Printers

Welcome to the Printers page, this is our guide to buying a printer online in the UK, this includes inkjet and laser printers from brands such as Epson, Lexmark, HP, Canon, Hewlett Packard, Brother and many others.

There are many types of printers available to buy online, the two main types are the inkjet and the laser printer. The inkjet printer works by placing very small droplets of ink onto the paper, these are extremely small so when combined make the image that the printer produces. The smaller the drops of ink the printer produces the better quality of picture the printer will produce, this is called Dots Per Inch (DPI). So when you are buying an inkjet printer look out for the DPI, this is always stated as two numbers like 1440x720 which states the number of drops produced in each direction on the paper, vertically and horizontally. Some printers are capable of combining the individual drops and these are the inkjet printers that produce photo quality results. There are many manufacturers of inkjet printers and they include Lexmark, Epson, HP, Hewlett Packard, Canon, Brother and many others.

The other type of printer is the laser printer, this uses an advanced laser beam which is a highly focused beam of light to produce the printed material. Laser printers are more expensive than inkjet printers but are getting cheaper, you can now also get colour laser printers as they used to be just black and white. Laser printers work by using positive and negative electrical charges, the laser printer places the work to be printed in a positive electrical charge and then coats that in fine toner, the toner produces the image and as it sticks to the positive electrical charge of the image to be printed it produces perfect results. There are many brands that offer laser printers, these include Lexmark, Canon, HP, Hewlett Packard, Epson, Brother and many others.

One thing to remember about printers is that they use consumables, consumables are items that need to be replaced on a regular basis or when they are consumed. Consumables include the paper you print on and the ink cartridges or laser toner that the printer uses to print, some ink cartridges can be expensive so it's worth having a look at printer manufacturers that offer cheaper ink cartridges. Printers come with all of the ink you need to get started and most come with some paper, this sometimes does not last long though especially if you are printing large, high quality images. Some inkjet printers have more than one colour cartridge, most have a separate black cartridge although some cheaper models use a very dark green for the black colour. Having more than one colour cartridge has several advantages, the colours will be more accurate as they will not have to be mixed as much and they should last longer as if you use one colour allot the other colours will not be used.

One popular type of printer is the all in one printer, an all in one printer combines many computer devices such as the printer, scanner, fax machine, copier and many others, these are great as they save on space and are also allot cheaper than buying each device individually. All in one printers are also easier to use as the controls for each device will be similar, if you are looking to buy a printer and any of the other devices then an all in one printer is highly recommended.

Another feature that is very popular is photo quality printing, digital cameras have become very popular so people need a way of printing out their favourite photos. This is where the photo quality printer comes in, these are usually inkjet printers that have a very high DPI rating and so produce high quality images. Photo quality printers are also quite cheap these days, most printers sold offer a level of photo quality with the cheap models offering a lower DPI. Another aspect to keep in mind is the paper that you use to print your photos, you can buy high quality glossy paper that is much better than normal paper and will give results similar to that you see with professionally developed photographs, this glossy paper is quite expensive though so you have to use it carefully.

So there are a few things to look for when buying a printer, the quality of the image (DPI) is important and if you are wanting to print photos then make sure it has photo quality technology. If you are looking for a cheap printer then an inkjet model would be best, their prices have come down allot so you can find high quality inkjet printers for much less money than used to be the case. Also be sure to have a good shop around, many shops run cheap special offers where you can find some great deals and a very cheap printer, we have included links at the top of this page to the main shops that sell printers.

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