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Personal laser

Samsung ML-3051N

Though the technology has been around for years (HP introduced its first LaserJet in 1984), laser printers are still going strong because they combine fast print speeds, sharp output, and a low cost per page. Like copiers, laser printers use a photographic drum to attract electrically charged toner and transfer it to paper, where the image is fused using a heated roller. The vast majority of laser printers are monochrome (black and white), and they are best-suited for printing text and simple graphics. They start around $200. Until recently color laser printers were too expensive for individuals or small businesses, but there are now several models for less than $500, and these are viable alternatives to color inkjets for printing flyers, spreadsheets, and brochures. More manufacturers also offer networking--either built-in or as an add-on--on personal lasers, making them a good fit for homes with multiple users and PCs.

Workgroup laser

Lexmark C532dn

As the name implies, workgroup laser printers are designed for small offices or small teams within larger companies. The basic technology is the same, but these are more than beefed-up personal lasers with features tailored specifically for multiple users. First, they support printing over networks either standard or as an option. Second, they offer more-advanced handling capabilities, including larger input and output trays, and some offer duplex (double-sided) printing, sorting, and stapling. Finally, they have faster processors and more memory so that they can manage multiple jobs and print faster. Like personal lasers, the vast majority of workgroup lasers are monochrome--designed for printing text and simple graphics--and they start at around $400.

Inkjet

HP Officejet Pro K5400

Inkjet printers have come a long way in the last 10 years. Today's versatile inkjets can produce both crisp text and rich photo prints. Most manufacturers offer both general-purpose and photo inkjet printers, which shouldn't be confused with snapshot or photo printers designed for only 4x6 or smaller prints. Inkjets print an image by applying a precisely controlled stream of tiny ink droplets from one or more cartridges to a variety of paper types. Each manufacturer uses slightly different techniques, and the size of the droplets and the way they are applied to the paper determine the image quality. Unfortunately, the process is relatively slow compared to that of laser printing--and the ink cartridges and the special papers can be costly--so inkjets are best suited for home users and small businesses with light printing needs, or those who need to produce high-quality graphics and photos. Inkjet printers range in price from less than $100 to as much as $800, depending on features, image quality, and paper-handling capabilities.

Multifunction/all-in-one

Canon Pixma MP960

Multifunction printers (MFPs) or all-in-ones (AIOs) are the Swiss Army knives of printers. They combine copier, scanner, printer, and, in some models, fax capabilities in one unit, making them perfect for home offices and small businesses. MFPs are available with either laser printers for speedy text and occasional graphics, or inkjet printers for vibrant photos. The best models include flatbed scanners and auto document feeders for walk-up scanning, faxing, and copying of multipage documents. MFPs start at around $100 for entry-level inkjets, but the price ranges vastly depending on printer technology and feature set.

Photo/snapshot

Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Professional Edition

Some inkjet printers use more than the four basic CMYK inks to produce high-quality photos, so if you own a digital camera and spend a lot of time printing photos, you may want to pay a little more than a plain old inkjet will cost or opt for a second printer specifically for that purpose. Some photo printers use inkjet technology, described above, but most rely on dye-sublimation, which transfers color dye in a continuous tone from a ribbon onto the paper in a series of passes, followed by a protective clear coating. The print quality is comparable to that of professional photofinishing. Another big advantage: they can print directly from compatible digital cameras, and most models also accept storage cards such as CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard, or Memory Stick. A subclass of photo printers, or snapshot printers, is limited to 4x6 or smaller prints; they can't handle standard 8.5x11 sheets, which is why they are suitable as second printers only. They typically cost at least $200.

Portable

Canon ip90

These pint-size printers are designed for life on the road. They weigh anywhere from 2 to 5 pounds and are just large enough to squeeze through a standard 8.5-inch-wide sheet of paper. Portable printers use the color-inkjet-printing technology described above. The print speeds and the image quality are hardly top-notch, and you'll pay a premium for these travel partners, but if you really need to print on the go, they fit the bill. They typically cost $300 or more.

Resolution

One of the most widely used specifications, the resolution refers to the maximum number of dots per inch (dpi) that can be printed, measured both horizontally and vertically. For example, a 600x600dpi laser printer lays down a one-inch square composed of 600 dots across by 600 dots down. In theory, a printer with a higher resolution is capable of producing more-detailed text and images, as seen in this representation:

Though manufacturers have inflated the numbers for marketing purposes, and the numbers no longer correlate directly with higher image quality, resolution still has some bearing on the quality of text and curves, especially on premium papers.

Print speeds

This spec measures how many pages or photos per minute (ppm) a printer spits out. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Unfortunately, it's not so simple. To come up with the fastest-possible speeds, some manufacturers test using basic text documents at the lowest-quality print settings (Draft mode) on plain paper--not exactly a real-world test. Based on our experience, you can expect to see about half the speed promised by the manufacturer.

Connectivity

The USB (Universal Serial Bus) is truly universal--all printers now have a USB 2.0 port. But if you want to go old school, you'll still find plenty of printers that accept those big, 25-pin parallel cables. Workgroup printers also support printing over a network using a standard Ethernet cable with an RJ-45 connector. For even better mobility, many models support printing wirelessly, using infrared, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi access points with built-in print servers.

Processor and memory

Nearly all laser printer manufacturers provide information on the processor and the memory, but at least for personal use, these specs are relatively unimportant. Your computer does a fine job, largely on its own, of lining up print jobs and sending them on to be printed. If you have multiple users or you often print high-resolution photos or other large files, however, then you'll want a printer with a faster processor and more onboard memory.

