About Printers

For most home PC owners, a printer is a printer is a printer.  In other words, when you are not producing a commercial result, the quality is fairly equal.  Not that dpi (dots per inch) doesn't vary, because it does.  But we're usually satisfied without buying the higher priced models.

What we will find irritating about a printer is either the noise it makes laboring through a print job, or the length of time it takes to finish.  Other considerations are whether it feeds well i.e. do you have to keep adjusting the paper to get the rollers to pick it up.  Will it take varying thickness of paper, and will it do envelopes without making you hand feed each and every one and then throw out half of them because the envelope went crooked as it printed.

Another thing we find out only after owning a printer for a while, is how often must we replace those expensive cartridges?  And if it seems often, what do we have to compare it to?  Who can evaluate whether we print a lot, not enough or not enough color to keep the ink flowing?

Lastly, does the printer software lock up and give you "spool" crashes?  Does it use so much memory that your computer is immobilized until it finishes?  When you shop