From the printer's driver-settings dialog box, you can specify draft mode to save on ink when you don't need the best quality. You can also save by turning off color printing--black ink and toner are usually cheaper than their color counterparts. To save on paper, print two pages side by side on the same sheet; and if your printer has a built-in duplexer, always print on both sides. Also, use cheap multipurpose paper for most jobs, such as printing Web pages and draft documents that only you will read. Keep your best paper for when you need the highest quality, such as for business letters and your résumé.
Whenever possible, buy ink and paper in bulk. Many manufacturers offer bundles of ink and paper that dramatically lower the cost of printing photos. HP's value pack for its Photosmart 375 and Photosmart 385, for example, combines one tricolor ink cartridge with 50 sheets of snapshot paper for $20--less than the $25 cost of the cartridge alone.
When buying toner for laser printers, look for high-yield cartridges. Many manufacturers produce cartridges in large capacities that let you print more for less. Dell, for example, offers cartridges rated for 3000 pages for its Laser Printer 1710n at $70, whereas a 6000-page cartridge costs $90 (with a discount for returning the spent toner cartridge).
Should I buy cheap generic ink or toner for my printer?
It's true that you can save significantly on printing costs by buying ink or toner made by a company other than your printer's manufacturer. And if you want just the cheapest possible printing for short-lived documents, that strategy is fine. However, you're taking a risk if print quality and longevity are important to you. For example, at the temperatures applied by your printer's engine, generic toner may not adhere to the paper as well as the manufacturer's compound. The result could be poorly shaped characters and gray banding across the page--not a great way to impress a potential customer.
When printing photos, you really need to use the ink and paper combination recommended by your printer manufacturer to ensure that your prints have accurate colors and won't fade quickly.
How do I recycle inkjet and laser toner cartridges?
Americans deposit millions of inkjet and laser toner cartridges in landfills every year. Manufacturing new cartridges consumes precious resources and energy. Many cartridges can be refilled several times, or they can be recycled in ways that are less harmful to the environment.
Laser printer manufacturers such as Dell and Lexmark sell toner cartridges at a discount if you return the cartridges for recycling when they're empty. Dell, for example, charges $90 per each 6000-page cartridge for its Laser Printer 1710n when you return an empty one; without a return cartridge it costs $130. In part, this pricing structure is meant to discourage customers from refilling the cartridges, but it can also help protect the environment.
Other manufacturers have programs for recycling their inkjet and toner cartridges. HP, for instance, includes postage-paid shipping materials with most of its printers, to make returning the used cartridges easier; you can also order these materials from the company's Web site. Brother and Oki offer similar programs through their sites. Konica Minolta includes prepaid shipping labels with its new cartridges for returning the used part.
Your local school or charity may participate in a cartridge-collection program that helps it raise money. You can also look for an office-supply store that pays you a small sum or offers a discount in exchange for spent refillable cartridges.
What type of printer should I buy for printing photos?
If you're printing only 4-by-6-inch photos, consider buying a snapshot printer that uses either dye-sublimation or inkjet printing technology. The devices take up little space, and they're often portable.
For printing larger photos, or if you also need to print text documents, you'll need a desktop inkjet printer. Models with four or more color ink cartridges generally produce the best quality. For high-resolution black-and-white photo printing, look for a model that prints several shades of gray and black.
Most photo printers have a PictBridge port that enables you to print directly from a digital camera without having to plug a memory card into either your PC or the printer. If you'll be printing most of your photos directly from your camera, you don't need an LCD on the printer itself--you can use the screen and controls on your camera to operate the printer instead. Many printers have media slots for printing from your camera's memory card, or for transferring the images to your PC. A good-size LCD on the printer is worth having if you intend to print directly from a memory card.
See PC World's Top Photo Printers and Top Snapshot Printers charts for our latest ratings.
Can I print high-quality photos on a color laser printer?
