhancements to create the higher quality images. These printers also come in two different sizes; wide format and standard format.
Wide format is for printing on media that is wider that 8 x10 and standard is used to print on media up to 8x10.
General Use
These general use printers are designed to print a wide variety of print jobs. Simple text letters, email and kids term paper. A flyer for a garage sale or a notice of a lost animal with a picture. These type of things that don't require high quality pictures are perfect for these type of general use printers. Now, again these printers are very capable of print photo quality pictures but not anywhere near a good quality as the photo or professional grade printers.
Business Printers
These printers are generally wide format printers, but they are capable of printing on most sizes of media. The wide format means that they are not limited to 81/2" wide media. These are rugged and can handle the larger volume of printing found in most business environments. One reason they are able to handle the larger volume of printing is because the ink cartridges are larger and hold more ink. These printers generally don't have the cartridges that load on the print carriage, they generally plugged into slots in the front or top behind a cover and tubes there are used to deliver the ink to the printheads. Because of that fact these printer will have a slower warm up time, with having to prime the ink pump and all it can take time.
Choosing the right paper for the job
I don't want to get to in-depth on paper selection, but I sometimes think inkjet printers get a bad rap because people don't use good paper and the result is bad. Choosing the right paper is just as important as choosing the right printer, I will be the first to tell you that you don't have to use the Premium Epson or HP or Canon paper products to get the best results. I have had excellent results from using an ultra bright 106+ paper from Kodak over any paper from HP or Epson. If you find a paper that works for you stick with it and don't change just because the manufacture recommends their products. Sometimes the best way to chose the best paper for you, is to experiment with different types of paper. It will make a difference in how you final image looks like. What you would think is just plain white paper isn't really just plain paper to your printer and choosing a better grade of plain white paper will amaze you on what you print looks like.
Now that you have decided on how you are going to use your inkjet printer it is important to realize that all inkjet printers are not as fast. The print speed varies from model to model and price range to price range. I will talk about price range later.
Speed
To some people the speed is the most important factor in which printer to buy. Well, I am here to tell you that speed is relative to what quality you want to come out. All speed ratings are based on optimum conditions set by the manufacture. Your actual out come will depend on a great deal of variables. The complexity of the image to be printed. A simple text letter will print in seconds compared to a mixed text/graphic brochure. Let alone if you mix in color graphics and even a photo. So when you are considering your next printer purchase keep in mind speed of the printer is directly affected by what you are printing. If it seems slow in the store, it will not get faster at home. They use very simple manufacturer's demo prints in most stores and unless you print only text your print speed will be slower. Before you decide on an inkjet printer based on speed, do as much research on that printer. Read through all the available reviews here on Epinions go out to the Manufacturers web site. Then base your decision based on research not just what the manufacture says or what that salesperson at Staples or OfficeMax or Best Buy.
Price
This has to be the single most over rated factor for buying an inkjet printer. Have you ever been told by a friend or associate that when talking about a recent purchase that you got what you paid for? Well, it definitely applies to printers. I read reviews all the time about this printer isn't worth this much or that is too much to pay for this quality. I am here to tell you a $49.00 printer that Dell or Gateway isn't not going to be a high quality printer. Even the latest deals which are targeting the home office market with the multifunction printers. These machines do certain thing satisfactory, but they don't do everything well. I have yet to come across a single printer/copier/fax machine that does all those different function well. The only thing I see that they do well is save you space in a home office environment. As far as how much is too much for a specific printer. I would say if the difference between the higher level printer is only $50.00 and you can afford it, I would go with the higher level of the same brand of printer. When choosing between the many brands of printer's I stick with the brand that I can trust and which has the proven track record. When choosing which brand to select make sure you compare models that are comparable in each of the brands. I recommend that you don't base your decision on which ink cartridges cost you less to replace. I can almost guaranty you will be disappointed every time.
Connectivity and Installation
This section deals with how your printer is going to connect to your PC. They're a few options to consider on how to connect your printer to your PC; parallel, USB, serial and now even some of the newer inkjet printers are coming with network cards installed. But as you can guess this adds quite a bit of cost to the inkjet printer. The most common connection on inkjet printers is still the parallel port, this is 25 pin (Centronic) connector and it connects to the 25 pin port on the back of your PC. The other type of connection is what is called a USB or Universal Serial Bus. This connection allows you to simply connect the cable to the back of the printer and connect it to an open USB port on your computer. The computer automatically recognizes the printer and sets it up. If the OS on your system has the correct drivers for that printer it will attempt to load the correct driver and you will be set to go. If the correct driver isn't located on your PC then you have to load the driver from the CD or diskette which ever is supplied with your printer. The last option I will mention is a fairly new interface being included in some models of inkjet printers. The ethernet connection, this allows you to connect directly to the network and allow others to use the printer without having to go through your PC. I will caution you about the network interface, it is a very expensive feature and will add a considerable amount of money to the cost of the printer.
