With all the different printer manufactures and models available today, many people find it overwhelming when looking for a new printer. The Printer Doctor can help! Below are some help hints and tips to concider before making an investment in a new printer. Still not sure? Give us a call at 707-206-9600 and let us know what you are looking for and we can suggest a couple models that will work for your needs.

Investing in a workgroup laser printer is often the best bet for a small business. Depending on the manufacturer, product, networking capabilities and advanced paper handling features, workgroup laser printers typically cost anywhere from $900 to $1,500 (and up).

Tip:
In larger companies, shared network printers are the de facto standard. Only users dealing with highly sensitive data typically get their own personal printer.

Lowest Cost Per Page and Most Durability
With a workgroup laser printer, you'll generally see a cost per page of around $0.025 to $0.03. You'll also have no problem handling high printing volumes, on the order of several cases of paper each month. Too often, clients come to us with a failed printer that has been over worked because it was purchased based on cost, not on need. Saving a couple dollars today, could cost you hundreds in repair cost down the road.

Double Duty as a Photocopy Machine
For very small offices, a workgroup laser printer with a printing speed of 25 pages a minute or more often can serve double duty as a photocopy machine replacement, if most or all of your documents already are digitized, or if you keep a flatbed scanner with the copy machine function near the printer.

Cost Per Page Comparisons:
Inkjet, Personal Laser Printer and Workgroup Laser Printer
Let's say you're outfitting a small office with six PC users and planning to install a LAN. Which option makes the most sense?

A) Six inkjet printers, around $200 each ($1,200 total)
B) Six entry-level laser printers, around $400 each ($2,400 total)
C) One high-speed networked workgroup laser printer, around $1,500. And for occasional color printing, one inkjet printer (around $200), shared on a peer-to-peer basis ($1,700 total)

Unless you have some out of the ordinary requirements, I'd almost always recommend option C. The bigger challenge is convincing the six users to give up their personal printers.

Larger laser printers have a reduced cost per page and a much higher duty rating (1/2 the cost of smaller laser printers and 1/10 the cost of inkjet printers). If a larger printer can be purchased and shared between a group of people, printing costs can be reduced significantly.

Consider the following example:
5 people using personal laser printers

5 x $400 price for an HP 1300 = $2000
500 pages per month x 12 months x 5 users x .022 per page = $660

5 people sharing a work group laser printer
1 x $1000 for an HP 2300 = $1000
500 pages per month x 12 months x 5 users x .019 per page = $570

The cost of using personal laser printers is $2660 versus work group printing at $1570 – a significant cost savings. When larger numbers of users share larger printers, the cost savings become even more significant.

Organizational and Behavioral Barriers
All of a sudden you're asking employees to walk a few feet to pick up printouts when they were used to the convenience of their own printers on their desks. If you really are committed to keeping your costs as low as possible, and getting your office a more reliable, high-volume printer, your employees simply may have to learn to share.

A Colorful Future
If you have a high-volume color printing requirement, you once only had two choices: swallow hard and pay sky-high prices for inkjet printer cartridges, or outsource the color printing to a local service bureau. Now that brand-name, color laser printers have dropped below $1,000, many small businesses will purchase color laser printers rapidly to drive down their cost per page, while producing much crisper and more professional-looking color printouts.