Tired of spending so much money to print? Tired of repairing your old printer so often? Tired of making several frequent trips to the supply store for toner? Here is a breakdown of which type of printer you should buy!

How many printers does your business have?  Why do you need more than one?

• Multiple printers in an office are often hard to manage and maintain.
• Document security issues can warrant a personal (secure) printer.

How are the printers hooked up and arranged in the office?  Is it necessary to share printers?

• Shared printers are very difficult to troubleshoot.
• Walk time between printers could be spent more productively.
• Centralizing printing can increase productivity and decrease cost at the same time.

How many different toner sets do you have to purchase and
how often? Wouldn’t it be nice to only have to buy one set?

• Toner cartridges are very expensive and generally only fit one style of printer.
• Larger networkable printers can often use high capacity toner  cartridges, which last longer, thus reducing costs and time spent maintaining the printer.
• Even if you need more than one printer, purchasing two larger identical printers can be cost effective, since they will use the same consumables.

How many printer issues have you had to solve to be able
to print? Networked printers are generally very reliable.

• Networkable printers with built-in print servers do not require a computer to be available to everybody.
• Networkable printers generally can churn out more prints, of higher quality, from more users than shared printers are capable.

For example:

One of my favorite printers is the Brother MFC-9970CDW. This is a multi-function Color Laser printer with wireless networking and duplexing capabilities.  It can print at a rate of 30 pages per minute (ppm) in either black or color! It can print in resolutions up to 2400X600dpi, which is basically photo quality. It can hold up to 300 sheets of paper in the tray and up to 50 sheets in the automatic document feeder.

But enough, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty:

The purchase price of this printer is a little bit higher (valued at $699), but is well
worth it, as I describe below.

This printer has a 750-4,500 page monthly recommended print volume, which means that it can support MANY users simultaneously.

It only takes four toner cartridges, while some take as many as 12 different cartridges. The printer comes with standard toner cartridges, which can print 2,500 black and white pages, and 1,500 color pages each. Also available are high-yield cartridges, which can print 6,000 black and white pages and 3,500 color pages each!

So, for around $400, you can print between 3500 and 6000 pages! This equates to between $0.07-$0.11 per page!

Another good printer, but for personal use, would be a Dell 1250c Color Laser Printer (Valued at $229.99). This is a single function color laser printer with only USB connectivity. It can print at a rate of 12ppm in black and 10ppm in color. It can print in resolutions up to 600×600, which is standard quality. It can hold up to 150 pages in the paper tray, and does not have (or need, since it can’t scan or copy) an automatic document feeder.

Again, down to the nitty-gritty:

While this printer costs considerably less than the above Brother printer, the toner is considerably more expensive.

To purchase the toner that you would need for this printer will cost around $265 for all four colors (this is a discounted price as they were purchased as a combo) and it will only last for around 700 pages. This equates to around $0.31 per page!

So what it all boils down to, is that if you printed around 3000 pages/month, the
higher capacity large printer would cost around $400/mo. to maintain and the smaller, lower capacity printer would cost around $900/mo! (Not to mention all  the extra trips to the store for more toner!)