Paper handling

The typical paper-handling specs on a printer include everything from the size and thickness of various types of paper to the standard and optional input- and output-tray capacity. Generally, all inkjets and personal laser printers print on standard paper (letter and legal sizes), accept envelopes, and have input and output trays that hold at least 100 sheets, except for snapshot and portable models. More advanced paper-handling features--such as tabloid-size printing, duplexing (printing on both sides), and auto document feeders for faxing and copying--will be found on only higher-end models, though they're beginning to trickle down to everyday consumer models as well.

Text

Most demonstration pages will include rows of text at varying sizes, which can show different types of flaws. At the smallest font sizes, the individual letters should be legible and fully formed with no breaks, and they should not bleed into one another. Medium-size fonts should be crisp with no fuzzy edges. And the largest fonts, especially bold ones, should be filled in with a solid, even black--not a muddy bluish or brownish tone. If the tops and bottoms of characters are slightly offset or you see a pattern of dots incorrectly aligned from one row to the next (forming jagged outlines), that typically indicates misregistration of the printhead. You should also be able to see well-rounded counters (the openings) in letterforms; if not, that's usually a sign of the printer laying down too much ink. Keep in mind that on plain, 20-lb. paper, inkjet printers will usually display some wicking, as the ink bleeds along the paper fibers.

Graphics

The printer demonstration should print several geometric shapes of different sizes and shading. The outlines should be crisp with smooth curves; inside areas of solid colors should appear dense and evenly shaded. Also look for areas where a color goes from dark to light (a gradient). Is it a smooth transition, or can you see color banding, distinct bands progressing from darker to lighter? Large areas of flat color should appear solid and even, rather than muddy. Some printers try to dazzle the eye with overly saturated colors; others skimp on ink, leaving images that appear washed out. Look for a nice, natural-looking balance between the two. Printhead banding--that is, visible horizontal stripes across a page--could be caused by a clogged nozzle, a poorly aligned bidirectional printhead, or a poor rendering algorithm (gradients aren't rendered smoothly).

Photos

When evaluating print quality, there are four chief considerations:

Color accuracy
Compared to the original, the colors should be accurate, pleasing, and well balanced. Colors should be vivid but not oversaturated. Look at a monochrome photo under fluorescent light, incandescent light, and daylight. How badly does the color cast change from one light to another (called metamerism)? Be sure to look for inconsistencies across different paper types and print resolutions.

Sharpness
Is the output sufficiently sharp? Any jaggies? If you see problems, do you have any theories about what's going on? Does the lack of sharpness have to do with printhead or color misregistration?

Dynamic range
Can you see detail in highlight and shadow areas, or are they rendered as flat or with no color? Does the printout look muddy or low contrast?

Artifacts
Do you see any banding? How about evidence of a clogged nozzle? Excessive dot gain? Any other weird stuff going on?

Ink and toner

Inkjets are the least expensive printers available, with many models starting at less than $100. The catch? The consumables, such as replacement inks and specialty papers, can cost you an arm and a leg. Ink typically costs between $12 and $60 per cartridge and can last for 100 to 200 pages. More expensive printers, however, tend to be more economical to operate because they have higher-capacity ink tanks and separate ink tanks for each color so that you don't need to replace everything when only one color runs dry. To save some money, you can purchase a compatible ink-refill kit from a separate company, though you may not get the same reliability or print quality.

Laser toner cartridges vary greatly in price, yield, and print capabilities. Toner cartridges generally cost from $10 for a small cartridge for a personal laser printer to as much as $300 for a high-capacity cartridge for a networked workgroup laser printer. Toner costs seem high, but so is the yield. A cartridge typically prints between 2,500 and 10,000 pages (although some claim to print as many as 30,000), so the cost per page is a few pennies for text (at 5 percent coverage) and not much more for images (with 15 percent coverage). Pay attention to the expiration dates, though; some cartridges (HP's in particular) will stop working at a set time, no matter how much ink is left. Also, consider paying a little more for a separate toner cartridge and drum kit, rather than the usual combination unit. That way, you don't have to replace the drum, which is often capable of handling many more print jobs, every time you replace the toner.

The chart below illustrates the cost of printing 1,000 pages on a budget inkjet (750 pages of black text and 250 pages of color images), a personal laser, and a midrange office laser. Factoring in the cost of the printer and the cost of the printed pages, the lasers still cost more in total, but that's because their purchase price was so much higher. The cost of printing pages on the inkjet, however, has already overtaken the cost of purchasing the actual printer. If you project out to printing 3,000 pages on each printer, the inkjet's total cost rockets to $291.75, compared to the personal laser's $278 and the midrange laser's $294.

Dye-sublimation printers have the advantage of a fixed cost per print, since each print eats up the identical amount of ribbon, regardless of photo content. On the other hand, the prices for packs of ribbons and paper can be exorbitant, sometimes as much as $2 per photo.

Paper

If there's one thing we've learned from CNET Labs' extensive printer testing, it's that better-quality paper yields better-quality printouts. For the best results, you really need to bite the bullet and buy the coated or specialty paper recommended by the manufacturer of your model. This is particularly true for inkjets, photo printers, and multifunction devices. Special paper can cost 10 cents to $2 per letter-size sheet, but it is essential if you want to print crisp-looking text or high-resolution photos.

Extras

The biggest gotcha with many printers is the printer cable. Incredibly, many manufacturers don't even include one because retailers want to sell you one separately for anywhere from $10 to $30. Before leaving the store, read the box to determine whether you'll need to buy one separately. For some business inkjets and laser printers, network connectivity is optional, as well.

If you're purchasing a workgroup printer or an advanced multifunction printer, you should also consider some paper-handling features that are frequently offered as add-ons, such as larger-capacity input trays; output bins for collating, stapling, and other finishing options; and auto documents feeders for copying and faxing multipage documents.