What printer features should I look for?

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Printer buying guide

Print quality, or resolution, is measured in terms of dots per inch (dpi). This is the number of dots that can fit into a line one inch long. 

Naturally, higher dpi equals higher resolution and sharper photos, text and graphics. So if sharp photo detail and crisp laser-quality text is important to you, look for a printer with a minimum of 1200x1200 dpi.

However, there are other important factors to consider when achieving ultimate print quality.

1. Ink and paper make a significant contribution to quality and longevity of your prints.  For example, HP’s latest generation of ink cartridges with  Vivera inks produce up to 72.9 million color combinations – and vastly improve the quality of color and black and white photos, graphics and documents you print at home.
2. Another factor in print quality is HP PhotoREt Color Layeringtechnology, which uses more color levels to deliver higher quality printing. HP PhotoREt Color Layering technology uses smaller ink drops and places those drops more precisely. These small dots visually blend together to create richer colors, smoother gradations and cleanly defined color boundaries on any kind of paper.
3. HP ImageREt 2400 is a technology that produces photorealistic images on HP Color LaserJet series printers. It provides the best color print quality without having to change driver settings or compromising between print quality, performance and memory.  And without reducing print speed, it creates millions of smooth colors, sharp images, and crisp text. In some cases, depending on your interests and needs, dpi may be important. But more often, it’s more important to believe your own eyes.

Learn more about the importance of print quality.

Choosing between ink or laser color printing used to be pretty easy—for most people, color laser printers were just too expensive.

Now HP LaserJet printers are available for as little as a few hundred dollars, and your decision can now be based more on your actual printing needs rather than on price. But the choice involves several factors: printing volume, cost per page, print quality, networking and paper-handling options.

When making your decision, consider the following:

Paper sizes and types: Many inkjet printers are very flexible and can accommodate from 4x6 photos to wide-format banner paper—and everything in between. Laser printers are best for standard-size paper, such as 8.5x11 and 11x17 paper.

High-end photos, brochures and marketing materials: The advanced inks now available for inkjet printers provide the precise detail, gloss uniformity and consistent results that high quality photos demand. If you are printing photos to keep as family heirlooms or high-end home business marketing material such as brochures, an inkjet printer is best. However, laser printers also deliver high-quality and color matching. And because of their higher speeds and lower cost per page, they may be your best choice if you need high-volume color printing.

Documents with finishing requirements: Laser printers generally have more paper-handling options—such as high-volume trays, duplexers and staplers.

Print and copy speed refers to how many black or color text pages can be printed or copied in one minute. This rate is measured in pages per minute (ppm) and copies per minute (cpm).

• Do you frequently print color photos to share with friends and family? Or do you print color graphs and presentations for business—often under tight deadlines? If you use your printer to produce quality color photos, speed might not be your primary consideration. If you use it to print business proposals, graphs, etc., choose an HP printer that offers both high speeds and quality output.  
• More often than not, the specified print speed actually reflects pages printed in Fast Draft mode, a mode that produces prints more quickly, but at a lower overall quality than higher mode speeds. Best quality printing is usually at a slower print speed.
• Many HP printers offer five different print performance modes to help you select the print quality and speed best suited to the task at hand. These modes are Fast Draft, Fast Normal, Normal, Best and Maximum dpi.
• HP also offers the world’s fastest inkjet printer for business and the world’s fastest photo printer for maximum print quality in less time. HP has printers that print at record-breaking speeds and others that offer the opportunity to achieve higher quality prints, better suited for photos. It’s up to you to decide what is more important to you based on the type of printing you do.

In a word, yes! Printing, scanning, copying and faxing have become easier, less expensive and more full-featured than ever. Today’s HP All-in-Ones are ideal for

• Scanning old family photos into digital files
• Copying family and home-office documents-- up to legal size
• Sending and receiving faxes in color
• Printing at breakthrough speeds

HP All-in-Ones produce beautiful, color photos, offer laser-quality printing at breakthrough speeds, and many let you enjoy the convenience of high-quality faxing, photo copying and scanning.

