Article 5 - Printers and Scanners

Printers and Scanners

Printers

The type of printer most used at home is the ink jet printer, which is fast enough for home use, and which produces colour printing of good quality. Until recently, printers were connected to the PC using the so called parallel port. USB ports are now installed on all new computers, with USB2 ports now normal. The difference here is one of speed – the new USB2 ports operate at 10 times the speed of the original USB ports, which is quicker than the parallel port.

The main thing to look for when selecting a printer is the print quality, expressed in terms of "dots per inch", where the higher the number the better the quality. This is particularly important when colour pictures / photos are to be printed. A specification of 4800 x 1200 dpi will normally be sufficient.

One other consideration is the cost of ink cartridges. It is possible to buy a new printer for as little as £30, and replacement cartridges can cost over £20!

Scanners

Scanners are now connected to the computer using the USB port, in the same way as a modern printer, so the comments made earlier also apply here. Again, quality is denoted by the "dots per inch" specification, with a "depth" also being specified. For good quality scanning, I suggest a specification of 2400 x 1200 dpi with 48 bit depth.

If you have specific requirements for scanning, such as the need to scan in photographs or slides, then it may be worth looking at more specialised scanners.

Combined

If you are thinking of buying both a printer and a scanner, a combined printer / scanner may be the answer, if only because it takes up less space. Such a machine also caters for copying documents in a single (simple) operation.

Prices

The cost of printers and scanners continues to fall and prices are liable to change almost on a daily basis. At the time of writing, a reasonable printer was about £40 and a reasonable combined printer / scanner cost £60.

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