By now you’re far enough along on learning how to use and navigate through the computer that you can select a good, solid printer for your home office. There are a lot of choices out there, so let me boil them down according to categories:

Ink Jet / Color – One of the primary purposes for buying an ink jet printer is so that you can print in color. A lot of the times an ink jet printer is cheaper to buy. However, there’s a clear hidden costs associated with buying a low end model.

First, low end models (no matter what brand) use the cheapest parts they can find manufactured in third world economies. That’s not a bad thing if the only reason you need it is to replace an aging model or if you only print occasionally. Please note, though, that a slick printer dealer tactic is to price the printer ridiculously low so that you will buy it. They may even lose money on the deal. So, you have to ask yourself, when a dealer sells a printer for $19, how can he make money when he’s actually losing per printer?

Simple. You will always need ink jet cartridges. And where are you likely to find those cartridges? At the same dealer that sold you the printer. You’re likely to go back for two reasons: he has what you need and you secretly feel that since the printer was cheap, you owe him some business!

So the overall cost of the printer evens out nicely. But over the course of a printer’s life, you will need more than a few cartridges.

The other type of printer is the laser or the laser jet printer. The quality of print that a laser jet prints for the average reader is phenomenal. Back in the day when letters were typed on a manual typewriter, they were considered letter quality or LQ. Then ink jets came came out with a LQ setting. and finally letter quality is the standard now for laser printers.

One of the cool things about laser printing is that the ink does not run (they tell me that the ink in the ink jets is better and doesn’t run but I’m not sure I’d trust it). One downside to laser printing is the cost of cartridges. However, the cartridges last for months.

The newest printer to hit the market is the photo printer. This device prints your photos. The ink is expensive but the quality of the photos it prints is fabulous. You really should consider a photo printer if you send your photos to the photo developing store.