Business Machine Musts: What to Look for in a Multifunction Printer

Multifunction Printer
Source: Unsplash

Unitaskers may get the printing job done, but they’re not very efficient when it comes to their footprint, energy usage, and functionality. That’s why multi-function printers exist. But, not all multi-function printer is created the same. Here’s what you need to know before you box one up and bring it home.

Determine Your Needs

What will you use the printer for? If it’s a home printer, you probably care about photo quality first, and text quality second. If it’s an office printer, you probably want superb text quality over photo quality.

That’s not to say you won’t want photo-quality prints in a business. It’s just that this probably isn’t your greatest concern with a pure business printer.

If you decide on an inkjet printer for home, make sure you have adequate ink. Buy supplies through www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk so that you don’t end up owing your soul to retail ink sellers.

Additionally, ensuring a consistent supply of toner or ink cartridges is crucial to maintaining your printer’s performance. When it comes to sourcing dependable printing supplies, exploring options like toner buyer can provide you with a range of choices, helping you keep your business operations running smoothly.

Email Functionality

Does your printer need email functionality? Email is a common part of life, and scanned images are more easily emailed than they are faxed. In fact, most businesses are set up to receive email, but not all businesses (particularly newer ones) are capable of receiving faxes.

So, if you need this printer for any business purpose at all, consider getting a printer with email functionality built into it. It will allow you to scan documents, and then send them right from the machine, rather than transferring the image to your computer first.

Print Quality

Print quality is something that is a personal preference, but businesses tend to want at least 600 dpi where individuals can usually live with 300 dpi. Printing text tends to be more important for businesses, since they tend to use the printer for marketing purposes.

Unless you print off a lot of letters, don’t bother with a high resolution printer. Just get something that will print good photos and call it a day.
With laser printers, you have certain costs that you won’t have with an inkjet printer.

What’s The Total Cost Of Ownership?

The total cost of ownership, or TCO, of a multi-function printer can vary substantially depending on the type of machine you buy. For small ink printers, your cost of ownership could be high if it uses a lot of ink for a print – this is especially true if you print photos.

But, a large laser printer can also be expensive since toner cartridges tend to run roughly £100 or more per cartridge. Usually, there are three different color cartridges, plus a black one. And, many printers these days inject color into black and white prints, even when you print black-and-white, so they won’t work at all without all cartridges in there.

For the lowest cost of ownership, it’s important to have a firm idea of how you will use the machine. Laser printers tend not to reproduce images well (at least not as good as ink), so they will run through colour a lot faster than an inkjet.

Yet, inkjets need to be maintained and cleaned periodically or the heads will become clogged.

John Sollars started Stinkyink.com in 2002, a printer cartridge supplier in the UK. He knows a thing or two about printing and he enjoys sharing his ideas and insights online through blogging. Keep up to date with John’s posts on Twitter.

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