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Best Home-Office and Small-Business Printers

Today small offices have a wide selection of printers to choose from. Color printers may be inkjets, lasers, and models based on other technologies; and monochrome lasers remain an economical choice. Another option is a multifunction printer, sometimes called an "all-in-one," which combines printing, scanning, copying, and faxing functions.

The first part of this guide details how four printers we've recently tested could work well in your small office, with links to the charts in which they are ranked and to our Shop & Compare pricing tool. (Keep in mind that online prices fluctuate constantly.) The second part of the guide offers tips on how to find the best printer for your particular work situation.

Best Printers for Small or Home Offices

The best printers for a small office or home office generate pages quickly and produce crisp output on plain paper as well as on special media. Higher-end models can hold more paper or can print in duplex mode. Multifunction printers perform a wider set of tasks without skimping on efficiency.

The following recently reviewed models are among the best small-business buys we've seen: Canon's Pixma iP4500 and Dell's 1720dn Laser Printer are top-ranked because they're good at pretty much everything as well as being affordable. The HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 is expensive but offers plenty of features and speed in return.

1. Canon Pixma iP4500

PCWorld Rating: 82 (Very Good)
Recent low price online: $125

What you get: Canon's Pixma iP4500 color inkjet printer rivals low-end color laser printers in speed--and leaves many higher-priced inkjet competitors in the dust. The text quality on plain paper was very nice: crisp, black, and just a little jagged in more-complicated fonts. Though a laser could print better text, it couldn't compete with the Pixma iP4500's photos, which (aside from yellowish flesh tones) looked vivid and natural. Automatic duplexing is a big bonus at this price.

Our review unit earned a performance score of 90, one of the highest scores we've seen from an inkjet printer. (Note: Performance is one of four attributes we use in computing the total rating for a product. The others are price, specifications, and design.)

Drawbacks: My primary design complaint relates to the scattered control buttons. All have icons instead of plain-English labels, so they're harder to identify. Photos of people looked excessively yellow.

see ink cartridges for iP4500: CLI-8 set

2. Dell Laser Printer 1720dn

PCWorld Rating: 80 (Very Good)
Recent low price online: $99

What you get: Dell's 1720dn Laser Printer is a reasonably priced, well-equipped, capable monochrome laser. It would work well in either a SOHO setting or a small workgroup. Plain-text pages popped up at a snappy rate of 29 pages per minute. The 1720dn contains an impressive array of features for the price, including an automatic duplexer. The control panel is clearly labeled.

Our review unit earned a good performance score of 79.

Drawbacks: The main input tray feels a bit flimsy. Though the control panel is clearly labeled, you have to consult the manual to figure out the meaning of some of the blinking-light patterns.

see toner cartridge for 1720dn: 310-8709 / 310-8707

3. HP OfficeJet Pro L7680

PCWorld Rating: 77 Good
Recent low price online: $319

What you get: The HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 All-in-One is pricier than many other inkjet multifunction printers, but it comes loaded with nearly everything a small office could want in a networked MFP. What's more, its speed and low consumables costs make it a viable alternative to color laser devices that cost much more. It can even fax in color to a compatible machine.

Our review unit earned a performance score of 80, making it one of the faster color inkjet MFPs we've tested.

Drawbacks: It's expensive, and print quality is middling overall.

see ink cartridges for L7680: HP 88

4. Dell Color Laser Printer 1320c

PCWorld Rating: 84 (Very Good)
Recent low price online: $229

What you get: Despite its low acquisition price, Dell's Color Laser Printer 1320c offers surprisingly good color quality. High-resolution photos printed quickly--3.1 ppm on average--and looked surprisingly smooth. Colors seemed a tad bluish but looked essentially natural.

Our review unit earned a performance score of 79, a middling score for a color printer.

Drawbacks: The 1320c's text print speeds were mediocre (but output looked okay). The control panel is confusing. The toner cartridge's low capacity (1000 to 2000 pages) translates into higher costs for both black and color pages--at best, 3 cents for a half-page of black text and 15 cents for a page with small amounts of black plus all three colors. Low-volume users may not notice for a while, but a busier office will feel the pinch pretty quickly.

see toner cartridges for 1320c

(This article is from PC World @ http://www.pcworld.com)

Introducing some popular printers of 2009

Most Popular Canon Printers of 2009

Canon is a name synonymous with printers. Great style, affordability and excellent design make these printers a popular consumer choice. While Canon is still releasing printers for 2009, let us take a look at the ones that have already made it to the popular list for the year.

