How to Choose the Most Suitable Printer For Your Business
Most, if not all, businesses will need to use a printer at some point during their business proceedings. Choosing the best printer for your business comes down to a few specific alterable elements. Factors like how big of a space you have, what you use your printer for, where you use your printer, and how often you use your printer will all contribute to choosing the best printer for your business.
Inkjet Printers
Inkjet printers are generally the most commonly used printer. Its process is relatively straightforward. You send a document to the printer, and the printer recreates the computer image on paper by shooting out just enough ink to make the image or text visible without saturating the piece of paper. Inkjet printers use colour ink cartridges in the colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Each of these colours can be mixed to create any other colour accurately. Inkjet printers are a great option for a number of businesses.
Benefits
Because inkjet printing uses real ink printed onto a piece of paper or other canvas, the colour payoff is usually quite exceptional.
Inkjet printers typically are less expensive upfront and last quite a while, requiring less regular maintenance and repairs.
Inkjet printers can be used the moment they turn on without time to warm up.
Generally, inkjet printers are relatively small in form factor and fit into a number of office setups and spaces with ease.
Finally, they don’t usually disturb office practices because they are quite quiet.
Best use scenarios
As a business owner, you should consider investing in an inkjet printer if you regularly print in colour, print less often, or print on the go.
Disadvantages
Inkjet printers are not known for being the fastest. They print at a speed of around five pages per minute, which generally is not a problem for some businesses, but it is less efficient for anyone printing high volume.
Despite the lower cost upfront, ink cartridges don’t last forever. As an organization that prints a lot and frequently, you will be investing in ink cartridges often.
Ink may need time to dray and can smudge if the proper drying time is not allotted.
You can easily find consumer inkjet printers at a number of local office supply stores or find commercial printers from other providers.
Laser Printer
Laser printers are a superpower when it comes to printing high volumes with accuracy. Unlike an inkjet printer, laser printers create colour by passing a laser beam back and forth repeatedly. Instead of ink, the laser printer uses colour toners on the page, quickly heated to solidify the colour tone.
Benefits
Laser printers print with exceptional speed and handle large tasks effectively. A laser printer can print around 20-50 pages a minute, and the ink will not smudge.
Laser cartridges last longer than inkjet ink and need to be replaced less often.
You can also count on a laser printer to perform well and jam less often than other printers because of its high-efficiency processes.
Best uses
If you regularly print documents or repeated items, you should invest in a laser printer. Its high speeds, low noise, and accuracy make it the best choice for repetitive processes.
Disadvantages
Laser printers are very large. Each printer needs to house a good number of critical elements involved in the printing process. For this reason, laser printers typically are not portable.
While toner cartridges last a long time, they are considerably more expensive to purchase than inkjet cartridges.
Laser printers are also not very good at accurately depicting colour in photographs. While they offer crisp lines, the colour may appear distorted.
Finally, laser printers don’t work on all types of papers or canvas. They work best with traditional paper instead.
Thermal Printer
Many businesses and organizations have non-traditional printing needs. Non-traditional needs require a non-traditional solution. Thermal printers don’t use ink at all; instead, they use precise heat on chemically treated paper to develop text images and graphics.
Benefits
Thermal printing is extremely accurate when it comes to crisp lines and text. The writing is not ink and is therefore resistant to a number of factors like oil, water, climate and UV rays.
Best cases
Thermal printers are ideal for organizations that print things like shipping labels and receipts.
Disadvantages
One major disadvantage to thermal printing is that you are generally limited in your colour choices. Thermal printers do all or nothing. They print in solid colours and cannot do tones.
Thermal printers are expensive and require a specific type of paper, and cannot be printed on a number of different surfaces.
UV LED Printer
The final kind of printer you may be interested in as a business is a UV LED light printer. UV LED printers are different from the other types of printers and essentially are a combination of them all when it comes to payoff. Colour is deposited onto the surface and is then cured by LED UV lights. It will last on the surface and looks amazing.
Benefits
With a UV LED printer, you can print on a wide variety of materials like metal, wood, plastic, concrete. All this is possible due to the special ink and curing process.
Best cases
If you print graphics for a living or want to use the printer to generate your own unique advertisements, then a UV printer is the best option for you.
Disadvantages
If you are on a budget, look the other way. A good UV LED printer, along with the required ink, can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
While choosing the best printing system for you is important, what’s even more important is selecting a high-quality printer. High-quality printers and printing materials are even more important. Make sure you shop with a trusted and knowledgeable brand for all your printing needs.
Author’s Bio
Nicole Howe is a content writer at BreezeMaxWeb. When she isn’t writing, you can find her walking half marathons, biking, or watching Raptors basketball!
