Hi,
I set up my new business from home and printing from my old injet is
just not affordable. I was told that instead of paying for new
cartdedges everyweek. Buy a laser printer. I went and had a look aty a
few affordable printers. But it is diffucult to understand what is
meant by all the terms the are listed on the pages like Page Monthly
cycle. What specs do i need to know about when buying the new laser
printer and the amount of pages a standard laser can do. Thanks
There are several important things to consider. I am assuming you are looking
at a monochrome laser rather than colour.
Monthly duty cycle is the amount of pages the printer is designed to handle, if
you exceed this number the printer will continue to print but there is a
possibility that some manufacturers will not honour the warranty.
Cost per page is very important, usually the manufacturer will specify the
number of pages a toner cartridge will print (usually at 5% coverage, which is
a surprising amount of printing usually more than enough for a letter). Entry
level lasers (also true of entry level inkjets) are usually more expensive to
run than the more expensive models.
Some lasers have drums built into the cartridge and some do not. If you choose
a printer with a separate drum unit you need to factor that cost into your cost
per page calculation.
Examples are - Most HP lasers have integral drums so the cost per page is easy
to calculate, most Brother and OKI lasers have separate drums and toner
cartridges.
Next there are some other components that will require replacement in due
course like Fusers but this is not an issue with entry level printers because
they are priced in such a way that replacement of the fuser is largely
uneconomical. You may need to replace pick up rollers at some time, these are
easy with most HP lasers but harder with some other makes.
You need to see an example of the output quality since this varies quite a bit
between models. More expensive lasers are designed to be repairable, entry
level lasers are not (with the exception of toners, drums and feed rollers).
If you plan to print labels or transparencies you must use media that is
designed for lasers, non-laser transparencies and label stock will almost
certainly seriously damage a laser printer. Also, labels are best printed on a
printer (of any variety) with a straight or near straight paper path. Envelopes
can also be challenging unless you have a straight paper path.
The paper that emerges from a laser printer usually has a slight curl due to
the heat applied to the paper, the amount of curl varies according to the model
and the paper used. This is rarely an issue since the curl disappears over time
but for some applications this is important.
Laser printers rarely print to the edge of the page, this is a design
constraint and is not an issue with business documents but look at the margin
specs (top, bottom and side margins) for the printer before you buy.
Lastly, there are essentially two types of printer - GDI (Host Based), despite
many negative comments on these printers they work exceptionally well and are
slightly cheaper than the alternative. I know many businesses that use GDI
printers for normal document printing. GDI means that the rasterising, or
document formatting is done in the PC. The other type uses PCL or Postscript,
these printers do the rasterising in the printer itself which reduces the
amount of work the PC has to do. These printers are usually far better for very
complex documents but provide little advantage for most text documents. This
last topic may well start a debate here, many people have strong views about
GDI printers, all I can say is that they work very well for most businesses and
indeed most home users unless they print very complex ducuments, documents with
a lot of graphics fall into this category.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
