Every office needs a printer, but the question (or questions) you need to ask yourself are about your company’s productivity needs—not what the thrills and gadgets of printers are.

• Do you need it to copy, fax, scan (color documents and photographs), and copy in color or plain black and white?
• Additional questions are do you need your printer to print photo quality prints (i.e. with a photo cartridge for optimum quality), and do you need your printer to print banners and posters?

These are some of the key questions that you will need to analyze before investing in a key component of office equipment, and notice that there is no question here about needing a printer—in an age of computer reliant business practices, printers are must haves and “no brainers.”

Key tips for the type of printer you should buy largely depend on the type and size of your business. The first thing that you need to hold fast to when buying your printer is to purchase an office printer. Office printers are often called laser printers, or printers that use toner instead of cartridges. Cartridges are small, and fit in the palm of your hand—toner units take two hands to insert into the machine (but they slide in quite easily). Often times, small business owners will buy a home-office printer because the price is considerably cheaper. But, when paying less than 100 dollars for your printer, and ink cartridges in the 35 dollar range (average pricing here), you can not expect these devices to hold up to the demands that an office will bring. These products are priced low, and their shelf life is short (meaning that newer and cheaper products enter the market frequently) because manufactures know that these consumers will need to continually upgrade their printers after a year or two of use. Keeping these prices low accelerates demand, and their “temporary” quality allows for consumers to easily (and without deep contemplation) purchase new ones. Accordingly, save yourself the hassle, and continual replacement of printer cartridges, by purchasing an office printer. These run from 100 to 1000 dollars, and their cartridges are about 40 to 200 dollars. Initially, these prices might seem high, but you will receive at least five years of use from the printer and each printer cartridge prints well over a thousand pages, usually in the three thousand range (slightly less for color pages)—much more than you will get from 35 dollar home-office printer cartridge. These printers are made for light daily use, and their life expectancy greatly diminishes in a busy and productive office atmosphere. Justly, these smaller printers are good to have at an individual’s desk, but when you need to print out several large jobs they will quickly get overheated and possibly break down. Thus, keep the smaller printers for individual use, and maintain an office size and quality printer for most jobs.