Monday, September 4, 2000		On Hardware

A home printer is different from the office one
By Sumesh Raizada

The world of computers is exciting. On a computer, you can imagine and create whatever you have in mind. However, using your computer screen, you can only view your creations and work. Printers do the job of bringing your imagination to reality. Printers are peripherals, which are attached to the computer and play an important role in the working of computers. Though you can save the data in your hard disk, yet for sharing it with others, it is at times necessary to take a printout on paper. Basically, printers are divided into three categories:

Though there are several other professional types of printers, like the image setters and others used in printing and publishing, scientific labs, yet they fall out of scope for discussion as far as this article is concerned. In this article, we will take into consideration the above-mentioned three categories of printers only, which are relevant for an average computer user.

Under these categories, there are a huge variety of products available. Often the buyer is confused on which printer to buy. Laser printers offer good quality printing, but are expensive, both in the terms of initial cost and recurring cost. The desk jet printer uses a different technology and the print outs are good though not like the laser printed ones. The desk jet printers are colour compatible and offer good colour printing at an economical price. The dot matrix printers are office printers and can be used for printing accounts statements and ledgers. They are considered to be heavy-duty printers.

There is no fixed criterion that can categorise a printer as good or bad. In fact, the choice of printer is subjective and varies from person to person. Before settling down for a particular printer, it is better to understand what is the exact requirement.

1) If purchasing a printer for home, the line of thinking has to be altogether different. For home use, one does not require a high technology, feature-packed printer, normally as an average printer can serve the purpose. So out of the above three categories of printers, the desk jet is most suited. These printers are cost effective and offer solution to moderate printing requirements. In the desk jet printer, there is a lot of choice available. A majority of the products are feature-packed and offer multi-purpose printing options, like the normal colour and monochrome printing, photograph printing and printing on transparencies and clothes. The printer technology is changing fast.

Do not try to look for all the features that you may not even require in future. If those features are a part of the standard equipment, then that is good. In order to decide which printer you need for home, there are two important criteria that should form the basis of your decision to buy a specific printer. These criteria are 1) overall cost of the printer and the 2) running cost of the printer. The overall cost of printer matters a lot, as the extra price you pay for additional features which you may not need in future is actually waste. Rather, the objective should be to look for a printer, which has reasonably good features and is also attractively priced.

The second basis of the decision should be the overall running cost of the printer. This is another factor that can decide on what printer to buy. Before buying a printer, ask for the life cycle and price of the consumables, like printer cartridges and printer head. Suppose if there is a feature packed printer, which prints 800 pages in one black cartridge and each cartridge roughly cost around Rs. 1,200 then the cost of printing one page, excluding the cost of paper will be Rs.1.50. If the other printer prints 1,500 pages in one cartridge, which cost Rs.1,000, then the average cost per page works out to be 67 paise roughly. If during a particular period you print 5,000 pages, then the difference between the running costs in both printers is Rs.4,150, which is almost equal to the cost of a new economy range of printers. Based on these criteria a good quality printer for home use can be chosen.

2) If you plan to buy a printer for your office, then the criteria for selecting the printer would be different. For printing office-related documents, you would require good quality printouts, which can be had by using laser printers. There is a wide variety to choose from,

including HP laser printer, Epson, Samsung, Xerox, Techtronix, and others. The decision for any laser printer should be based on the size of the organisation and the printing requirement. While buying the laser printer for a small

office, a low-end printer, like HP 6L Gold, or Basic model of Samsung or Xerox could be chosen. These printers are not heavy duty and offer good services for moderate printing requirements. As another option, one can also opt for Techtronix printers. These are heavy-duty ones and are available at reasonable prices. If your organisation is large and so is your printing requirement, then the best option is to choose a HP heavy-duty network laser printers. These are of good quality and offer durable and trouble free service. Moreover, the better dealer network ensures smooth supply of consumables.

For office, one may also require to print in colour. So, besides going in for a monochrome laser printer, one can also choose a feature-packed desk jet colour printer like HP810. If the work requires more accounts-based printing, then the combination of a feature-packed desk jet and a dot matrix printer would suit the most. Despite a revolution in the world of printers, the dot matrix printers have not lost their importance. They find their use in banks, financial institutions, education institutes and accounting firms. To keep the printing requirement as the basic condition of choosing a specific printer, you must evaluate the running cost as the deciding factor to select the printer. Printing cost is heavy in case of a laser printer.

3) If buying the printer for professional use, then ideally you can opt for a feature-packed desk jet printer. Nowadays, desk jet printers are versatile and cater to the need of all professionals. Since, the professionals are required to print their work and also present it well, the high-end desk jet printers would do justice to their requirement. In this case, the good quality of printing along with other features is the major consideration.

Buying a printer is not like buying a commodity. It requires a thorough analysis before the final selection, which not only meets the specific requirement but also is justified by price.