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Ancestry Daily News
7/10/2003 - Archive
RootsWorks: Printer Hardware
In the mid-90's, the office where I worked bought a Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4MV
printer. It was beautiful. It weighed about 300 pounds, and was the size of a
microwave oven. It would print on paper up to 11x17 inches, and would spit them
out at a rapid 12 pages a minute. They gave $2,000 for it. I liked that printer
until the day it died.
Today, you could buy a laser printer, an inkjet printer, a multipurpose printer,
and a photo printer - and a year's worth of paper and ink cartridges, for less
than that. The moral of the story is not that you should wait six years to buy
a printer, and then buy four; but rather that you can't bank on getting a good
deal on a computer related product past three years. After that, something better,
cheaper, and faster will make you want to give the old one to your church.
How much better, cheaper, and faster? How about the difference between 700 dots
per inch and 4000 dots per inch? How about an inkjet printer that costs about
the same as a toaster—$40?
I wonder about this preoccupation we have with printers. Do we make hard copies
because our friends and families are too stubborn to use a computer for everything
like a regular person? Do we do it because the paper copy will last longer than
the computer? I've been wondering. As a computer consultant, I live by the rule
that "any report over two pages long is obsolete before it finishes coming
off the printer."
A photo isn't a person; it's just a snapshot of them at one point in time. It
is usually a pretty reliable copy, but it's a static thing—it doesn't talk,
move, or converse like a person (unless it's hanging at Hogwart's school). I think
that a printout is the same thing. It's a snapshot of a document, an idea, a set
of numbers. It represents the information that we have at that time—but only
for that moment. While the real thing keeps changing, like a living thing, the
printout stays the same. We continue living, learning, growing, flying into the
future, and the printout stays right where it was created, and becomes a part
of the rapidly receding past.
Well, good news, you have lots of choices about making parts of the past. Following
are the five main categories of printers available today, and their approximate
purchase prices:
- Personal Inkjets—It's about money. These printers use 4 colors
of ink and print on plain or treated paper. They are the least expensive to
buy. Speed is generally not an issue. The cost per page will vary dramatically
depending on the kind of paper you use, but it's generally under a nickel,
and can get down to two cents. The quality color pages cost more like a dime.
Hewlett Packard (HP) has the highest ratings. Under $200.
- Photo Printers—It's about quality. These printers use six inks
instead of four, and sacrifice some speed for quality, compared to personal
inkjets. They cost more to buy, and lots more to operate. (check the cost
per page—25 to 50 cents according to vendors). Canon has the highest
ratings. $200-$350.
- Multifunction Printers (MFPs)—It's about space. While they
may not scan as well as your dedicated scanner, they copy, print, and fax
as well as most of those devices, and they save a lot of desk space. At current
prices, they compare favorably with inkjets for quality, speed, and price.
$200-300.
- Personal Lasers—It's about speed. These printers are much faster
than inkjets, and the cost for black and white text is between 1.5 and 2 cents
per page. You can get pretty good ones for $200.
- Color Lasers—It's about money. If low costs and slow speeds
don't satisfy you, there's good news—you can always spend more. The color
laser printers cost thousands of dollars. The PC Magazine editors' choice
is a $4100 Xerox. Over $3,000.
I've only described a general comparison. There are many features to compare
within each type of printer. There are many models. One of the important features
is the "Total Cost of Ownership," or "TCO." Within inkjets
and MFPs, the cost of ownership varies from $550 to $950 for three years of
printing 50 pages a week. Another feature is speed, and on PC Magazine's 39-page
test, some printers took 11 minutes and some took 40. What printer is right for you? First, think about your needs, and ask yourself
how many different types of printers it will take. Most offices have a laser
printer and either an inkjet or MFP for regular work. Everyone has a different
mix of "normal" and "high quality" printing to do. People
print different numbers of pages, and a person with high use might need a laser,
while a person who doesn't print ten pages a week might be happy with the least
expensive printer they can buy. Second, look at the different models in the
category (or categories) that you need and try to find the combination of quality,
speed, and price (in terms of cost of ownership) that works for you.
One warning about prices: there are many different kinds of paper for printing
these days, and it's a trend that looks likely to continue. It's going to be
hard to measure the cost of printing if you don't have any idea whether you'll
be buying glossy photo paper, acid free paper, or the cheapest thing that Wal-Mart
has. I don't suppose that I know what my paper costs will be for the next three
years, so I take estimates of my total cost of ownership with a grain of salt. Two things that are changing with printers is that, 1) almost all of them attach
via USB now, instead of the old parallel port; and 2) some of the HP printers
are capable of detecting the type of paper media in them. The printer puts ink
on pages with different coatings in different ways. If you don't get this setting
right, you can smear ink all over the paper and have it bleed through to the other
side. It's wasteful and doesn't look good either. It won't be long until all of
the printers can detect the paper types, and color on them accordingly.
Summary
Familiarize yourself with the five kinds of printers described above, and with
the current models of the kinds that you like. For more information, go to www.rootsworks.com/printers
to get links to other sites that have useful printer comparisons and reviews.
Next time we'll talk about all of the things besides plain white paper that you
can print on, in "RootsWorks: Beyond Printing."
The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for
generic technologies. Beau would like to hear from you. Whether you have something
to add or something to ask, please point your browser to www.rootsworks.com/forums
and discuss this or any topic related to the use of technology in family history.
Tell us about your PDA experiences. Please note that Beau cannot assist you with
your individual computer problems. Visit the RootsWorks website at www.rootsworks.com
for links to previous articles and Beau's lecture schedule.
Copyright 2003, MyFamily.com.
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