PRINTERS
Select the Right Type of Printer
Concentrate on the type of things you want to print when selecting a printer. Popular brands include HP printers, Epson printers, Lexmark printers, Canon printers, Dell printers, Samsung printers, Minolta printers, Panasonic printers, Oki printers, and Brother printers.
Get a good general-use printer
Inexpensive ink-jet printers print text and photos in black-and-white and color, and offer most home printer users all the functionality they need. They make a good choice if you plan to print documents, spreadsheets, Web pages, and a few family photos. They can often print on envelopes and specialty papers, such as cardstock and labels, as well as transparencies. If you want the ability to replace each color as ink runs out, look for a printer with separate cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink cartridges. For more advice on choosing an ink-jet printer, go to eBay's Ink-jet Printers Buying Guide.
Print photos at home
Photo printers use six or more ink cartridges to produce prints with rich colors and fine detail. Some photo printers only accept photo paper while others also print to letter-size and legal-size paper, envelopes, and more. Also look for a:
PictBridge: PictBridge technology allows you to connect your digital camera directly to the printer over a USB connection.
Memory card slot: This slot allows you to take the memory card out of your camera, stick it in the printer, and start printing photos right away—without having to transfer images to your computer first.
LCD preview screen: If you’re printing directly from a memory card or from your digital camera, this is a handy feature that lets you preview an image before you start printing.
Borderless printing feature: Borderless printing enables the printer to print right up to photo paper edges. Look for a photo printer that supports borderless printing for 4x6 or 8x10 photo paper.
Print on the road
If you travel a lot, a mobile printer, may be just what you need. These portable printers often weigh less than 5 pounds and some include a scanner. Also, look for mobile photo printers so that you can print photos anywhere, even on vacation.
Choose an office workhorse
Anyone who prints more than 100 pages a day can save time and money by using a laser printer instead of an ink-jet printer. Laser printers feature large paper trays, print more pages per minute than ink-jets, and come in two varieties: monochrome and color.
Monochrome laser printers: Fast monochrome laser printers produce sharp black text at about six to eight pages per minute (ppm) (12 to 14 ppm at minimum settings). Although laser printers cost more than ink-jet printers, the cost of monochrome toner costs less per printed page than ink-jet cartridges.
Color laser printers: Versatile color laser printers use CMYK toner toner to turn out vivid photos and graphics at a rate of two to three ppm. They cost more than monochrome laser printers, photo printers, or ink-jets. However, if you need to print a large number of colorful images for your home business in less time it takes to print on an ink-jet, they make a good option.
Get one machine to do it all
If you work from a home office, a multifunction printer, also called an all-in-one printer, may be just what you need. You’ll get printing, scanning, and copying capabilities, all in one device. Some machines even allow you to fax. If you do a lot of copying or scanning, look for a multifunction machine with an automatic document feeder (ADF) so that you don’t have to load the pages one-by-one.
Pick up printer accessories
On eBay, you can find everything you need to make printouts and keep your printer running. Look for printer accessories such as printer cleaning kits, printer repair kits, printer power supplies, black ink-jet cartridges, color ink-jet cartridges, black laser toner, color laser toner, paper, photo paper, drum cartridges, and printer ribbon.
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