Looking For The Right Printer? This Flowchart Will Help
Which printer should you buy—inkjet or laser printer? How do you select the most suitable printer for your home or office?
With so many different brands, functions and types of printers out there, this seemingly easy task can suddenly seem astronomical by proportion!
Do you need your printer to have wireless connectivity? Do you only need the print function or an all-in-one multifunction printer? Which printer can handle all your printing needs?
To save you the headache, we have put together a useful flowchart to help you figure out which is the best printer for you.
Follow your desired attributes path and find your best matched printer!
Frustrated With The Never Ending Printer Problems? Here Are Some Solutions
Are you struggling with your home or office printers? Wonder why your wifi printer does not work properly? Frustrated with printing errors from your duplex printer?
These problems can be a huge headache to those who simply want their printing work done.
Help is here! In this article, we have put together a list of the most common printer problems and their solutions.
Slow Printing with Wifi Printers
Home / Office Printer Not Printing
Duplex Printer Printing Error
Extra Printed Blank Sheet of Paper
Paper Jams
Unclear Printed Texts
Poor Quality Inkjet Printed Photos
Poor Black and White Print Quality
Thick Ink on Inkjet Prints
Unreliable Error Messages
Take a deep breath, calm yourself down, and try these solutions before you call your printer repair man!
1. Slow Printing with Wifi Printers
In today’s fast-paced world, a slow printer can be exasperating when you have a sizable number of pages to print.
The common reasons for slow printing are due to large photo sizes and large presentation files. You can either lower the quality of the output or simply send a part of the document at a time to speed things up.
If you are printing wirelessly, do check that the distance between your printer and your router isn’t too far—poor wireless connection could be a possible cause for slow printing. A simple solution would be to place your wireless printer as close to the router as possible, since wifi speed slows down with distance.
Do also check your print settings. Higher quality prints do take more time to print. If an average print quality (eg. for a text document) is good enough, consider switching your printouts to draft mode or the lowest quality setting your printer has to speed up your printing process.
2. Home / Office Printer not Printing
Are you staring at a printer that is just not printing? Well, you are not going crazy, there’s probably a reason for it. Before you start kicking your printer, consider checking if the paper tray is empty—yes, we’ve all made that silly mistake!
OK, there is paper in your tray. So what could have gone wrong?
Consider checking the connection of your printer. There may be multiple printers in the office and you may not have connected to the right printer.
There is a chance that you have accidentally sent the print job to another printer—be sure to double check just in case you are printing confidential documents!
If your printer is still not working, then your print driver may be corrupted. You need to upload the latest version for your model and reinstall it on your computer. Should that still fail, it is best to call your local printer technician.
3. Duplex Printer Printing Error
Having a duplex printer should save you the hassle of flipping each printout manually. But what’s the point of having this functionality if your printer prints the back page upside down?
Fret not, there’s an easy solution to this. All you have to do is select Print on Both Sides, and opt to Flip on Long Edge. Your print jobs should be in the correct orientation now.
But what if you encounter disorderly pages, where the last page is at the top of the document?
There is a way around this incorrect manual sorting—simply print your pages in reverse. This can be found in the Advanced Settings box. You should only select this if your documents are to be put in order once the printing is complete.
4. Extra Printed Blank Sheet of Paper
“Why is there an extra sheet of blank paper after my prints?”
No, your printer isn’t intentionally wasting paper. Rather, this extra sheet of paper probably came about due to your print settings. This is typically used in offices with multiple users and high print volumes, to separate print jobs from different users and avoid documents from being mixed-up.
If your printer is only for your personal home use, you can change the settings using your printer preferences. You should be able to deselect the option for separator pages from there.
5. Paper Jams
Close-up Of Businessman Hand Removing Paper Stuck In Printer At Office
Paper jams are one of the most common issues people have with their home or office printers. This can happen due to static electricity (which causes pieces of paper to stick to each other) or when your printer tray is overloaded with too much paper.
A quick tip is to square off the stack of paper before placing it into the tray, ensuring that the pages line up and are flushed with the tray guides. Remember not to overfill the tray!
Jams may also occur when the print media used is not compatible with the printer. There are certain types of print media that are way thicker or bigger than the normal A4 Paper which is commonly used in most printers. Be sure to check that your printer is able to handle such media types and change your PC settings to match the print media.
6. Unclear Printed Texts
This problem may be caused by multiple reasons. Thus, you should go down this list to consider which option is the most likely possibility.
First, consider if you are using the draft mode or low print quality setting. Such settings may cause your printed texts to become unclear. By switching to a higher quality print, you will get clearer texts. However, be prepared to forgo your print speed—some printers are not able to simultaneously handle fast and high quality prints.
If you are using a laser printer, there is a high chance that the toner has settled, resulting in blurry texts. All you have to do is to remove the cartridge(s) and shake it gently from side to side to release any residual toner clinging onto the side of the cartridge. This works 90% of the time, but remember that the toner will eventually run out and needs to be replaced.