1. The Canon ImageClass MF4350d

Bringing in a new level of efficiency to small office and home operations is this great All-in-One from Canon. The MF4350d has a duplex output for printing, receiving faxes and copying. This feature reduces paper and canon ink cartridge consumption and therefore costs. The auto feeder can accommodate up to 35 sheets. The MF4350d also boasts of fast copy and print speeds of 23ppm for an output of letter size. Along with this there is also a facility for a front load cassette that holds up to 250 pages. The fax facilities include one touch dialing for 8 numbers with the facility to code up to 100 numbers on speed dial.

Toner cartridge for MF4350d: Canon 104

2. The Canon PIXMA MP620

This inkjet is another great buy from Canon. A printer copier and scanner all rolled into one, the Canon PIXMA MP620 print with speeds till 26ppm for black and 17ppm for color. The maximum resolution for a black print is 600dpi x 600dpi and 9600dpi x 2400dpi for a color print. The printer also comes with superior scanning capabilities with an optical scan resolution of 2400 dpi x 4800dpi. The PIXMA MP620 has superior copying capabilities as well. Features like face brightening, borderless copying, fading correction, intensity etc. make it a sure winner. The printer also comes with wireless enabled connectivity.

Ink cartridges for MP620: CLI-221 set & PGI-220

3. The Canon PIXMA MX860

Another great All-in-One from Canon, the PIXMA MX860 is a printer, fax, copier and scanner. It wireless technology allows printing from whichever room you want in
your office or home. What’s more is that it has 5 separate ink tanks and can print with a 9600dpi x 2400dpi in color. The fax features include an auto feeder which holds 35 sheets along with a duplex printing technology. Additional features like PDF’s that are password protected make it easier to distribute confidential files. The printer has a compatible memory card reader option and Bluetooth technology that makes printing without a computer possible.

Ink cartridges for MX860: CLI-221 set & PGI-220

4. The Canon PIXMA MX850

Copying 31ppm, scanning of photographs at a dpi of 4800 x 9600 and printing photographs that look like they are straight out a photo lab is what you will get when you buy the PIXMA MX850. The inking system with 7 cartridges makes sure that prints come out looking rich and that color last. The crisp and sharp text and detailed and brilliant photographs that this machine produces should impress you. The printer comes with built in technology that supports memory cards and digital cameras. It also has Ethernet facilities that allow it to be used as a network printer. The PIXMA MX850 also makes for an excellent home printer. You can use it to print reports for your kids that will look professional or even scrapbook that will not lose their brightness for a long long time.

Ink cartridges for MX850: CLI-8 set & PGI-5

Most Popular Brother Printers of 2009

Brother printers, yet another popular make of printers, have been in consistent demand. There are a number of Brother Printers that come under the popular category and many of these printers have also earned rave review from experts.

Here are a few Brother Printers that have been a popular choice of 2009.

1. Brother Printer HL 2140

This is one of the newest products of the Brother Company and comes in the bracket of low-end printers. This is a great buy if you don’t want to make too large an investment in your printer. It’s easy to use, offers a good printing speed, great resolution, and is compact. All these qualities taken together make it a good choice indeed.

Its weight could be called its one and only disadvantage, at 6.6 kg it is one of the heavier printers in its category. However, this laser printer does not occupy a lot of space and hence can be used in homes and small offices. Like most laser printers, it has an easy cartridge installation system, as all you need to do is open the hatch and slide the cartridge in. The input capacity of this printer is 250 sheets and the output capacity is 100 sheets.

Toner cartridges for HL 2140: TN330/360 & DR360

2. Brother HL-4040CN

This printer is largely regarded as an evolutionary step for the Brother Printer Company. It is not like the other color laser printers that were a re-branded model of other manufacturers but is the first color laser printer designed by the Brother Company.

This printer has earned rave reviews for its software, with its interactive help files, a status monitor that is wholly dynamic, and a well-illustrated user guide. Moreover, there are a large number of printing options offered by the driver of this printer. The cost per page with respect to the Brother HL-4040CN is quite good and one also gets the benefit of high-yield cartridges.

