How to choose the best printer in 2022

Comedians have always had their preferred punching bags – topics, products or people whose name alone could raise sniggers among the audience.

Famous topics from yesteryear included Reliant Robins, the mother in law and Mrs Thatcher, while today’s comics can be assured of an expectant pause if they mention Donald Trump.

Printers have also become embroiled in this comedic shorthand, from fictional descriptions of embittered toner salesmen through to the (sadly real) price of inkjet cartridges.

However, it’s time to set the jokes aside. Today’s printers are not only more reliable than their unlamented ancestors, they’re also considerably cheaper to maintain.

Here’s what you need to know about choosing a printer.

Laser focused

The first decision you have to make when choosing a printer is what type you want:

1. Laser. A high-voltage current is applied to a drum full of powdered ink, which then melts and sticks to the paper as it passes between heated rollers.
2. Inkjet. Tiny dots of ink are squirted directly onto paper, typically from one or more inkwells, to produce a composite picture.

Both varieties of printer can be purchased in monochrome or colour variants, so it’s worth considering what you’ll be using them for.

If your new printer is exclusively for sending out letters to your customers, and you already have coloured letterhead, monochrome ought to suffice.

If you’re wanting to print out family photos, only a colour printer will do.

Consumer-facing colour inkjet printers generally have four cartridges or inkwells – cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Combining these four shades produces every other colour.

It used to be the case that only a laser printer could accurately represent colours or ensure small black letters appear neatly on a page, but inkjets have closed the gap.

Inkjet print quality is pretty good nowadays, even if you’re shopping towards the budget end of the market. You may encounter smudging on some models, though.

Performance and price

Laser printers are far quicker than inkjets, especially when printing in black. This is important if you’re planning to output large volumes of paper.

However, the complexity of those drums and rollers means initial purchase prices are higher, even for monochrome laser printers. Colour machines will cost several hundred pounds.

The flipside comes when you consider ink replacement costs. Manufacturers tend to supply their products with a modest amount of ink, which soon needs to be replenished.

For inkjet models, this can be extremely expensive, especially if there are four (or on occasion six) cartridges needing to be purchased.

Manufacturers like Epson have addressed this with ink tanks, replacing individually sealed cartridges with plastic tanks that can be topped up using spill-proof bottles of ink.

This is far more environmentally conscious, and it slashes running costs. If you purchase a model with visible ink tanks, you can physically see which colours are running out.

It’s still a more complex process than sliding out a single-piece laser cartridge and slotting in a replacement, though. Old laser cartridges can be easily recycled nowadays.

Inkjets are also prone to their nozzles clogging, which necessitates lengthy, noisy and often messy cleaning before a test page is output to check if the nozzles are now clear.

This can waste ink, especially if you haven’t used the printer for a while.

It’s worth noting that inkjet sprays tend to soak through thinner paper. We’d always recommend investing in paper with a higher GSM rating.

Size and scale

If space is at a premium, inkjet printers tend to be considerably smaller than their laser counterparts.

A compact space will also necessitate a basic single-function printer, as opposed to the all-in-one models commonly marketed nowadays.

These offer additional services above and beyond their core functionality. Some can scan in documents using a glass plate, often at extremely high dots per inch (DPI) resolutions.

Others expand on this to provide basic photocopier duties with a single button press.

Many modern printers can be connected to your home broadband via WiFi, enabling you to print from tablets and smartphones as well as desktop computers.

Laser focused

The first decision you have to make when choosing a printer is what type you want:

1. Laser. A high-voltage current is applied to a drum full of powdered ink, which then melts and sticks to the paper as it passes between heated rollers.
2. Inkjet. Tiny dots of ink are squirted directly onto paper, typically from one or more inkwells, to produce a composite picture.

Both varieties of printer can be purchased in monochrome or colour variants, so it’s worth considering what you’ll be using them for.

If your new printer is exclusively for sending out letters to your customers, and you already have coloured letterhead, monochrome ought to suffice.

If you’re wanting to print out family photos, only a colour printer will do.

Consumer-facing colour inkjet printers generally have four cartridges or inkwells – cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Combining these four shades produces every other colour.

It used to be the case that only a laser printer could accurately represent colours or ensure small black letters appear neatly on a page, but inkjets have closed the gap.

Inkjet print quality is pretty good nowadays, even if you’re shopping towards the budget end of the market. You may encounter smudging on some models, though.

Performance and price

Laser printers are far quicker than inkjets, especially when printing in black. This is important if you’re planning to output large volumes of paper.

However, the complexity of those drums and rollers means initial purchase prices are higher, even for monochrome laser printers. Colour machines will cost several hundred pounds.

The flipside comes when you consider ink replacement costs. Manufacturers tend to supply their products with a modest amount of ink, which soon needs to be replenished.

For inkjet models, this can be extremely expensive, especially if there are four (or on occasion six) cartridges needing to be purchased.

Manufacturers like Epson have addressed this with ink tanks, replacing individually sealed cartridges with plastic tanks that can be topped up using spill-proof bottles of ink.

This is far more environmentally conscious, and it slashes running costs. If you purchase a model with visible ink tanks, you can physically see which colours are running out.

It’s still a more complex process than sliding out a single-piece laser cartridge and slotting in a replacement, though. Old laser cartridges can be easily recycled nowadays.

Inkjets are also prone to their nozzles clogging, which necessitates lengthy, noisy and often messy cleaning before a test page is output to check if the nozzles are now clear.

This can waste ink, especially if you haven’t used the printer for a while.

It’s worth noting that inkjet sprays tend to soak through thinner paper. We’d always recommend investing in paper with a higher GSM rating.

Size and scale

If space is at a premium, inkjet printers tend to be considerably smaller than their laser counterparts.

A compact space will also necessitate a basic single-function printer, as opposed to the all-in-one models commonly marketed nowadays.

These offer additional services above and beyond their core functionality. Some can scan in documents using a glass plate, often at extremely high dots per inch (DPI) resolutions.

Others expand on this to provide basic photocopier duties with a single button press.

Many modern printers can be connected to your home broadband via WiFi, enabling you to print from tablets and smartphones as well as desktop computers.