Color printers are excellent ways to produce high quality in-house marketing materials. Keep in mind some of these important tips when selecting a color printer:

  • Check out the INK CARTRIDGE prices before selecting a model; often cheaper printers have higher-cost supplies later which you cannot avoid!
  • Make sure your printer uses the USB 2.0 cable standard, for faster printouts and performance
  • Color printers with built in memory or expandable memory slots make it easier to send a print job to the printer and free-up your computer for other tasks while it prints
  • Color printers can be very slow – especially cheaper models – so a few more dollars spent on a faster model up front can save time (which is money!) every day
  • The “higher resolution” settings of some color printers can be misleading; oftentimes these high-res qualities can only be seen with expensive, specialty paper or extra-cost ink. In general, 1200 dpi printing is more than enough for everyday marketing pieces.

Great Performance Color Printers

Print this page and use the following table to compare the standard "mid range" printer features and "what to look for" specifications with the "what you've found" specifications while shopping for your new color printer.

FEATURE

“What to Look For” SPECIFICATIONS

 

FEATURE

“What You’ve Found” SPECIFICATIONS

Memory

64 MB

 

Memory

 

Print Speed

11-18 ppm color

 

Print Speed

 

Resolution

2400 x 1200 dpi

 

Resolution

 

Networking

Ethernet Adapter

 

Networking

 

Connectivity

USB

 

Connectivity

 

Total Media

250 pages

 

Total Media

 

Cartridges

Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow

 

Cartridges

 

Monthly Duty Cycle

25,000 pages

 

Monthly Duty Cycle

 

Matthew's Opinion:
Moderately priced ink jets have dramatically improved in performance and features in the last few years. Be careful, though, to check replacement cartridge prices which can be as high as $100 each in some models. Posted speeds vary with the amount of graphics per page, but overall these models will produce great marketing materials at fairly good speeds.