Too often, buying a printer is an afterthought—an extra you barely think about when you plan your computer budget. But printers deserve more consideration. If the printed page is where your final output winds up, the printer you choose determines how you and the world at large see your work. So shop with care, and use the guidelines and pointers here to steer you through the decisions ahead.
If you're in the market for a small-office printer, or one to go on (or under or beside) your desk, you're shopping for what we'll call a personal printer. A personal printer should be suitable for most common printing tasks, which means an inkjet or a laser printer. You can also consider LCD or LED printers. These printers work similarly to lasers, and most people call them lasers, a convention we'll follow here.
Typically, a personal printer handles letter-size or letter- and legal-size paper, but it may handle tabloid-size paper as well. It usually has modest paper-handling features, with an input-tray capacity of 100 sheets or fewer.
Home users, or office users looking to supplement network printers with printers on their own desks, can expect to spend up to about $500. For small- or home-office users and serious power users, that limit might stretch to $1,200 or so for a low-end color laser. These price ceilings are elastic and obviously depend on your budget. But if you go much higher, you'll be out of personal-printer territory.