One of the biggest complaint I read about when it comes to printers in general. "It didn't come with a cable," I think to myself they just bought a $49.00 printer and how dare that manufacturer didn't include a $20.00 worth of cables. Beside how do they know that you don't have a SUB port on your older PC or how do they know that you don't have an open parallel port on your PC. They will not supply you with both possible options it would be way too expensive for them. Some printers do come with the printer cable and it would be a good idea to check with the salesperson when you are deciding on which printer to buy.
Operating System
This is the last thing I will talk about on the subject of inkjet printers. You need to make sure before you buy any printer that it will support the OS that is installed on your system. With the multitude of OS's installed on computers currently, not all printers are compatible with them all. Especially LINUX, it is gaining popularity and I would check before you purchase any printer if you are running LINUX on your computer. The next biggest complaint I read is "this printer drivers aren't compatible with Win XP." All that usually means is the manufacturer at the time that your specific printer was put in the box and the driver CD was made they didn't put Win XP driver on it. So you have to go out and download the latest driver from their web site. Again shame on that nasty printer maker they couldn't include it when they made the CD.
I am going to list examples of the Inkjet printers in the categories and sub categories I mentioned earlier.
Personal Use
Epson Stylus C40UX - 1440 x 720 dpi 8 ppm black text USB
Epson Stylus C60 - 2880 x 720 dpi 12 ppm black text parallel, USB
HP 640c - 600 x 600 dpi 6 ppm black text parallel, USB
HP 840c - 600 x 1200 max color on photo paper, 8 ppm black text, parallel, USB
HP 930c - 2400 x 1200 max color on photo paper, 9 ppm black text, parallel, USB
HP 935c - 2400 x 1200 max color on photo paper, 9 ppm black text, parallel, USB
HP 950c - 2400 x 1200 max color on photo paper, 11 ppm black text, parallel, USB
HP 960cxi - 2400 x 1200 max color on photo paper, 15 ppm black text, parallel, USB
Canon categories their printers as All-Purpose printers.
Canon S200 - 2880 x 720 5 ppm black text
Canon S400 - 1440 x 720 9 ppm black text individual ink cartridges
Canon S300 - 2400 x 1200 11 ppm black text
Canon S450 - 1440 x 720 10 ppm black text individual ink cartridges
Canon S600 - 2400 x 1200 15 ppm black text individual ink cartridges
Canon S500 - 2400 x 1200 12 ppm black text individual ink cartridges
Canon S630 - 2400 x 1200 17 ppm black text individual ink cartridges
Photo or Professional Series
Epson Stylus Photo 780 2880 x 720 6 color border free printing
Epson Stylus Photo 820 2880 x 720 6 color border free printing
Epson Stylus Photo 785EPX 2880 x 720 built in card reader border free printing
Epson Stylus Photo 890 2880 x 720 6 color border free printing
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 2880 x 720 6 color border free printing
Epson Stylus Photo 2000P 1440 x 720 Archival ink 13" x 19" format
HP 970cxi Professional series 2400 x 1200 max on photo paper 12 ppm black text
HP 990cxi Professional series- 2400 x 1200 max on photo paper 17 ppm black text
HP 1220 cxi Professional series 2400 x 1200 max on photo paper 11 ppm black text
Canon CD 300 300 dpi photo quality borderless 4x6, 4x10 prints can be used w/o PC
Canon S800 2400 x 1200 8x10 prints in 2 min. individual ink cartridges
Wide Format
Epson Stylus Color 1520 1440 x 720 17" x 22" parallel, serial
Epson Stylus Photo 1280
Epson Stylus Photo 2000P
Epson Stylus Color 3000 1440 x 720 17" x 22" parallel, serial, individual ink cart.
HP 1220cxi
HP 1220c/ps 2400 x 1200 max on photo paper 11 ppm Adobe Postscript
Canon BJC-8500 1200 x 1200 6 color printing
Business Printers
HP Business Deskjet series printers
HP Deskjet 2200xi, 2250, 2250tn
15 ppm, 1200 x 600, 4 separate ink cartridges, 2250tn model has a network card
HP Deskjet 2500cxi, 2250c+, 2500cm
11 ppm, 600 dpi, 4 separate in cartridges, 2500cm model has a network card
The previous list and information on the printers were taken from the following web sites www.epson.com, www.hp.com, www.canon.com. For more information check out the many great reviews written by fellow Epinion members. Those can be found in the Computer and Internet area under hardware.
In conclusion I hope that this review has been helpful in understanding all the things that can go into making an informed decision on which inkjet printer that would be best for you.
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