Good Ezines

Choosing a Lexmark printer for your business is a matter of assessing what your current business needs are, what your projected needs are, and then balancing the cost of acquisition with the cost of consumables over the life expectancy of the printer.

First things first, consider how much printing you’re doing now. In general, the higher the total number of prints you do in a month, the better the trade off will be between paying for a higher end printer (with lower consumable costs) rather than saving money on acquisition. Desktop printers generally cost less to acquire and more per printed page than standalone high end printers.

Inkjet printers cost more per page, even for Lexmark models, than laser printers. Unless you need some of the things an inkjet can do, they’re not suitable for general printing, no matter how they’re marketed for that aim. Inkjets are good for photographic printing, and artwork printing – and many come in large formats, suitable for printing artwork. They certainly can’t deal with the same bulk volumes as the faster and more efficient laser alternatives from Lexmark.

If you’re printing for a small office workgroup, a network capable laser printer may well suffice; these are medium duty cycle printers that usually have paper capacities in the realm of 200 sheets or less. They’re good for printing off a presentation or two for a meeting, or printing out code for markup or drafts of documents.

Larger, networked Lexmark laser printers that are high capacity are good investments for larger offices that do a lot of printing – things like charitable organisations, architectural firms and barrister’s offices make good candidates for this sort of printer; these often have 2,000 to 3,000 sheet drawers, multiple drawers for swapping capacity without stopping a print job, and usually cover as office copiers and network ‘fax machines’ as well.

It may, or may not, be worth the trouble to look into a color laser printer; color laser printers typically have toner costs about eight to ten times that of a conventional black and white printer, and getting them to print solely in black and white can require a good deal of understanding amongst the workforce to avoid extra expense. (Horror stories of the intern who spent half a quarter’s print budget on one report with a color graphic on page 7 abound…) However, color printing in house is rapidly becoming a differentiating feature for business office printers, and many of them are now capable of full gamut colors with corrections – making them suitable for generating advertising mockups before sending them outside the firm.

Other factors you should consider involve the space needed for the printer. Desktop printers can be tucked into odd corners – just look at any college dormitory – but high end printers need to be free standing; the back plane of the printer is used for air flow to keep the innards cool. You will also need adequate space to open the printer up for maintenance. Far too many printing plants with large free standing printers don’t give adequate room to maintain the printer. Whenever you must replace a toner cartridge, it’s important to run through all the steps needed to clear the drum and bits of toner.

Lexmark produce a wide range of printers matching all budgets and specifications. So whatever the size of your business, however many people it has to serve, you should be able to find a Lexmark printer, be it laser or inkjet, to meet your needs.

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who represents a number of UK businesses. For a wide range of HP products, he recommends Printware Ltd, a leading supplier of Lexmark Printers.