Many HP inkjet and HP LaserJet printers allow you to print on both sides of the paper by manually turning the paper over yourself. However, the ability to automatically print on both sides of the paper not only saves you the time and trouble of turning pages over manually, it also saves money by using up to 50% less paper. Consider the automatic two-sided printing feature to quickly and easily print multiple-page letters, brochures, newsletters and booklets.

• Busy homes and businesses also benefit from automatic two-sided printing because less paper overall means less hard-copy storage problems.
• Auto two-sided printing is an easy-to-install option on many HP printers, and comes standard on many higher end HP printers and HP All-in-Ones.

Many printers include a standard paper tray capable of holding 100 sheets of paper at a time. How much printing do you do and on what kind of paper size? How many sheets do you use for a typical project, and how many copies or sets do you need?

• If you generally print lengthy documents or several copies at a time, you’ll need added paper capacity. Extra paper trays typically come in 250-sheet sizes, but others may be available as well.
• You may also want to consider paper trays specifically designed for envelopes or transparencies.
• Another feature worth considering is automatic document feeders, (available with HP All-in-Ones), which allow you to scan or copy multiple sheets of paper at once.

Some printers are built to handle business-size 8.5x11 or 8.5x14 legal-size paper.. But many people also want a printer to use for printing 3x5 photos to make refrigerator magnets, while others want to print 24-inch banners to display at the upcoming Cub Scout banquet, or wide-format 13x19 posters for their daughter’s new dorm room.

Others want a printer that can handle all that and everything in between. It helps to know your needs before you choose which printer to buy. Know the maximum paper size a printer can handle. And the minimum. It pays to do your homework to avoid paying for more than you’ll ever use or buying less than you really need.

Certain printers are better suited for specific paper types. For example, HP inkjet and HP Photosmart printers are great for printing on a variety of paper types and sizes including

• HP photo papers
• HP business communications papers (brochure, flyer, label and   presentation)
• HP greeting cards
• HP creative project papers

HP LaserJet printers, which fuse toner to paper using heat and pressure, work best when handling plain paper with standard sizes, such as 8.5x11 or 11x17. Examples are:

• Presentation papers
• Transparencies
• Glossy paper
• Address and shipping labels

You can print great photos without ever having to turn on your computer. It’s simple to do and, depending on the printer, allows you to print photos practically anywhere.

Here are three easy ways to print without your PC.

1. Look for a printer with PictBridge support, found on many HP All-in-Ones and Photosmart printers. Then, print directly from your PictBridge-enabled digital camera. PictBridge is standard image transfer technology that lets you connect camera and printer using a USB cable and the printer’s USB port.
2. Print directly from your camera’s memory cards. Many HP All-in-Ones and HP Photosmart printers include easily accessible card slots that are compatible with CompactFlash,™ SecureDigital and other popular memory card formats. Once the card is inserted, you can use the printer’s color image display (not available on all printer models) to preview, select, edit and print the photos you want.
3. The HP photo proof sheet (included on some HP Photosmart printers) lets you insert your memory card and print a proof sheet of small-scale “thumbnails” of all the photos your card contains. Simply preview your photos, then indicate which photos, photo sizes and quantities you want —right on the proof sheet. Then put the proof sheet in the paper tray, press print and the printer automatically “reads” the sheet, and prints your photos.

These three elements have a very important impact on your printing experience. Accidents happen, and in the event that your printer needs repair or troubleshooting, you can count on HP for award-winning service and support 24/7 from expert HP technicians.

• HP is the first consumer technology company to receive the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Technology Service and Support certification for “An Outstanding Customer Service Experience.”
• When you buy HP, you can buy with confidence. HP has an impressive choice of affordable service-plan options to protect your products even after your standard warranty expires. 
• And while many other technology companies have reduced their standard new-product warranty coverage to just 90 days, HP stands behind its printers and all-in-ones with a standard one-year warranty. Plus, you have a choice of extended service plans to protect your HP products after your warranty expires.

Award-winning HP service and support is available 24/7 online or by phone. Visit www.hp.com/go/totalcare to learn more.

Memory is built into printers to boost printer performance. Simple projects like everyday correspondence, book reports and your vacation snapshots usually involve smaller file sizes and therefore require a modest amount of memory.

