Every business has one basic need in common: money. The usual way to get hold of it, particularly in the case of companies selling products or services to other businesses, is by invoicing. That most basic need pretty much establishes that every business needs a printer. The question is, what sort and how much to spend?
The first thing to establish is budget - which isn't the same as price. If a small business or even a sole trader is about to investigate that first printer purchase, the first thing to do is to walk straight past the printers in a showroom and inspect the printer cartridges instead. Look at how much they cost. Go past these and look at the better quality paper. Check the price once more.
Now consider the full cost of your printer - a cheapy that uses expensive cartridges and requires the best sort of paper in order not to smudge will cost more over the next couple of years than pricier models. The other thing to look for is memory. A printer with memory will process some tasks itself; those without will leave it all to the computer or network and may slow things down.
It's also useful to know a little about the technology behind the printers themselves. They fall into three basic categories: dot matrix, inkjet/bubblejet and laser. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.
Dot matrix is the last of the impact printers. It works by hitting pins in the pattern of a letter against a ribbon, which makes an impression on the paper. It has an image as a noisy and old-fashioned technology but it shouldn't necessarily be written off just yet. It's easier to get a dot matrix printer to handle tear-off stationery such as warehouse dockets, and if you need carbon copies of something, it's the only thing that will work. It's true that it's not suited to the quieter office environment, although it's not as loud as it used to be.
Bubblejet, also known as inkjet, works by blowing small ink bubbles on to a page. These bubbles go on wet and although they are dry by the time the document emerges, you'll notice a certain smudging effect with porous paper. The cheaper bubblejets can be deceptive in terms of price since the customer isn't always aware that the toner cartridges can run to £20 or more a shot. Look for inexpensive cartridges and particularly refillable ones, and always check that the coloured inks can be refilled separately to cut down on waste.
As long as you've checked, though, you'll find bubblejets extremely good value for money and, depending on the model, very flexible indeed. Colour printing is hardly more expensive than mono, so if you want to scan letterheads in for use in future you can save a little on stationery. You can also print good quality photography on photo paper as long as you have a scanner or digital camera; some models will allow printing on other materials such as transparencies. The extras push the price up, so be ruthless about what you need.
Laser printers are better quality but they are expensive. If you really want the corporate look on whichever paper you use they are the only choice but will be twice the price of a good inkjet, or 10 times the price if you want colour. The toner goes on to the paper dry so there will be no smudging, and the print quality overall is far more solid than that offered by the cheaper systems. That said, it's now becoming difficult, without a magnifying glass, to distinguish between a good bubblejet and a cheap laser. Most businesses will be OK with a bubblejet; the extremely image-conscious might prefer laser.
Aside from these options there are the specialist versions: rugged printers for use in extreme conditions, plotters for medical scanning and technical drawing, and more expensive versions to take A3 as well as A4 paper. The basics, though, are straightforward - just try to buy a printer that's one step more advanced than you actually need, because you'll always find there's a printing task you hadn't anticipated that suddenly looks essential.
