The Complete Guide to Buying Office Printers: Everything to Know

Imagine you have a meeting with your dream client. You go to print off a copy of your contract so that they can sign it and start working with you, but your printer refuses to work. Or you can also buy scanners online.

If you want to avoid this scenario, you need to think about buying office printers now. That way, you won’t have to worry about not being able to print something when you need it.

Read on to learn more about getting a printer for your office.

Your Team Size

One of the first things you should consider before buying office printers is how many people are on your team. If you work in your own office with a few employees, your printer needs may differ from a larger business.

The more employees you have, the more likely someone will use the printer each day. And if your team is even bigger, someone may need to use the printer all throughout the day.

Knowing how many people will use the printer can help you estimate how much printing you will do. Then, you can search for an office printer provider that has the printer you need.

Where You Work

Consider if you and your small team work out of a coworking space or if you have your own office. A coworking space may provide a printer that you can use, but it might not meet your needs.

If you have space in your office area, you may still want to look into different types of printers. That way, you won’t have to rely on the coworking space to provide the printer, ink and toner.

Even if you own or lease your own office, you should consider the size of your entire workspace. Consider if you or someone on your team will have to walk a long way to get to the printer.

To avoid that, you may decide to purchase multiple printers and place them in different areas of your office. Or you might decide to start with one printer and put it in a central location.

How Often You Print

You should also think about how often you need to print something. If you only need a printer occasionally, you can get away with fewer office printer features than a business that relies more on printing.

A business that doesn’t print that often might choose to forgo a printer, at least for now. You can use a printing service whenever you do need to copy something.

But if you find yourself printing regularly, having your own office printer will be more convenient. Then, you won’t have to travel somewhere to pick up a document.

What You Print

When looking at various types of printers, consider what you need or want to print. For example, if you only ever print text documents, such as contracts, you can get a more simple printer.

However, if you need to print images and photos, you’ll want a printer that can handle that. Within each category, consider if you will need to be able to print in color or if black and white is fine.

Then, you can make sure to choose a printer with the right features. And if you can’t find one printer that meets all of your needs, you can always buy multiple printers for specific things.

Having a printer just for photos can come in handy. Plus, you won’t have to worry about a backup at the printer if a lot of people use it at the same time.

Ink Colors

If you need to print in color, you also have to consider how you can do that. Not only do you need a printer that handles colored ink, but you also need to consider the cost of the ink.

Black and white printing can be enough for some businesses, so you may not need to worry about paying for more ink. But if you do graphic design or other artistic stuff, color will be necessary.

That way, you can print off projects and easily showcase your ideas to your clients and customers. Black and white just won’t do some projects justice.

Inkjet or Laser

You should also decide if you want to get an inkjet or a laser printer. Inkjet printers use ink cartridges, and they have small jets that transfer the ink onto the page.

On the other hand, laser printers use electrical currents. They have to use positive and negative elements to help print the photo or document that you want to print.

Neither option is inherently the best option overall. Be sure to consider what you want to get out of a printer. Then, you can choose the best type for you and your office.

Document Length

Another important factor to think about when buying office printers is how long the documents you print will be. If you only ever need to print short documents that are a few pages or less, this isn’t a huge concern.

But it will be important if you frequently need to print long documents, such as if you have a publishing house and print manuscripts. You will need to get a printer that can move quickly so that you don’t have to spend all day waiting on your document.

This is also important if you plan to print documents back to back. That can help save on paper, but it can take a little longer if the printer needs to let the ink dry before moving to the next page.

Ability to Scan

As you’re comparing printer prices, consider if any of the printers let you scan or copy documents. If so, they may cost more, but you can save money on buying a separate device.

However, if you don’t need to scan documents, you may prefer to look for a more basic printer. Then, you can save money, and you may even save space. But you won’t miss out on any essential features.

If you plan to use the printer for a while, consider looking for one with more features. You never know what you might want to do with your printer in the future.

