The type of printing is the main criterion for selecting the princter because it determines the printer application.
Ink - this technology will be suitable for the users who want to print colour photos at high quality. The costs per print-out are quite high, also ink cartridges dry out when the printer is on stand-by for a long time.
Black and white laser - the best type of printing from the economic point of view, produces good quality print-outs of black and white documents at the lowest cost per print-out. The best buy for the home and office needs. Printers of more expensive models have considerably bigger toner cartridges which will certainly pay back if more than ten pages per day are printed.
Colour laser - this technology allows to print black and white laser print-outs at the same costs per page as with the black and white laser printer and to produce colour print-outs at comparatively low costs per print-out.
The quality of the colour printing by this technology is much lower than with the ink printing, therefore this device is worth buying only if tens of colour graphics, models, product samples photos and colour logos have to be printed every day. This technology currently is not suitable for printing photos.
The size of paper that can be placed in the printer feeder and printed in the particular printer. If this index of the printer is, for example, A4 it means that this particular printer can print for sure also smaller size paper, for example, A5. This possibility has certain restrictions that can be found in the detailed specification of the printing size and type of paper supported.