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.

Low End Color Printers

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

It's all about the INK!

Think you're getting a great deal on that sub-$100 color printer? Check out how much the cartridges cost to replace and how many pages they can generate each month. Calculate what a year of ink would cost you on the low-end model compared to a higher-end printer with more efficient ink usage per page. Remember, it might be cheaper to buy, but end up more costly to run!