If you are in the market for a printer, you know that there are so many options out there. There are various sizes, speeds, resolutions, shapes, colors… (list continues forever). With all of these options, what do you need to focus on to make sure you get the right printer for you? All you need is a machine that will spit out the documents on your computer and make them look pretty good. Well here are three important features to consider when concerning the quality of the documents you need to produce.
Monthly Duty Cycle: This number indicates how durable the printer is and how much print volume it can handle in a given month. A lower volume printer like the one you use in your home probably won't even have a monthly duty cycle number so if your print volume is very low, then don't even worry about it. Otherwise, when looking at the numbers, know that the monthly duty cycle number is often about 6-8 times what you should realistically expect the printer to be capable of printing in a month.
Print Resolution: A printer's resolution is slowly becoming less important as manufacturers have been able to alter dot size and shape to improve image quality without actually improving the resolution. The most common is 600 X 600 dpi (dots per inch) so generally if you need higher quality prints for something like marketing materials, consider a machine with a higher print resolution than average.
Scan Resolution: Just like print resolution, scan resolution is important for the quality of the materials you are scanning and using thereafter. The typical scanner is 300dpi so if you need high quality scanning and printing functions, you will need to consider these options. A higher scan resolution will allow you to transmit and print your materials with higher quality.
Keeping track of these three specs will help you to stay on top of your print and document quality. Keep an eye out for more posts concerning printing specs as they make a significant difference in your purchasing decision. The biggest thing to keep in mind, is to determine the specific tasks you need the printer to perform, and make sure that matches with the machines you are considering.
Datamax Communications Department, on Mar 19, 2013 9:00:00 AM
