Printers Buying Guide

Buyers Guides
Printers Buying Guide

Printer Buyer’s Guide –
Choose The Right Printer

Printers are external electronic devices that accept a computer's text or photos and transfer the information onto paper. As one of the most popular computer peripherals, printing technology has evolved rapidly over a short time and has become an integral part of our lives.

Whether you're buying a printer for your home or office purposes, it is crucial to understand the types of printers available and purchase one that best suits your needs, requirement, and lifestyle. At Harvey Norman, we offer printers from top manufacturers, including Brother printers, Canon printers, Epson printers and HP printers.

Types of printers

Inkjets

Inkjets, also known as cartridge printers, are consumers' common choice of device. These compact, lightweight inkjet printers can fit in small spaces and produce high-quality prints of images, making them popular for personal use, especially since they are cheaper to buy. As the name implies, they operate by spraying tiny ink droplets directly onto the paper.

You should choose an inkjet printer if you don’t print high volumes every day and rely on colour documents and imagery.

Shop our range of inkjet printers

Lasers

Laser printers are the go-to machines for commercial and business settings and are designed to print large volumes of monochromatic reports using static electricity. We highly recommend a laser printer if you have no plans to print in colour and require primarily textual outputs.

Although mono laser printers are best for black and white texts, colour laser printers are becoming popular for those who need to print a lot with some colour imagery.

Shop our range of laser printers

Multifunctions

Multifunction printers offer additional functionality, like scanning, faxing, and more. Also known as all-in-one printers (AIOs), they are suitable for home offices or businesses that need a robust printer to handle larger workloads.

One of the most common features in most multifunction or all-in-one printers is the Automatic Document Feeder that feeds multiple sheets of paper into the device, allowing you to multitask while it copies or scans the document. This is super beneficial in office settings as it helps relieve people from waiting for the printing job to complete.

Shop our range of multifunction printers

Ink Tanks

Ink tanks, or supertanks, are the latest revolution among inkjet printers that use a type of continuous ink system (CIS) that eliminates the need for cartridges. Using ink bottles, you can go close to 2 years before refilling the ink reservoir or tank.

The biggest advantage of this type of printer is that the tank holds more volumes of ink than a standalone ink cartridge, and each colour has it's own tank. In the event you run out of one colour, you only need to fill the empty tank, unlike colour-combined cartridges, where you'll have to replace all of them.

CIS printers are designed to be easily accessed and topped up with no mess. The mega-sized reservoirs are great since ink lasts longer, hence it's cheaper for those who print regularly. Although the upfront is more than inkjets, over time, using ink tanks leads to cheaper printing costs and can print more than the traditional printer. Many models of super tanks are equipped with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and mobile printing capabilities, making it easier to print documents while on the go.

If you're tired of the printing expense and thinking of investing in a great printer, look no further than the continuous ink system printers that are the choice of many home users, schools, colleges, businesses, design studios and photographers.

Shop our range of ink tank printers

Printer Essentials & Supplies

Paper

Choose the right-sized paper for your document printouts or photographic paper for your photos.

Ink & Toner

Make sure you are always ready to print by stocking up on suitable ink or toner for your printer.

Scanners

If you have a standalone printer that's unable to scan, then a scanner will be a handy device.

Shop Now

User Types: Find the right printer for you

For home use

These days there are abundant options available for home printers, making it challenging to find the perfect one. Invest in a versatile printer to satisfy everyone's needs, like copying documents, scanning photos, crafting reports and presentations, and printing homework.

The printer you need depends on what you plan on printing. If colour documents or photos are your top priority, you'll want to go with an inkjet printer. A laser printer will do the trick if you print tons of text-based monochromatic pages.

Inkjets are the most popular choice among home users since most families look for a printer that is affordable and suited for a low volume of printing. But the downside being they are expensive to operate, with cartridges costing nearly as much as the device. They are messy to clean and have less space for paper, making it slower to print multiple documents at a time.

Laser printers cost more upfront, but they provide the best performance, are more convenient to use, and in most cases, are fast with low cost-per-page print costs making them ideal for home workspaces. If scanning or copying is required, best to look into all-in-one printers as the latest ones come with tons of features making it a bang for one's buck.