Color laser printers work well for printing documents that combine text, graphics, and photos. Most produce photos that are adequate for many purposes, such as real-estate brochures, car insurance claims, and missing-kitty fliers. Current models, however, lack sufficient color accuracy and print resolution to rival inkjet printers.
Many laser models, including the HP Color LaserJet 2605dtn, the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500W, and the Lexmark C500n, let you print on glossy paper, which makes their images look more like real photos. A few lasers, such as the LaserJet 2605dtn and the Magicolor 2430DL, have either media slots or a PictBridge port for printing from a digital camera.
How do I print high-quality text on an inkjet printer?
To get the best text output from your inkjet printer, check the user manual to see what sort of paper the manufacturer recommends. Cheap multipurpose paper absorbs ink too easily, giving characters fuzzy edges.
Some inkjets, such as Epson's Stylus C88+ and Stylus Photo R800, use only pigment-based inks, which bleed less on more types of paper than do common dye-based inks. Other models, such as the Canon Pixma iP4300, the HP Deskjet D4160, and the Lexmark Z845, add a pigment black ink to their dye-based inks for printing darker and sharper black text.
Once you've bought and set up a keyboard or a pair of PC speakers, you'll likely never have to tinker with them again (or spend more money on them). When they finally give out, you'll simply buy new models. Not so with your printer. The purchase price is only the beginning of your investment, and figuring out how to get the best prints--and how to spend less on ink or toner cartridges--can take a lot of fiddling and thought.
To help, we've assembled answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about printers, paper, and--most important--how to trim the ridiculously high cost of ink or toner.
Should I buy an inkjet or a laser printer?
To choose the right printer, think about the output quality you need, and how much you'll be printing. These two considerations will dictate how fast the printer must be and how much you should be prepared to spend on ink and paper.
If you print a lot of business documents, letters, and other text files, a monochrome laser printer is likely your best bet. These devices are fast and inexpensive, and produce good-looking documents for only pennies per page.
If you'll be printing documents containing color charts and other graphics, a color laser printer is a good choice. Recent price drops make color lasers affordable for nearly any small office. And these models often print black-and-white pages at a cost per page comparable to that of monochrome lasers. Plus their color-photo prints are good enough to use in newsletters, marketing brochures, and other plain-paper documents that mix text and pictures.
Anyone who prints more photos than documents will get top quality from an inkjet printer. If you print a mix of photos and documents, though, the choice is a bit more complicated. A typical home user who prints, say, driving directions, shots taken with a digital camera, product recommendations from a Web site, and a few business letters a month will find that an inkjet printer offers a good compromise between quality and speed. A workload such as this will require a variety of paper. If you purchase a model with two paper trays, you won't have to swap paper in and out of the tray as frequently.
PC World's Printer Info Center can help you find a printer that delivers the speed and quality you need, and that fits within your budget.
Should I buy a multifunction printer, or a separate printer and scanner?
It used to be said that a multifunction printer was jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. That's no longer the case.
You can get good-quality prints and scans from a multifunction unit. Additionally, both operations usually work better together in one machine than if you bought a printer and a scanner separately. You can copy a document directly from the scanner to the printer, for example, without having to route the image through your computer.
Multifunction printers come in two varieties:
Office-oriented models have an automatic document feeder for scanning multiple pages as a single task, and often include a built-in fax machine.
Photo-oriented models let you scan slides and negatives, and usually have built-in media slots for importing images directly from digital camera memory cards.
Multifunction printers designed for offices can use either inkjet or laser printer technology. While inkjets suit both home and small-office users, the laser units can replace a small workgroup's printer, copier, and fax machine.
Melissa Riofrio was the first editor of PC World's Top 10 Printers. Yardena Arar is a senior editor for PC World. Special thanks to Jim Aspinwall, Gary Funk, Robert Luhn, and Rick Scheerer.
