The Cost of a Typical Device
An important component of your decision making process revolves around how much you are looking to spend on your printing device. If price is no object, then you can look at the top-of-the-line options presented by companies like HP, Epson, Canon, or Dell, and simply buy what you feel is the best possible option on the market. If you are more budget conscious, you want to make sure that you are buying a printer that will fit into your own personal spending limits, always keeping in mind that there will be additional costs to operate your machine.
The cheapest options in the world of printing are the inkjet printers that can be used to print off documents at home or in a small office. Companies mass produce these printers specifically for that reason, and typically make them extremely affordable to the consumer. The way that they make their money back is that you will then have to buy ink cartridges for your printer all through its operating life. This is where research can be your best friend, because you want to make sure that you find out just how many pages of output a printer can produce on one ink cartridge, and how much it is going to cost to replace said cartridges. A good inkjet printer can probably be purchased for just over $100.00.
When it comes to offices or users that plan on printing a ton of pages, you definitely want to look into purchasing a laser printer. Laser printers start out more expensive than your typical inkjet printer, but it is more of a sunk cost, because you will be purchasing less toner cartridges than the number of ink cartridges you would need for an inkjet option. For example, some of the affordable Dell laser printers can be purchased for between $300 and $500 depending on how much you want it to do, but you can then purchase toner cartridges that can produce an output of 10,000 or 20,000 pages depending on which one you decide appeals to your needs.
All-In-One Printers
For those consumers looking to purchase a device that is going to print, scan, fax, copy, and basically do everything for you, you want to look at one of the all-in-one printers. Some of them can be quite affordable at around $100 or so, but if you are looking for something that would be considered top-of-the-line, you could be looking at something in excess of $400.Some
Final Thoughts
If you can take the time to sit down and figure out how much printing you plan on doing on a daily (or even monthly basis), you can better assess just what type of printer you are looking to purchase. That will also tell you how much it will cost to maintain one of these devices, because you will be able to estimate just how much ink/toner and paper that you will need to buy over the course of a few months or years of use.
