JVS Computers©

      12/16/2017

As with nearly all peripherals, there are a wide variety of printer types available.  To keep it short, we'll look at the two main varieties.

Ink jet:  Ink jet printers are by far the most common in homes.  Prices vary from less than $50.00 to over $300.00. They connect to your PC by parallel and/or USB.  Ink jet printers currently have the best color reproduction and resolution capabilities in comparison to other printer types commonly used at home.

Laser:  Laser printers have one major benefit, speed.  Though color laser printers are now readily available and economically feasible, they are much more expensive than comparable ink jet printers. Laser printer, compared to their ink jet counterparts, are also much larger.  Though toner cartridges produce many more copies, they are three times more expensive to replace compared to ink jet replacements.

 

Both laser and ink jet copiers are rated by how fast they can produce copies in PPM (pages per minute) and by the resolution they can produce.  A good way to decide how much printer you want it to factor how much each copy will cost.  Consider how many copies can be produced with one toner cartridge, or set of ink tanks, and divide the cost of each by the number of copies.

Scanners

Scanners can turn your PC into a copy machine or fax machine.  Want to "blow up" a photo?  A good scanner can help you their too!  Offices are currently learning that they can store whole file rooms of documents on a PC by scanning them with a scanner.

Scanners connect to your PC in the same way as printers.  Like printers, scanners are rated by the pages per minute (PPM) they can produce, and also by the resolution they are capable of producing.  You should also consider the software packaged with a given scanner when comparing value.