Whether your printer costs $40 or $400, the purchase price is only the first item on your new list of ongoing printing expenses. Over time, buying the ink or toner and acquiring media (paper, envelopes, transparencies) will very likely make a far bigger impact on your wallet. These costs will vary depending on what you print, how much you print, and what kind of media you use. Some expenses are unavoidable: Printing an 8-by-10 photo on premium, glossy paper will never be dirt cheap. Shaving cents off of other kinds of printing, however, involves just a little thought, effort, and advance planning. Read on for tips on how to choose and use your printer wisely--or perhaps not at all in some cases.
Know Before You Buy
Saving money on printing starts (ideally) before you buy the printer. Before you begin researching new models, make sure that you'll be getting the best printer for the types of documents you plan to produce. For more on the criteria you should use, see "The Right Printer for the Job," and read our comparison of pricing versus print quality trade-offs in "The Best and the Cheapest." Once you start looking at specific models, make a point of checking the recommended print volume; if you typically print 100 pages a day, for example, don't buy a printer that's rated for 500 pages a month.
How much is that cartridge in the window? Replacement ink or toner cartridge costs represent a major part of your long-term printing expenses. As we learned when we researched Hewlett-Packard's $40 Deskjet 3520 (see "$40 Printer, $40 Ink"), replacing the cartridges can cost as much as buying the printer (see "Pay It Again, Sam: Ink Costs Can Dwarf Printer Prices"). In general, expect to pay $10 to $40 for an ink cartridge, and $60 or more for a toner cartridge.
But don't judge a cartridge by price alone; its efficiency, or page yield--the number of pages it can print--matters just as much. Of course, that figure will vary depending on how much ink you use on a page, but the industry-standard assumption is 5 percent coverage per page for each color. Some companies make yield information available on the Web along with other printer specifications; others will provide it if you ask, either by e-mail or phone.
You can use yield information to calculate per-page costs, which can be useful in determining what your printing costs for different printers would look like over time. Laser printer toner cartridges may cost a lot more than ink jet cartridges, but their higher yields make per-page costs lower.
Some printer manufacturers offer multipacks of inks, which can knock a few dollars off the price per cartridge. The standard-capacity black ink for Dell's $79 J740 ink jet, for instance, costs $30 alone; a two-pack is $56.
A few colors more: Some ink jet printers produce superior photo quality by using additional colors beyond the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. But all the color cartridges may not come with the printer. For instance, Canon's $200 i960 printer is bundled with all six of its inks (including Photo Cyan and Photo Magenta), and they cost $12 each to replace. But HP's $100 Deskjet 5150 includes only the standard HP 56 black and HP 57 tricolor cartridges ($20 and $35, respectively); the HP 58 photo cartridge is a separate, $25 purchase.
The incredible, shrunken starter cartridge: Many lower-cost laser printers come with starter cartridges that last anywhere from 60 percent to as little as 33 percent as long as a regular cartridge. Granted, if you don't print much, that first cartridge could last you a while; but if you know you'll be printing at least 100 pages per month, either find a printer that comes with a full-size cartridge or factor in the cost of an early replacement. Of course, if you get a great deal on the printer, your overall cost may still be quite affordable.
The cheapest paper for the job: The heavier, brighter (whiter), or more specialized the paper is, the more it will cost. You'll generally pay as little as a half-cent per page for typical, 20-pound office paper, or as much as a dollar for an 8.5-by-11-inch sheet of glossy photo paper.
Save the pricey stuff for final prints; for everything else, use the cheapest paper you can find. It will affect the print quality from your laser printer minimally, if at all, and it will work fine for producing drafts and other internal documents on your ink jet printer. Third-party brands often cost less per page than the printer manufacturer's media, but test ink jet-specific media on your printer to see if you like the results. You may have to buy a full pack to do this, unfortunately.
Cable not included: Some printer manufacturers save on costs by omitting the USB or parallel cable that you may need to connect the device to your computer. If you can't use the same cable you had for your last printer, shop around: You don't need the expensive models with gold connectors and heavy shielding unless you have a lot of interference in your work area from other devices.
