How to deal with your printer

By Andy Walker

• Ask if the toner cartridges are full on your new printer. Some ship with half cartridges to keep the upfront price lower.
• Look for page-yield specification on toner cartridges (i.e. www.hp.com/go/pageyield) and do that for each cartridge and then multiply that by the number of cartridges in the printer and divide by the yield to come up with the cost per page. Some companies hide or downplay page-yield.
• Don’t be fooled by printer speeds on the packaging. They are usually speeds for draft printing. Few people ever print in draft mode.
• Bargain-priced printers will cost you more in the long run. Printer companies make their money on the back-end in branded paper and ink/toner.
• DPI or dots-per-inch is a measurement that tells you how many dots of ink per inch make up a printed image The higher the number the better the quality of the final print.
• Speed kills … your pocket book. Faster printing equates to a higher printer purchase price.
• If you need lots of photo prints for work, consider buying a 4x6 color photo printer. They are small, fast and portable.

More about printers and printing:

• Printing becomes fine art

• What type of printer is right for you?