All-in-One Option

Speaking of different features, you might want to get a printer that can handle multiple tasks. This can be particularly important for businesses with a lot of administrative paperwork. Consider getting an all-in-one printer that can:

• Print
• Scan
• Copy
• Fax

When you choose a device that can do everything, you won’t need to get separate devices. That can help you save money and space, so you can make better use of your office and budget.

Some of the best printers for small businesses have multiple features. A small business may not have the space for more than one big printer, so it makes sense to combine it with a copier and scanner.

Wireless or Wired

You should also consider the connectivity before you buy a new office printer. Some printers require a wired connection, so you would have to plug your computer directly into the printer.

However, that can be inconvenient for a lot of your employees. If you have the money for it, get a wireless printer for your office so that people can print from anywhere.

You can get a printer that uses its own WiFi network as the connection or that uses something like Bluetooth. Then, everyone will be able to print without getting up from a desk, and they can head to the printer to collect the document.

Device Compatibility

You may also want to consider what devices you and your employees will use to print documents. Of course, most printers will work with a desktop or laptop.

However, as mobile usage increases, you and your team may use tablets or smartphones. If you use a mobile device to receive or access a document, consider if you can print directly from the device.

Then, you can save time since you won’t have to email it to your computer. And you will be able to set everything up as you walk to the printer. That can be nice for employees who work down the hall and don’t want to waste too much time.

Printer Location

You can find office printers of various sizes, so consider if the printer you want will fit in your office. Think about if you have a specific room to store the printer or if it needs to go somewhere out in the open.

Determine how much space you have for the printer both horizontally and vertically. If you’re short on space, you may want to look for a smaller printer.

Once you have more room for a printer, you can get a bigger one if necessary. However, you don’t want to compromise storage for other items or reduce desk space for your employees just to get a huge printer.

Printer Supplies

Buying office printers isn’t the end of the costs or other tasks related to getting your printers to work. You still need to buy things like ink and toner, and you need to pay for electricity to operate the printer.

Consider where you want to buy toner so that you can have enough on hand for when you need it. Websites like https://premiumtoners.com/ offer toner that you can order online, so you won’t have to shop around for it.

Be sure to budget for the cost of those printer supplies before and after you get the printer. Then, you won’t incur more expenses than you expect, and you can keep the printer up and running.

Ink Subscriptions

When it comes to managing the cost of printer ink, you may want to get a subscription. Companies like HP offer a subscription, so you can pay for the right number of pages to print each month.

The company will make sure to ship ink to you when you need it, so you don’t have to forget about ordering it. Then, you can focus on other tasks in your business, such as marketing or sales.

Some ink subscriptions will also have different tiers based on how much you need to print. That way, you can upgrade if you need to print more, or you can scale back to save money.

Ongoing Maintenance

Buying office printers can be exciting because you can control how you print documents. But like any piece of technology, printers aren’t perfect, even if they’re the best.

You should consider how easy it will be to troubleshoot and fix common issues. Think about how much work it will take to fix a paper jam or to replace the ink cartridge.

Figure out if the printer company has a customer support like that you can call for help. While you may be able to fix the printer yourself, you don’t want to worry about breaking it with no way of getting it to work again.

If you have someone on your team who can learn how to fix the printer, that’s great. But if your team is small, you need to make sure maintaining the printer will be quick and easy.

Overall Budget

Lastly, you need to think about your entire business budget and how much you can spend on printers specifically. That will help you narrow your search when looking at buying office printers.

However, it can also help you consider how much you can spend on things like ink and toner. You can also determine if you can afford to hire someone to help maintain the printer.

If you can’t seem to afford any printer, take a look at the overall cost. Divide that number by the number of days you think it will last and consider the cost per use.

Odds are, the cost per use will be fairly reasonable, even for expensive printers. Then, you can determine if the investment will be worth it, and you can wait until you have the money to purchase it.

Buying Office Printers the Right Way

Most businesses will eventually get to the point where buying office printers is a necessity. And when you get there, you need to know what to consider to choose the best model for your company.

That way, you’ll be able to print as much as you want of the right type of document. Be sure to compare multiple options within your budget to figure out which printer will meet your needs.

Do you want to learn more about how to grow your business? Head to our business section for more content.