PC Peripherals Need help buying a printer for personal use. Needs:

[fakeer]

• I shall need a colour printer, though mostly I will be printing B&W pages and rarely I'll print a colour page. Almost never a photo.
• I will be using it for scanning a lot. A lot more than printing any kind of page. AAMOF scanning is my prime use case. And if the scanning is faster and other features are a bit down I can sure go for that.
• I would prefer smaller form factor. Smaller the better.
• I shall be using it for photo-copying too but if there's no standalone copier and there's a good deal with appropriate size and all; then I will skip on copier thing and will simply Scan and then Print PDFs instead.
• I don't want to be stuck with proprietary cartridges and/or toner. Honestly I don't know the difference except that people say LASER printers are better than InkJet and LED ones are in turn better than LASER printers. But LED printers are so pricey, isn't it?
• Will need Ethernet and/or WiFi. It's perfectly alright if only one of the two are present or even USB connectivity shall do.
• Faster and pocket friendly printing, better cost per page and pages per minute are obviously plus.
• Connectivity and a bucket full of feature are not deciding factors; but price, size and speed are.
• Good support/warranty from OEM and a sturdy printer.
• I don't have a problem buying an InkJet if one serves my purpose well but almost everyone I've talked to have spoken against it. I am not judging though.

• BUDGET: I've no idea about it. You guys, who have bought one - used one - or know about such things, please recommend good ones and keep the budget in the context that I am not going to use it for any mission critical stuff. But it's rather is a small in house thingie for printing tickets from time to time, a lot of scanning, maybe(sometimes) printing papers/articles time to time ranging from sth like 20-30 pages to maybe a 100 or so(this will be rare) as I minimize reading PDFs (my eyes hurt) etcetera. This in no way means there are no budget constraints. Just that I am not very sure. I will be happy if I can get sth between 2-5K INR and (with some trouble) can stretch to sth like 7-8K if my needs can only be met at that price not not above 10K which seems like a fortune for me, for personal use printer.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

For a budget of 7~8k + colour printing, an inkjet is your only option. Check out HP's "Ink Advantage" printers, since the cartridges are a whole lot cheaper, or you can get a normal printer and refill.

If you can make do with B&W prints, a monochrome laser will fit in your budget, and you can squeeze in a separate scanner.

 

[fakeer]

For a budget of 7~8k + colour printing, an inkjet is your only option.... squeeze in a separate scanner.

Thanks for your note.

So, for home/personal usage the InkJet aren't that bad? What is the main difference that I am going to notice from a user point of view? Speed? Quality? Colours? Cartridge cost? Size? Sturdiness?

And how much a separate scanner is going to cost? Are there portable ones, this one I am asking because just in case I go for a stand alone scanner?

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

What is the main difference that I am going to notice from a user point of view? Speed? Quality? Colours? Cartridge cost? Size? Sturdiness?

Mostly speed and reliability. Lasers print faster, and they're designed for heavier "print duty cycles" a month compared to home inkjet printers. For text, laser quality tends to be a bit sharper too, but inkjets have largely narrowed the gap.

And how much a separate scanner is going to cost? Are there portable ones, this one I am asking because just in case I go for a stand alone scanner?

Separate scanners are about 3k or so. Not sure about portable scanners, but Canon had an entry level model that used only a single USB cable and operated entirely off USB port power.