Consumers revolt over the cost of ink jet cartridges, even as printer prices plummet.Tom Spring, PCWorld.com
At $22 per quarter-ounce, a Hewlett-Packard color ink-jet cartridge is more expensive, by weight, than imported Russian caviar.
Observing
such high prices, Connecticut research consultant Zel Dolinsky wants to
know the reasons for them. "How come, with printer prices falling, ink
prices are still so outrageous?" Dolinsky asks. "I'm appalled."
Ink
jet and toner cartridges are fanning angry sparks in the ink cartridge
replacement market--a $21 billion field, according to Lyra Research.
Consumers
are annoyed at the price of authorized replacement ink cartridges, and
tempted by third-party substitutes that don't always work flawlessly.
The
major vendors, including Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, and Lexmark,
are at odds with independent manufacturers of alternative inks. In fact,
some big vendors are suing third-party makers of cartridge clones for
alleged patent violations. Meanwhile, second-tier ink cartridge makers
say they simply offer consumers a choice--at prices that are sometimes
75 percent below what major vendors charge.
That leaves consumers
in printout purgatory. They must either pony up for name-brand ink, or
risk substandard printouts by buying replacement ink jet cartridges from
a generic distributor. As PC World has found, however, plenty of worthy third-party replacement ink jets are also available.
The
big-name vendors say that the third-party ink is inferior to brand-name
versions. And certainly, the brands dominate; together, Canon, Epson,
HP, and Lexmark account for 84 percent of the ink replacement market,
Lyra Research reports.
Recently, the controversy has caught the
attention of overseas regulators. Trustbusters in the United Kingdom and
at the European Union are examining the way Canon, Epson, HP, and
Lexmark price ink and do business. In the United States, at least one
state is attempting to protect consumers' right to purchase third-party
alternative goods.
The Real Cost
The printer
supplies industry has adopted the practice of cell phone and razor blade
sellers: Charge low prices for initial equipment, then make money from
ongoing fees for additional needed components. Vendors sell consumer
printers at cost, or even sometimes at a 20 percent loss, say financial
analysts at Bear Sterns who track Epson and HP. But on the flip side,
both firms earn a 60 percent gross margin on ink jet and toner
cartridges, says Bill Hand, financial analyst with Bear and Stearns.
Those
numbers are not exactly true, the vendors say. HP does make money on
its printer hardware, according to Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice
president of imaging supplies. In a prepared statement, Epson says that
it "makes a reasonable profit on both" printer hardware and ink.
Still,
consumers grouse about the "give away the razor and sell the blades"
business model. Hence, the birth of a market for recyclers to refill
used cartridges, or sell cartridge clones at half the price of the
brand-name items.
Protecting Profits
Not
surprisingly, printer vendors characterize this aftermarket as a
financial threat, Hand says. "It's fair to say at least 80 percent of
overall profits [from within Epson's and HP's printing divisions] come
from supplies," he says.
Lexmark has tried to suppress the makers
of aftermarket cartridges by integrating a microchip, dubbed a "killer
chip," inside its own laser jet toner cartridges. If a Lexmark printer
doesn't spot the Lexmark chip inside a cartridge, the unit won't work.
The only way to reuse the cartridge is by sending it back to Lexmark,
which will refill the empty tank and reset the microchip for another
use.
If you try to refill the Lexmark toner cartridge yourself
with third-party toner, or if you use a compatible cartridge that lacks
the microchip, the printer won't accept it. The microchip and Lexmark
printers have the intelligence to "expire" toner cartridges and use only
Lexmark goods. Critics worry that it's only a matter of time before
Lexmark introduces the chip to its ink jet product family.
Epson
integrates chips to authenticate its cartridges, too, but it takes a
slightly less extreme approach: You can reuse its ink jet cartridges by
refilling them. But a used Epson microchip and cartridge lose some
functions, such as the ability to record ink levels.
