It is never an easy task to buy printers and scanners. It is frustrating and daunting to choose from a variety of brands, shortlist the exact type, go through the different models (which are introduced once every month).

Today, this post will enlighten you on the factors that you must consider before buying both printers and scanners respectively. So let’s start with printers first and then check out elements for scanners as well.

Factors while buying a printer

The printer you are looking for should fit your eligibility criteria. Is it for the office where a lot of printing is bound to happen? Is it for your home, where there would be occasional printing but images of high quality?

-First, check what operating system your computer works on. Some printers do not support a certain OS, so first find out if yours does.

-Next, decide if you want a fast color printer or not. If yes, then shortlist a laser printer. Check if you get a memory card with it. This allows you to print directly from the card. Inkjet printers offer good quality pictures at affordable prices. Laser printers are pricier.

-Research for pricing. See which ones fit your budget and what features you get from them. Also, remember to keep in mind the operating cost towards toner, paper and ink cartridges.

-A high resolution (which is the number of dots per square inch printed) is the next factor. High resolution which is over 1440 dpi is a good option. This would suit photos of high quality.

-Size for each printout has to be your next criteria. The paper path should be sharper than 90 degrees. This won’t allow the printer to jam even for varied types of media prints.

-The volume of the printout is important if you intend to print a lot of documents in black and white.

-Some printers allow post-script fonts. This helps if you intend to print post-script fonts or graphics over a laser printer.

-Image processing power yields good quality pictures. These do take up quite a bit of RAM, so look at that aspect as well.

-As mentioned at the start, check for the printer compatibility with as many operating systems as possible. This way multiple systems can be connected.

-Make sure you get an industry standard 90-days warranty for the new printer.

Factors while buying a scanner

Scanners are great to save documents into a soft copy format. If you have scanned documents on your system, you can get rid of the photocopies lying as garbage in your home. Most people nowadays prefer purchasing printers and scanners online. Many also look for a combination of both printer and scanner clubbed together. Let’s look at factors to consider while buying a scanner.

-Understand your requirements well. Do you want the scanner to be used for light-weight home usage or for heavy-duty business applications?

-There are 4 features that determine if a scanner is worth it or not. A basic resolution scanner, which scans at not more than 1200 dpi, is awesome for usage at homes. They are supposed to be fast and can scan multiple items at a time.

-Business applications require a scanner to come with customizable options. The ones used for cutting-edge photography require a high resolution. Text scanning in offices meanwhile requires a normal resolution to scan.

-Cost of a scanner is vital in segregating the various options. If the price is not an issue, you might as well get a printer cum scanner.

-Scanners come with a dynamic range. This is a measure of how wide the tones of a scanner can record. Majority of color scanners come with a dynamic range of 2.4. The higher the better, based on your budget.

-Most color scanners come with a bit depth of 24-bit. The best scanners, however, come with a bit rate ranging from 30-bit to 36-bit.