Laser printers provide the highest quality text and images available today. They are ideal for small businesses and home offices—and there are even some reliable low-cost models that are perfect for everyday personal printing. This guide will help you decide which laser printer is right for you.
Which laser printer you choose will depend not only on how much you're willing to pay, but also on your particular requirements for print quality, speed and special features. Here are some logical ways to narrow your choices.
Quality, resolution, and color
The standard resolution in most laser printers today is 1200 dots per inch (dpi). This is well-suited for everyday printing, including small desktop publishing jobs. (A high-end production printer might have a resolution of 2400 dpi.)
Some laser printers still use a resolution of 300 dpi, which can cause jagged lines to appear on the outer edge of an image. Hewlett Packard created "resolution enhancement technology"—or RET—to correct this. RET inserts smaller dots at the edges of lines to smooth the rough edges. RET does not improve the resolution but the document looks better. If you buy a printer with 300 dpi, make sure it has RET.
Full-color laser printers tend to be much more expensive than black-and-white versions and require a great deal of printer memory to produce high-resolution images. But oh, the color! HP LaserJet printers can provide true 600 x 600 dpi output (the equivalent of 1200 dpi) with HP ImageRet 2400, for crisp text, bold graphics and vivid pictures.
Speed
Lasers still hold the high ground in terms of speed—you can get full-color results as fast as 3 to 4 ppm, and black-and-white output as fast as 25 pages per minute (ppm). But when it comes to the actual printing, laser printers can take a little while to warm up. When a laser printer receives data from a computer, it takes 5 to 30 seconds to prepare the printer. This is in addition to the time it takes to actually print the document. When the printer is turned on, it needs time to warm up the fuser to operating temperature. If the printer has a standby mode or is turned off between printing jobs, the warm-up time becomes even more important.
To reduce waiting time, look for a laser printer that has "instant on" fusers, which are designed to reduce warm-up time. An instant-on fuser can deliver the first page in 15 seconds!
paper handling, size and capacity
Paper handling is important when shopping for a laser printer. Most laser printers use letter-size, cut-sheet paper. Additional paper trays or feeders can be added to increase the capacity or variety of media. High-end production printers use continuous-feed paper.
Laser printers can print on a variety of papers sizes, types and weights, such as transparencies, labels and card stock. They can also handle non-traditional media like envelopes. But be warned that many specialty papers, such as iron-on transfers, are not suitable for laser printers, as the heat used in the transfer process could damage the paper and gum up your printer.
A laser printer with duplex printing can print on one side of the paper, then turn the paper over and print on the other side. Most laser printers, however, use the simpler manual duplex printing.
PCL or postscript?
"Printer command language" (PCL) is the standard printer language for HP's and most other laser printers (which are mostly HP-compatible). PCL is used for printing letters, database printouts, spreadsheets and simple graphics.
Postscript printers are used with desktop publishing software and drawing packages. Postscript-capable printers are also the norm for Apple Macintosh printers.
A laser printer that uses only PCL can be upgraded to Postscript by installing a software driver provided by the manufacturer of the laser printer.
Advantages of HP LaserJet printers
If you are looking for a personal-desktop or home-office workhorse, an HP LaserJet printer the best option. These machines are designed for the long haul. They can turn out a high volume of pages per month at fantastic speeds. They are capable of producing extremely high-quality text and graphics (including color) using HP’s resolution enhancement technology (RET). Plus, they are easy to set up and use.
HP offers a wide range of laser printers—from reliable low-cost models for everyday use, capable of printing up to 7000 pages a month, to network-ready models designed to print nearly 150,000 pages a month. They are available with both black-and-white and color capabilities. Some models offer infrared/wireless printing. Others come in the form of multifunction products that allow you to print, copy, scan and fax—offering a complete document management solution right on your desktop.
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