There are a lot of printers and cartridges on the market and although it is easy to simply walk into your nearest computer shop and buy one, there should be some questions you ask yourself first if you want to make sure you get the most for your money. This article acts as a quick guide to buying a printer and accompanying ink cartridges.

If you have decided you want to buy an inkjet printer you will discover there are different levels of quality available. Have a think about what printing you will be doing as this will tell you how high the quality needs to be. If the printer is just for personal use to be used infrequently then you can afford to choose something on the lower end of the scale. If you need the printer for work or for printing documents for school then you may wish to choose something on the higher end of the quality scale. This of course will initially cost more and there may be a premium on the additional printer ink but if the printing is important it is well worth the cost. There are often some very budget types of printer available that seem to offer unbeatable value. Don't be blindsided by the low cost however as they do not necessarily offer good value. They are usually extremely slow to print and of very low quality too.

Inkjet printers don't print as fast as laser jet printers. If the printer is for an office that does large amounts of printing every day, an inkjet just might be too slow for this purpose. Inkjets do increase in printing speed as the budget increases, so those at the very top of the market may be suitable but this needs some serious consideration beforehand as having a slow and cumbersome printer could affect productivity in the office. If 15 printed pages per minute seems too slow for you then you should consider buying a laser jet printer.

With an inkjet printer you can control the resolution that the pages are printed in and thereby control the amount of ink used to print each page. If you are printing draft documents or pages or text that aren't very important then you can reduce the resolution. If you want to print photos or important documents you can increase the resolution to provide a sharper image. This saves you ink and therefore money in the long term.

When choosing a printer you should compare the ongoing costs of ink or toner for laser jet models. Compare the price per yield figure to provide an accurate comparison. Consider how much printing you will be doing per month to see which type of printer will be the most cost effective for your needs. You can work out the sums quickly on the back of an envelope. The ideal type of printer is one that uses separate cartridges for black ink and for colour. Black ink is much cheaper than colour and you can select the preference to print in just black and white. This will keep printer ink costs down. If there is no separate cartridge you don't have this money saving option available. It is even possible to buy separate coloured cartridges, which is even better because this offers even more ways to save money.

When you are buying printers and ink cartridges consider the questions above first to make sure you get the best value for money and the most suitable printer for your needs. HP printers and hp ink cartridges are particularly reliable as are epson ink cartridges and printers. You can be sure you are getting a good deal when you purchase a printer from either of these ranges.