Finally, if you are using an inkjet printer, check if your unclear prints are due to a dirty nozzle or misaligned print head. Thankfully, you don’t have to deal with this manually (though you can if you wish).
Simply launch your printer’s maintenance menu and select “Clean Ink Cartridges”, “Clean Heads”, “Deep Cleaning” or a similar function. Cleaning the printhead will help improve the quality of the printout. As it uses a fair amount of ink you should only do it if you notice that the print quality is particularly bad.
7. Poor Quality Inkjet Printed Photos
Poor quality inkjet prints would commonly be due to a misaligned print head, dirty nozzles or empty ink cartridges. You can troubleshoot this by following the steps described in the previous point above.
The type of print media used may also affect the quality of your prints—especially if you intend to print photographs or posters in high definition colour. Make sure that you use the right photo paper. Often, third party photo papers are unable to reproduce your prints with the same resolution as the original photo papers from your brand.
Don’t forget to check that you have chosen the right paper type in your print settings and that it is set for photo printing.
It is also possible that your printer is low on one colour, causing discolourations. To achieve vibrant print reproductions of photos in the right hues, you need to ensure that inks in all the different colours are available—having one colour less can make a huge difference to your print quality.
8. Poor Black and White Print Quality
Do you turn off the colour when printing black and white documents? This is probably the cause of poor prints, especially for black and white images.
The colours give your documents smoother gradations and richer tones compared to solely using black. Thus, if you are printing a high quality black and white document, consider turning on the colour option for the best results.
9. Thick Ink on Inkjet Prints
Do your prints have a thick band of ink clustered around certain sections? This happens when your printer is unable to print at a certain resolution, usually on an uncoated paper. When it encounters this issue, it will try to adjust for the higher resolution by using more ink, causing the thick patch of ink (also known as banding) to appear.
To solve this problem, simply opt for a lower print resolution on your printer.
10. Unreliable Error Messages
Wonder why error messages like “low toner” or “ink error” appear when you’ve just replaced your toner or printer cartridge? Unless your new cartridges are faulty or broken, resetting your computer and printer usually fixes this problem. Do follow the instructions of your printer model to reset it properly.
Conclusion
Printer problems like slow printing, poor quality printouts, and paper jams can pose a huge inconvenience, especially when you need to get your work done. Hopefully, these solutions to the most common printer problems can help you to quickly get back on track. Should all of them fail—and we certainly hope that they wouldn’t—you should probably contact your local printer operator for immediate help!
Which Printer Should You Buy? Fit Them To Your Lifestyle Or Business Needs
Are you still searching for the perfect printer? Which printer should you buy for your family at home, a home office, a corporate office with multiple users, or factory?
Having too many choices can be confusing. This is why we’ve done the legwork for you and curated a list of Brother printers that perfectly suit these 7 different personal and professional uses:
Families with school-going kids
Home office (work from home)
Corporate office with multiple users
Industrial/Manufacturing production work
Budget friendly
Techies
Photography fanatics
1.Families with school-going kids
Growing up in a household equipped with a printer makes family and school life so much easier. You can print out handwriting/colouring worksheets, mazes, and puzzles for your younger kids, while your older children can print articles and school assignments at the click of a button.
If you have school-going children under your wing, your ideal printer should be able to handle a wide variety of needs, such as:
Printing in colour
Photocopying worksheets and assignments
Scanning artworks and articles
Printing multiple pages of reports, double-sided
Printing from a mobile device
Considering the diversity of needs, an all-in-one printermay be your best bet.
Has up to 6 sec (Mono) / 6.5 sec (Colour) first print-out time
Has automatic 2-sided printing
Holds up to 150 sheets in the standard paper tray
Holds up to 80 sheets in the Multi-Purpose Tray
Holds up to 20 sheets Automatic Document Feeder
Has wireless connectivity
Supports mobile printing with Brother iPrint&Scan, Apple AirPrint, Mopria, Wi-Fi Direct
Has up to 1,200 x 6,000 dpi print quality
Say goodbye to expensive printing costs from print shops! With this versatile printer, your family can enjoy effortless printing at home.
2. Home office (work from home)
The best printers for home offices are ones that are able to keep up with your business workload. You may need to scan invoices, print reports, photocopy documents or fax secure information to a coworker, a client or a supplier. Having a printer that can support your workflow will maximise your work efficiency and save you unnecessary headaches.
In choosing the best printer for your home office, you should keep an eye out for the following qualities:
Fast printing speed for work efficiency
Automatic duplex printing and scanning for productivity
Large paper capacity to reduce frequency of reloads
Printing from different devices—mobile, laptop & tablet
To achieve optimal work efficiency and productivity, you should choose a multifunction printer.
Holds up to 50-sheet Dual CIS Auto Document Feeder
Holds up to 30-sheet manual feed slot
Has integrated NFC and USB reader
Has wireless and mobile connectivity
3.7” LCD touchscreen to support easy-to-program shortcuts
With this printer in your home office, you can look forward to enjoying a fuss-free and more productive workflow.