But if you’re looking for a printer capable of comfortably handling more color, more graphics and larger file sizes—you’re going to need a printer with more built-in memory or one that lets you add more memory.

Installing more printer memory offers many other benefits, including:

• The ability to process large print files, as well as several smaller jobs at the same time.
• It will prevent your printer from slowing down while printing larger print projects and from running out of memory altogether in the middle of an important job.
• The ability to continue working on your PC while you are printing
• Increased overall print productivity
• HP printers with standard (non-expandable) memory of 4MB to 16MB are more than adequate for most households. With a few exceptions, most HP inkjet printers, Photosmart printers and HP All-in-Ones have a standard amount of memory that is not expandable.

If your needs entail business printing of detailed color presentations, graphic-rich files, larger photo images or several copies of multipage documents, a printer with more standard memory—32MB to 64MB—or a printer with expandable memory would be best.  Most HP LaserJet printers offer a variety of expandable memory options.

Connectivity refers to the type of connection your printer uses to link to a PC or to a network of more than one PC. The most common printer-to-PC connections are parallel, USB and Ethernet (for a home network).

• Connections using a parallel port are more commonly found on older printers. And they’re perfectly suited for a smooth, one-printer-to-one-PC connection. (Don’t a lot of our PC only have USB option now?  Question)
• USB is more recent. It’s faster and more versatile. A single USB port can handle connections to several different types of devices—a printer, scanner, digital camera, etc. And you can connect several USB devices to your PC at the same time by using a multi-port USB hub.
• Ethernet or LAN (local area network), sometimes called a network card, is a high-speed technology that enables PCs, printers and other devices to transmit and receive data and images via DSL or cable Internet connection. If you plan to share your printer with other computers—PCs, Macs or a combination of both—you’ll need to consider a printer that includes built-in Ethernet or one that allows you to install optional Ethernet yourself.
• In some cases, you can use the Ethernet port on your PC to connect your printer to a wireless router for wireless printing throughout your home.

Some people like the traditional look of white borders around their photos. Others prefer to print their photos with the same edge-to-edge borderless image coverage they get with professional photo lab processing.  HP printers offer borderless printing in two ways:

1. Some printers are designed to accommodate photo papers that include a tear-off tab. After printing, your photos are borderless once the tab is manually removed.
2. Other HP printers and HP All-in-Ones use full borderless papers for total ink coverage automatically.

What are the advantages of borderless printing?

• There’s no trimming, so your photos are easier to frame.
• They’re also perfect for photo albums and hobbies like scrapbooking. The possibilities really are endless.

When you rely on original HP inks, you’ll enjoy a hassle-free, worry-free experience that you won’t get from other manufacturers.

• There are four types of ink printing:

1. 4-ink is good for basic, high-quality home photo printing as well as color graphics and multi-colored and black text documents.
2. 6-ink gives you a broader range of colors, deep blacks, smoother color transitions, and sharper, virtually grain-free image quality.
3. 8-ink helps you achieve an even wider range of colors for photo-lab quality printing, make it easier to create grain-free images with vibrant colors and continuous tones. That also means truer shades of gray, vivid whites, and deeper, richer blacks for gallery-quality black-and-white photos.
4. 9-ink printing produces more color combinations for true professional quality photo printing. The results are richer, brighter blues, deeper blacks, more realistic flesh tones and softer transitions between dark and light for black-and-white photos.

• Many HP printers have individual ink cartridges for each color, so you replace only the cartridges that run out—saving time and increasing efficiency.
• With HP Color LaserJet cartridges, you not only have the flexibility of individual color cartridges, but also the convenience of having the printer drum built into the cartridge itself, saving you time, money and hassle.

If you are considering purchasing an HP Photosmart printer or an HP All-in-One, it will most likely support memory cards. After inserting the memory card, you will easily preview, select, edit and print photos or video directly from the memory card* using the flip-up color image display on the printer (not available on all models) or print photos directly from your PictBridge-enabled camera via a front USB port. With memory cards you can

• Copy and download data, fast  
• Store lots of information 
• Retain data even without camera battery power
• Conserve battery power in small portable devices; the card uses very little power