The Best Inkjet Printers

Do you print only a few documents or texts per week that contain images?

From time to time you want to print  a quality photo or invitation for your child’s birthday?

Are you looking for a quality color printer or perhaps a multifunction printer for your office in which you will have the combined functions of printing, scanning and copying?

If your answer to one of the previous questions is yes, and you don’t want to spend a lot of money to buy a printer, then an inkjet (ink) printer is the best choice for you.

With the help of an inkjet printer, you will receive photos of extraordinary quality as well as text documents with a very good resolution.

How do ink jet printers work?

Text and photos produced by an inkjet printer are created by spraying small drops of ink from the ink cartridge onto the paper. A color inkjet printer can produce photos and documents with a wide range of colors, but it can also serve as a monochrome printer for printing text and simpler graphics. Most of today’s inkjet printers have at least one element of multi-functionality (scanner, copier or fax).

Advantages of inkjet printers

After you have thought about the most common purpose of your future inkjet printer and gained a brief insight into the basic division of inkjet printers (with one function, multifunction and photographic), see what their key features are:

* High print quality and resolution make inkjet printers superior to the competition. Photos, brochures and other promotional materials produced by inkjet printers leave a striking impression. If you need posters, large-format brochures or other materials larger than A4, we recommend an inkjet printer of A3 or larger format.

* They are recognizable by their smaller stand, which means they are small enough to fit on any desk.

* Inkjet printers are the best for smaller volumes of work because they have a lower purchase price than other types of printers. If you print less than 1,000 pages per year, then an inkjet printer is the best choice for you.

* Inkjet printers consume about 50% less electricity than their laser equivalents, and their ink tanks are easily recycled, making them environmentally friendly products.

* High ink consumption makes inkjet printers more expensive to maintain, especially if they are used for high volume printing. However, when you consider that cost together with the superior quality of photos and text you get in return, you’ll see that there aren’t very many alternatives.

* Inkjet printers are not the best choice for printing text and simple graphics, and for offices and companies that print a lot of such materials, in which case it would be good to consider a laser printer.

Inkjet printer for the office

Inkjet printers play a significant role in offices where demanding materials are printed, such as photos or promotional materials (less than 1000 pages per year). As a rule, the best inkjet printers are multifunctional and belong to the high price range, as well as specialized models of inkjet printers that produce high-quality photos.

In offices, as a rule, multifunctional inkjet printers are used, which are programmed for a relatively large volume of work and can function as, for example, an independent fax machine or scanners.
Office-type multifunctional inkjet printers are equipped with an automatic document feeder (ADF) that enables easy scanning, faxing and copying of documents with a large number of pages. Some models that are equipped with an ADF have the option of double-sided scanning. Among them are duplex scanners that scan both sides of the document at once and are much faster than models whose ADF works by scanning one side of the document, then turning the document over to the other side, which is then scanned.

If you need double-sided printing of documents, it is good to choose a model with automatic double-sided printing. We recommend the printer model with two paper cassettes to users who want to alternately print on different types and sizes of paper so that they are not forced to remove paper of a certain type and size and add new paper of other dimensions every time. Generally, office multifunction inkjet printers have a capacity of 200-500 sheets of paper.

Inkjet printer for photos

If you are looking for a printer for personal use that you will use mostly for printing photos, and sometimes for printing different types of documents, an inkjet printer is definitely the best choice. Inkjet printers for personal use can be divided into two categories. In the first category, there are cheaper models with one function and cheaper multifunctional models whose starting price is around HRK 800. The second category includes “photocentric” printer models with a starting price of HRK 800 for those with one function and multifunction printers with a starting price of HRK 2,000.

Inkjet printers from the first category often have limited resources for printing photos, such as the ability to print directly from a memory card or camera with PictBridge technology. Inkjet printers from the second, more expensive category are photocentric to such an extent that those with one function can replace a photo kiosk, while multifunctional ones can act as an independent photo lab. They usually have a large LCD for viewing photos and a touch screen that is used to adjust and monitor work processes. Multifunction inkjet printers in this price range generally have the ability to scan 35-millimeter film, as well as the ability to print top-quality photos directly from slides, negatives, memory cards, and cameras.

You can find more detailed information, as well as recommendations, tips and suggestions for buying a photo printer in our text “The best photo printers“.

How to choose a suitable inkjet printer?

There are very efficient inkjet printers available on the market that can handle printing a large amount of photos and text of top quality, and cheaper inkjet printers that are usually used for personal use that does not require daily printing.

On the Internet, you can find various reviews about the profitability of inkjet printers, favorable purchase prices and relatively high ink prices. However, these parameters alone will not help you unless you consider them in the context of your needs. If you use an inkjet printer that is optimized for printing text and graphics to print photos, you will get mediocre quality photos that will not last long. On the other hand, if you use an inkjet printer that is optimized for printing high-quality photos to print text and ordinary graphics, you will waste ink and paper in vain. In case you only print “black and white” documents in your office, more than 2,000 pages per year, we recommend that you consider a laser printer with which you will have an approximate print quality for the mentioned type and amount of material,

The cheapest inkjet printers can be bought for only a few hundred kunas. A slightly higher amount needs to be allocated for the multifunctional version, while professional inkjet printers for photos used in photo shops have a much higher price, but for a reason, because they produce photos of superior, often gallery quality.

In short, the best inkjet printer is the one that suits your needs at the minimum cost. In order to define it, it is necessary to answer these questions:

1. How many pages do you print per month?

2. What type of pages do you print (photos or text and graphics)?

3. What additional functions do I want on the printer (scanning, network availability, Wi-Fi…)?

3. whether replacement inks are available for that device

If you send us your answers to the first 3 questions, we will be happy to recommend a specific printer.