Corporate office with multiple users
In a workplace with multiple staff, you’ll need to be able to set up a large printer network for different users. Each user may have different needs, ranging from printing and photocopying, to scanning and faxing.
Your printer will also need to be easily accessible by users across the office, either through wired or wireless network connections. The perfect printer for medium to large enterprises also needs to cater to many users and be able to keep up with multiple print jobs.
Essential things to look out for include:
Network connectivity for multiple users
Printer sharing across multiple users
Fast printing speed for work efficiency
Automatic duplex printing and scanning for productivity
Large paper capacity to reduce frequency of reloads
High-volume & low-cost printing
Reliability to prevent downtime
To ensure maximum efficiency and minimal fuss, the best printer for your corporate office is a multi-function centre or a business printer.
Print speed of up to 22ipm (mono) and 20ipm (colour)
Copy speed of up to 12ipm (mono) and 9ipm (colour)
Scan speed from 2.7 seconds (A4 size, 100×100 dpi)
Fax speed 33.6 kbps
Holds up to 250 sheets Input Tray (Standard)
Holds up to 250 sheets Lower Paper Tray
Holds up to 100 sheets Multi-Purpose Tray
Holds up to 100 sheets (A4) and 50 sheets (A3) Output Tray
Super high-yield ink cartridges available (BK up to 3,000 pages & C/M/Y up to 1,500 pages)
Investing in a reliable printer will help to create a seamless experience for your staff and boost the productivity of the company.
4. Industrial / Manufacturing production work
When your business heavily relies on printing work, the quality of these prints is of the utmost importance. The costs can easily add up when printing large volumes of fliers, brochures, posters and pamphlets. Hence, you need to carefully balance between the cost-efficiency and the quality of these prints.
The ideal printer should be able to keep your print quality high and running costs low.
High print quality to ensure business standards
Fast printing speed for production efficiency
Versatile print trays for different-sized prints
Multiple types of print media
High-yield cartridges to keep high-volume printing affordable
The perfect printer to keep your production work running smoothly is a high capacity multi-function centre.
Ultra high-yield ink available (BK up to 6,500 pages & C/M/Y up to 5,000 Pages)
Owning such a printer might mean a bigger upfront investment but lower running costs and improved productivity.
5. Budget friendly
Looking for a pocket-friendly printer? Do not just rush to buy the cheapest printer on the market. Here’s why: The costs of consumables can add up to a hefty amount over time!
Instead, you should carefully consider both the printer cost as well as the cost of its consumables to find out which printer is the most economical over a specific timeframe.
Your usage of the printer may not be heavy duty, but you still need one that is cost efficient. Hence, the printer you choose should have these characteristics:
Low average cost of printer and consumables
Low-maintenance printer
Small in size
A low cost and reliable printer may be just what you need:
Ultra high-yield ink available (BK up to 7,500 pages & C/M/Y up to 5,000 Pages)
Dimensions: 435 x 439 x 195 mm (W x D x H)
Weight: 9.7kg
The good news is you won’t be burning a hole in your pocket with these printers!
6. Techies
Do you want a technologically advanced printer that makes your life easier, more productive and fuss-free? In this digital age, connectivity is one of the defining successes of our era.
Maybe you want a printer that can print anything from anywhere or one that can easily manage your print jobs according to your everyday tasks.
With various technologies combined, this printer should have advanced features to meet all your modern needs:
Network connectivity in multiple forms like wifi or the ethernet.
Control remotely, possibly through your mobile device
Intuitive (so you can avoid reading the manual!)
Modern technology such as touch screen
Memory function for repeated tasks
Automated tasks to replace usual manual ones
Fast printing speed
Meet the most advanced printers in our collection:
Mobile Print (Brother iPrint&Scan, Airprint, Mopria, Google Cloud Print)
WebConnect (Brother Cloud Apps)
NFC (Card Reader / Print&Scan / Link to Solutions Center)
Up to 22ipm (mono) and 20ipm (colour) print speed
Up to 12ipm (mono) and 9ipm (colour) copy speed
From 2.7 seconds (A4 size, 100×100 dpi) scan speed
33.6 kbps fax transmission speed
Up to 1200×4800 dpi print quality
Display: 3.7” LCD Touchscreen
256MB memory space
Supported Operating Systems include:
Windows: Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 / Server 2008 / Server 2008 R2 / Server 2012 / Server 2012 R2
Mac: OS X v10.9.5 / 10.10.x / 10.11.x
With these printers, you will be breezing through your print jobs in the least amount of time and effort!
7. Photography fanatics
As a photographer, colours, shadows and light are key elements in your photographic art pieces. In order to do justice to these details, the quality and resolution of your printer is of the essence. As such, your needs are specific to its output quality.
Vibrant and high quality colour prints
Photo quality inks that are long-lasting and smudge-proof
Allow printing across a range of sizes
Allow printing from camera, laptop, phone, tablet
The following printer will help to bring your photographs to life.
