If you are looking for a printer and are blown away by the huge number of options out there, you are not alone. There are dozens of brands with hundreds of models, and each has a slew of toner options, each with specific pros and cons. What is the difference between ink jet and laser, between HP ink and Brother toner? Do you need an all in one? What is solid ink and where can you find and use it? If you are in charge of a home office, large or small corporate office, or a printing center in a library, church, or school, you are well advised to do some research and thoroughly understand the investment you are making, the costs involved, different pros and cons for each option, and how to save money without burning the quality of your work. Fortunately, guides like this one exist to help you understand the many options which exist in the Toner, Ink, and Printer world, and just by reading on you stand to widen your horizons and maybe save some money too.
First, a guide to anyone looking online for anything specific, such as replacement printer parts or specific printer cartridges. Be sure to start on large retailer websites, using specific long-tail search phrases such as Oki C5500 toner. by including the brand and the printer number together you will drastically narrow the results of your search, helping you pull results which are much more relevant than a general search like toner or even a somewhat specific search like Oki toner which will still pull results for numerous model printers. You want to start at large retailers as they have large selections, stable prices, and occasional sales or deals if you want to place a large (bulk) order. These sites, even if they do not have the best prices on the web necessarily, will still usually be cheaper than original manufacturer (hp/Lexmark/Okidata-etc…) but will be competing with one another to produce decent prices and will have access to genuine, name brand cartridges backed by warranties, making them a great reliable source for toner. But it does not hurt to do some quick searches on eBay or Amazon.com as these sites, which are even more fiercely competitive, often have vastly discounted toner supplies. Only beware that the possibility of long shipping times and shoddy quality if you pick generic, remanufactured toner cartridges often from oversees.
The type of printer you want to buy depends on the needs you have. If you need to print large volumes of office-quality work you probably want to go with one type of printer over another, the same if you need color, high quality color, or you are only interested in home printing and quality/speed is somewhat less important of a consideration.
Your first major choice comes down between ink jet and laser jet models. Ink jets squirt tiny droplets of ink onto the page where as laser jets spray and heat fix solid toner powder to the page. Ink jets tend to be small personal computers will very low start-up time by a slow rate of printing. And they are loud and amusing to any small animals you may have around. However, since they use liquid ink the cartridges for these printers may dry up and fail over time. Laser jets are large floor-mounted units with a very fast rate of printing and a very fast drying period. Also, if toner printed pages get wet they will not bleed or run like inkjet pages. The quality of text is also typically higher.
You may also be interested in all in one printers for environments where you need to do a lot of document or picture modification. All in one printers typically contain multiple inputs for camera memory cards and USB drives, as well a platform to scan and copy documents. This is great if you need it, but more expensive (with more things which can break or generate errors) if you do not. The same goes for network capability. If you want the computer to be able to print documents from a number of printers in the same office at once, then go for it. If you really only want it to stand in one place and print from one computer, then either avoid it or do not worry about it when you find a good deal. Lately printers have been evolving so that many more features are present on standard models. If the price remains low then just accept the perks.
Color is definitely something else to consider. Color ink is much more expensive than plain black and white however the ability to print in color, no matter what line of printer you are using, can be incredibly useful at times. Just remember to always keep the price of toner or ink in mind. If you take care of your printer and use quality ink or toner it should last for years and years, during which time the cost of the ink or toner will pass the initial cost of even an expensive laser jet printer. Buy for the future and buy according to the needs you face in your particular situation, and you cannot go wrong.