'Inkjet printers are generally cheaper to buy but the cost per sheet is higher.'

Suzanne Elvidge on choosing a printer.

Once upon a time, there was really only one choice for home printing — the 9-pin dot matrix printer. So loud it made your ears bleed, so slow a monk could have written it in calligraphy, and it left you with a print out that looked like this…

How to choose a printer

Ink jet and laser printers are now the most commonly used printers for home and business use. Which to choose generally depends on output — inkjet printers are generally cheaper to buy but the cost per sheet is higher — in contrast, laser printers can be cheaper to run but more expensive to buy in the first place.

Things to look out for:

• resolution: print quality, measured in dpi (dots per inch)
• speed: measured in pages per minute (PPM)
• cost of consumables and maintenance (cost per page)
• operating system

Ink jet printers

Ink jet printers are the most commonly used home printers, available as both black and white and colour. These print with droplets of ink that are forced out of nozzles using heat or vibration.

Ink jets can be colour or black and white. If you are getting a colour printer, look out for the ones with individual colour cartridges, especially if you use a lot of one colour.

Ink jet printers start around £30, and print cartridges are often the most expensive part of the printer; sometimes a set of replacement cartridges can cost more than the printer itself. There are a number of companies that produce refills or non-branded versions of print cartridges—search for inkjet refill or inkjet cartridge on Google.

Ink jet printers can produce very high quality printouts. Pick your paper according to what kind of output you want — matt papers for text and graphics; gloss paper for excellent quality photographs.

Some companies will recycle cartridges including Canon, Hewlett Packard and Lexmark (Epson will recycle its own cartridges).

Laser printers

If you use your printer a lot, it may be worthwhile looking at laser printers. These have dropped in price over the last few years, and black and white and colour printers ones start at less than £60-70.

In a laser printer, a laser beam creates an image on a drum, changing the electrical charge in the drum. This picks up toner, which is transferred to the paper using heat and pressure.

Like inkjets, replacing cartridges can be a pricey part of the process. Price comparison websites like Kelkoo can be useful for tracking down good prices and sourcing non-branded versions. And don’t forget to recycle the cartridges.

Laser printers, especially colour printers, perform best using specialist laser paper.

Recycling the printer

When the time comes to replace your printer, think about recycling it. Give it away, sell it, donate it, or make it into art.

Suzanne Elvidge is the editor of www.echurchactive.net, effective use of technology for the church.