Select printer for small office

Currently, small offices have a wide range of printer options and the most common are three types: color printers (inkjet and laser), monochrome printers (lasers) and multifunction printers. Here are some buying experiences and 4 best printer suggestions.

A good printer for small businesses and home offices must have fast printing speeds and good print regardless of whether it is printed on plain paper or special paper. Premium models must have a multi-page tray and automatic duplex mode. The multifunction printers are integrated with many functions that the efficiency does not decrease, with costs always smaller than the total price of the corresponding single function machines combined.

Selection criteria

You may be wondering in which case use an inkjet printer (inkjet) or a black and white printer, when to choose a multifunction printer. You can refer to the experience below to select the printer accordingly.

Inkjet for graphics, laser for text

When choosing printer technology you need to determine what is the most frequent application. Do you usually print color prints, photos or drawings or just print text? Inkjet printers outperform print and graphics, but are more inferior in text speed and quality. It allows a wide range of colors to be displayed and smoother images than most laser technology color printers. However, they are much more expensive because of the specialized paper and cartridges of this printer are all very expensive.

Meanwhile, laser printers meet the gold standard for accurate text printing. Laser color printers are more economical suggestions for drawings, flow charts and logos.

Inkjet for people who print less, laser to print more

If you print in large quantities or let more people connect to the machine, laser technology is more suitable. The laser printer has a fast printing speed, the tray holds a lot of paper and the operating cost is also lower by the ink pour cycle, replacing the longer catridge. Printers with duplex printing will save more paper.

Offices with demand for printing less than 100 pages per day can be satisfied with an inkjet color printer. Some office-oriented inkjet models will have a faster print speed, larger paper tray capacity and better paper quality.

Versatile printer - efficient investment

More and more offices for multi-function printers: printer cum copy machine, scanner and fax machine. This is a proposal that is both compact and economical for tight area offices. The price of one printer is always smaller than the price of all single function machines combined. Machines that do not have a fax function will cost a bit less.

In return, compared to single-function printers, the versatile machine has a higher obvious cost and requires waiting in line when a person is printing a multi-page document while others want to copy, scan or fax. .

There is also another solid-ink printing technology that has been used in Xerox printers, making it more economical to operate especially ink-based paper. However, this printing technology gives text lighter than laser technology.

The printers below are rated PCWorld among small office printers through testing. The Canon Pixma iP4500 and Dell 1720dn lead the way in all aspects besides affordable prices, while the HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 is a bit expensive, but is rich in features and significantly faster print speeds.

Canon Pixma iP4500

This inkjet printer is a formidable opponent of low-speed laser color printers in speed, and stands on many other high-priced inkjet printers in every way. Print quality is quite sharp even with plain paper and seldom blurred even with complex fonts. In return, if the laser printers are only strong in printing full-text documents, the iP4500 also prints images very impressively. The duplex printing mode is another feature of the iP4500. The weakness of this color printer is that the control buttons use only symbols and no labels and when printing photos, the face is slightly yellowish.

Dell Laser Printer 1720dn

The Dell 1720dn is reasonably priced, good design and respectable speed to suit the needs of small and medium businesses. It can print black and white at speeds up to 29 pages per minute. It includes a lot of useful features including automatic duplex printing while the control panel is clearly labeled. The downside of the Dell 1720dn is that its slightly shallow main tray creates a sense of uncertainty. On the other hand, even if the buttons have clear labels, many indicators still need to open a manual to know what it is about to say.

HP OfficeJet Pro L7680

The L7680 is an all-in-one all-in-one printer including fax capabilities that any small company needs. Fast printing speed, economical use makes it an economic choice in the long run although the price is not cheap.

Dell Color Laser Printer 1320c

Dell 1320c gives surprisingly sharp print quality. It can print high-quality images at a speed of 3.1 pages per minute, for smooth, rare and vivid images and colors are also quite close to nature. In return, printing a bit of 'turtle' and low-capacity cartridge (from 1000-2000 prints), the cost of each print becomes quite high. Small offices with moderate printing will not feel the cost of teaming up, but the printing space is large and the 1320c is obviously uneconomical.