Portable photo printers are becoming popular among youngsters in capturing memories and sharing instant photos with friends and family. These instant mobile printers are small to carry and may not print hi-res images like ink-based printers but do the trick ink creating crisp digital prints via an easy-to-use app.

For small to medium-sized businesses

Tablets for Travellers and Commuters at Harvey Norman

When buying a printer for your business, there might be many vital factors to consider – size, upfront costs, maintenance costs and features to help improve connectivity & productivity.

Every business is different and choosing a perfect cookie cutter for a printer is difficult. You may be looking for one with excellent print quality; then solid ink tanks will be suitable. Our laser printers are more appropriate for those organisations churning mid to high volumes of pages with long-lasting toner cartridges - and now come in colour too!

An AIO can copy, scan and, in some cases, even fax documents. Newer models may be equipped with convenient features like password protection, mobile printing capability, and consolidates all the essential office functions into one device. Some models have onboard memory to queue several jobs simultaneously and come with seamless connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, WiFi-direct, Google Cloud Print and Apple AirPrint.

For the creative professionals

Artists and designers require the best reliable printers to bring their masterpieces to life with high-resolution colour detail on a wider variety of paper. Inkjets and cartridge printers are the ideal art printers for artists, graphic designers, and photographers to produce rich, high-quality artwork in different hues, saturation, and glossy or matte textures. The latest models cater to the full spectrum of artist needs: support roll & cut with wide format printing abilities, supports many paper sizes, thicknesses and a variety of paper, including photo paper, fine art paper, poster boards, cardstock and more.

Some models offer realistic-looking prints with ample colour variation and full bleed printing, i.e. when the photograph or document extends to the edge of the paper with no margins. Some even come with SD Cards or USB ports to transfer photos from digital cameras, smartphones and laptops. Paper media like iron-on transfer papers are ideal for customising t-shirts, canvas bags, and other fabrics by transferring your image by peeling the print and applying it onto a surface using a regular household iron. This heat transfer paper is suitable across various inkjet printer models for you to admire your handy work.

Key features to focus on when shopping for a new printer

Single or multifunction. A single-function printer only offers print functionality. A multifunction printer includes print, scan, and copy functionalities from a singular device.
Colour or B&W. One of the most important features to consider when buying a printer is whether you'll print in colour or want black-and-white printouts. Depending on your preference, inkjets, lasers or ink tanks will be a perfect choice. Most printers come with a single colour cartridge that uses four colour tones black, cyan, magenta and yellow (CMYK) to produce a full-colour spectrum. Some printers have block cartridges where the colour black has its own ink cartridge and a tricolour or singular cartridge for cyan, yellow and magenta (CMY). Apart from your CMY/CMYK individual or combined ink cartridges and ink bottles, you now have light grey ink. Newer techs use 6 to 12 dye-based inks to achieve basic colour documents and gallery-quality prints for exhibiting or selling.
Size. The size will depend on what you'll use it for, how much room or space you have and how many people will use it. Corporate offices will need a larger printer that can handle large volumes of documents and comes with multiple functions. In contrast, home offices and casual users prefer a compact model that fits nicely on a desk.
Printing volume. If you're a business churning large volumes of documents, consider a large-capacity printer designed to manage multiple prints with ample input and output trays. Home offices typically print lesser; hence a less expensive print-only model will work. If your daily demands involve printing and scanning, then a basic all-in-one will serve the needs of every single person in your family.
Connectivity. Most modern printers come with wireless connectivity, which is also popular among home users—allowing you to print directly through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth from handheld devices like phones and tablets.
Overall costs. Factor in initial and lifetime costs – initial purchase price, ink or toner costs and maintenance costs.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness. Purchasing a multifunction printer that can print, copy, and scan is more beneficial since running one machine will reduce energy consumption. New models come equipped with energy-saving features and eco-printing modes. Be kinder to the environment and reduce paper waste with 2-sided print or duplex printing, using ink tanks to eliminate cartridge wastes and their one-use packaging when a single colour runs out. The latest models from HP are made with over 45% recycled plastic content. Companies like Brother and Epson also provide recycling program facilities for their consumables and products, reducing landfill wastes in New Zealand and allowing for materials in consumables to be reused.
Paper handling - input & output. Look into how much paper you can feed in and how many pages the output tray can handle. Tip: make sure the printer you want can hold a little over the number of pages you'll print in a day.