Which type of printer?

The first decision to make is what kind of printer you need. There are a variety of options: stand-alone inkjets; multifunction inkjets which can also scan and copy; colour and mono lasers (which can also have multifunction capability); and compact photo printers.

Stand-alone inkjet printer

Good choice for colour photos, text and graphics. Increasingly rare.

Price range: $50 to $300

• Pros: The best overall choice for printing a variety of file types. Excellent quality text, graphics and photos. Accept a variety of paper types and other media. Many can print photos directly from a digital camera.
• Cons: Running costs are generally higher than lasers. Economy varies between inkjets, and depends on the size and cost of the cartridge being used.

Quality is usually compromised by speed. In other words, increasing the quality extends the print time. Most inkjets take between 10 and 30 seconds to print a page of text. Images are much slower. At standard or best resolution, an inkjet is doing well to print a picture in under 3 minutes. The worst offenders can take up to 20 minutes.

Paper makes a huge difference to inkjets, so don't be disappointed if pages printed on "photocopy" paper aren't up to scratch. On high-quality paper, the results will be far more impressive.

Multifunction inkjet printer

Good choice for text, photos, and other functions

Price range: $50 to $1200

• Pros: Combines printing, scanning, copying, and in some cases faxing in one unit. Usually cheaper than the individual components. Most will print photos without a computer. Good quality printing for text, graphics and photos.
• Cons: Often more expensive to run than lasers. The units are bulky compared to stand-alone inkjet printers. Most can't scan negatives or slides. If something goes wrong with one component, the entire unit has to be repaired.

See the Test results and recommendations for more information on multifunction inkjet printers. 

Laser printer

Good choice for low-cost text and graphics. Some have multifunction capability.

Price range: $100+ for mono lasers; $275+ for colour lasers

• Pros: The best choice if you print a lot of text. No trade-off between quality and speed. Print very quickly, regardless of the quality settings. Paper quality is not important.
  
  Mono lasers are designed to print black text quickly, cheaply, and at high quality. Running costs are low, as black toner is less costly than ink.
  
  Colour lasers are quick to print and cheap to run. Quality for colour graphics is improving.
  
  Some mono and colour lasers are available as multifunction models which can scan, copy, and in some cases fax.
• Cons: Photo quality is generally poorer than inkjets. A top-performing inkjet printer, set to highest resolution and using special paper, will achieve better results.

Compact photo printer

Dedicated 6x4 inch photo printing

Price range: $200 to $500

• Pros: All can direct print so you don't need a computer. Some can run off a battery for portability.
• Cons: Can't print on A4, or handle text or graphics. Photo quality, print speed, running costs and price aren't necessarily better than a stand-alone inkjet printer.