Down the Inkwell
Caught in the middle, many consumers remain angry about the high cost of ink.
"I
know they're in the business of making money, but sometimes you can go
too far," Dolinsky says of the recurring ink jet cartridge costs
associated with his $150 HP DeskJet.
Predictably, HP and others
say their cartridge prices aren't high considering the cost of
researching and developing the technology and then manufacturing the
equipment. "These aren't just bottles of ink you put inside of your
printer," Jotwani says.
He points out that HP's ink jet cartridges
are very sophisticated. For example, each has 40 microscopic nozzles
that precisely expel billions of ink dots across a page. HP is also
fastidiously attentive to ink quality, Jotwani says, to assure uniform
viscosity and color.
Calling ink prices high may largely be a
matter of perspective, some analysts say. When printers cost $500, no
one complained about $30 ink jet cartridges, says John Shane, CAP
Ventures analyst. But since 1996, the average cost of a personal ink jet
printer has dropped by 60 percent, according to CAP Ventures, from
approximately $426 to an average of $169 in 2002. Meanwhile, CAP
Ventures also reports, the average price per printed page has risen by
12.5 percent, from 8 cents per page to 9 cents per page, in the same
timeframe.
CAP Ventures says that it doesn't count the cost of the
printer itself in figuring prices per page; it's based largely on the
cost of cartridges. The analysts attribute the higher per-page costs
largely to the fact that the average page printed today contains more
cartridge-draining graphics and images than even a couple years ago.
Ink Angst Goes Global
High ink jet prices among dominant ink manufacturers have caught the attention of U.K. and European Union regulators.
Following
a year-long investigation, a U.K. agency called the Office of Fair
Trade (OFT) has recommended that Canon, Epson, HP, and Lexmark more
clearly tell consumers their likely long-term printing costs. Printer
makers have until October 2003 to better communicate the total cost of
printer ownership, after which they face possible OFT monetary fines.
In
December 2002, the European Union launched a similar investigation. "We
are evaluating barriers to entry into this market, prices, and
contracts that lock businesses into long-term relationships with OEM ink
makers," says Tilman Lueder, European Union spokesperson.
Both
investigations stem from consumer price complaints. Overseas regulators
say that the gripes also came from remanufacturers and generic vendors,
who claim that Epson and Lexmark are making it very hard to make
compatible aftermarket clones.
The Law and Lexmark
Lexmark is challenging the third parties in court. Last December, the printer vendor sued North Carolina-based Static Control Components, which makes and sells clones of Lexmark's microchips to recyclers.
Lexmark is accusing Static Control of contravening the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to circumvent any digital technology used by a company to protect its intellectual property.
Many
Lexmark buyers agree to return the cartridges to Lexmark in exchange
for a rebate. This enables Lexmark to limit competition in the
aftermarket, say analysts. A judge in Lexmark's home state of Kentucky
has ruled in favor of Lexmark; and for now, Static Control is forced to put its microchips on ice.
Consumer Rights Rally
A twist to the Static Control case came on August 7, when North Carolina Governor Mike Easley signed into law a bill
giving North Carolina residents the right to refill any ink jet or
toner cartridge. The law doesn't directly address Lexmark's DMCA
concerns, but it bolsters buyers' rights.
Under the North Carolina
law, consumers and businesses that have contracts with service agents
can refill or use third-party cartridges despite printer manufacturers'
user agreements requiring consumers to use only the vendors' ink. The
bill does not address warranty issues.
European regulators are
considering a law to ban printer and cartridge manufacturers from using
Lexmark-style "killer" chips that leave expended cartridges unusable.
The EU claims that the use of such chips just loads landfills with empty
cartridges.
Lexmark declined comment for this report. But the
public will likely be hearing a lot more about the cost of printing.
Spending in U.S. retail stores on toner and ink jet cartridges is
forecast to jump 43 percent by 2007, to $26.3 billion, according to Cap
Ventures.