Toner cartridges for HL 4040CN: TN115 set

3. Brother MFC-7840W

This is a monochrome laser printer that is very popular amongst small offices or home offices. Available in an elegant black color scheme the printer offers the same functionality as the extremely popular MFC-7440N printers from Brother. The new addition to the earlier brand of printer are various features like a faster fax modem, memory backup that lasts for 4 days, PCL 6 and BR-Script 3 print emulation, etc.

Toner cartridges for MFC7840W: TN330/360 & DR360

Remanufactured Ink/Toner Cartridges Help Greatly the Environment

Remanufactured ink and toner cartridges can make all the difference in our printing experience and the environment. Not many people know that the type of ink we use could have such a profound effect on the world around us. Disposing our ink a certain way can even make a difference. Let’s look at just how ink and toner cartridges that are remanufactured can actually help us and the environment at the same time.

When we buy ink and toner directly from the manufacturer, it’s called original equipment manufacture, or OEM, including all of the popular printer brands like HP, Epson, Canon, Brother, etc. Remanufactured ink and toner cartridges go through specific quality processes to ensure they are suitable for sale to consumers and they work just as perfectly as OEM cartridges.

Discount remanufactured ink and toner cartridges are really wonderful ways to simultaneously help the environment and save money at the same time. Tremendous amounts of pollution are created each year due to the millions and millions of pounds of ink and toner cartridges that are just thrown away.

Here are some facts:

· It takes about 3.4 Liters of crude oil to make a new laser toner cartridge.

· In merely 12 months, recycled and reused ink and toner cartridges would save 4,300,000 liters of crude oil in a country with a population of 2.2 million.

· A thrown-away toner cartridge takes 450 years to dissolve.

· Over 20,000 tons of toner cartridges are thrown away each year around the world.

· When you buy OEM ink or toner at a higher price, you consume more resources

That’s why recycling ink and toner cartridges allows those materials that went into the making of our ink cartridge to be saved and reused for others to buy and make use of.

It can have a dramatic effect on the world. If everyone recycled their printer cartridges, we’d have a dramatic decrease in wasted toxic materials and a greater preservation of natural resources. And this is just the added bonus. Let us do our part for the environment and enjoy the big savings that remanufactured ink brings.

Be More Productive At Home or Work -- Which Printer is Right for You?

Looking for a new printer? Don't know whether to select a new laser or inkjet printer. Want to discover the advantages of wireless printing? Read our brief summary below and you’ll get a head start as you shop for a new printer for your home or office.

Inkjet printing -- Inkjet Printers are probably the most common type of printers used today. Inkjet technology is used in everything from very inexpensive home printers to top of the line professional quality wide format sign printers. Inkjet printers have come a long way within the past 20 years. What was once extremely an expensive, low quality, loud and slow printer is now quite the opposite. Designed for relatively light use (less than 500 pages per month), today's inkjet printers can produce an average of 13 to 15 pages per minute in black and 11 to 13 per minutes in colour. Some inkjet printers can print 30+ pages per minute in colour and black. Inkjet printers are ideal for generating high quality colour prints and photos. The most obvious advantage to inkjet printers is their lower up-front cost. However, if you print in high volumes, laser printers are a more economical choice.

Laser Printer -- Designed for heavy usage (500 – 20,000 pages per month), laser printers are most commonly found in the office. However the cost for laser printers has become so reasonable that it is possible to own a professional quality laser printer in your own home. The average resolution of today's laser printer is 1200 x 1200 DPI. This resolution will give you very high quality document printouts. The majority of laser printers on the market today can print an average of 20 per minute or more in black/monochrome. Colour laser printers are also available and most can produce colour documents up to 2400 DPI and a little less than 20 pages per minute (colour). The main advantage of laser printers is speed and low cost per printed page.

Wireless printing -- Many of the printers on the market today will also allow you to connect them to a home or small business network (via CAT5 cable or wireless WiFi). This feature can provide a great cost savings - allowing multiple computers to connect to one inkjet printer. In addition to networkable printers, some inkjet printers also feature memory card readers and LCD screens, so you can see what you're printing without having to use computer.