What to Consider When Buying a Color Printer

printing a colour document in office

Not Sure Which Color Printer Suits You Best? Here is Your Printer Buying Guide

Decided to take the leap and invest in a colour printer for your home or small office?

Perhaps you’ve created a gorgeous work of digital art and wish to share it with the world by displaying your art in your home. Or maybe you feel that having the right colour images can help to improve the impact of your work documents or presentations.

But how do you choose the best colour printer to meet both your professional and personal needs? After all, there are literally thousands of different colour printers out there.

The good news? Colour printers have evolved over the past few years—many models now offer superior photo-quality print results and convenient state-of-the-art features—so you are totally spoilt for choice. You will also be glad to know that most colour printers today include multiple functions like copying, faxing and scanning. 

Types of colour printers

When searching for a colour printer, it’s generally a toss-up between an inkjet printer or a laser printer. This decision largely hinges upon what you print and how often you print.

Let’s consider inkjet printers first.

  1. Qualities of an inkjet colour printer

An inkjet printer is a type of printer that works by expelling ink droplets onto paper. Such printers use liquid ink from individual color ink cartridges or internal ink reservoir tank, which are then expelled through separate nozzles—each one spraying a different colour of ink.

Pros of an inkjet colour printer:

  • Affordability

Cost is one of the biggest advantages of colour inkjet printers. Even the least expensive inkjet printers are able to produce images with great quality.

If price is a top-of-mind concern for you, then an inkjet printer would be your best bet for low-priced colour printing in a home/small office setting.

  • Excellent Print Quality

As we have alluded to above, the advancement of ink technology has enabled inkjet printers to provide high-quality output for both images and text. Due to their finer and smoother colours and detailing, inkjet printers are built for high-resolution photo printing.

With the level of quality of most colour inkjet printers today, it can be difficult to differentiate between a professionally-printed photograph and one that’s been printed using your inkjet printer – especially when printing on photo paper!

  • Smaller Footprint

Inkjet colour printers also tend to be more compact in size compared to laser colour printers. Even inkjet printers that are multi-functional do not have a large footprint. This makes them suitable for homes or workplaces that have tight spaces. 

Cons of an inkjet colour printer:

  • Slower Speed

Most inkjet printers are designed for low-volume printing. Thus they may take longer to churn out large print jobs.   

The slower print speed of inkjet printers, however, is slightly mitigated by the fact that an inkjet printer can start printing as soon as the printer is turned on, without needing any warm-up time.

  • Qualities of a colour laser printer

Colour laser printers combine the speed of traditional monochrome laser printers with the ability to print in colour. In laser printers, colour is added to the page by melting toner powder onto paper.

The initial cost of laser printers may be higher than inkjet printers. Likewise, the toner cartridges used in laser printers are also pricier than the inks used in inkjet printers. However, colour laser printers could still be an economical option in the long run due to their lower cost per page and faster print speeds.

Here is a breakdown of the main advantages and disadvantages of colour laser printers.

Pros of a colour laser printer:

  • Faster print speeds

Laser printers are traditionally built for speed (around 50 pages per minute!) while inkjet printers print slower at about 16-20 pages per minute.

When comparing your printer’s pages per minute (ppm) rating, do bear in mind that such ratings usually depict printing under optimal conditions—usually with documents consisting of unformatted black text sent to the printer. Once factors such as document formatting, colour, and images are thrown in, print speeds will tend to slow down.

  • Cheaper printing cost per page

Everyone knows that the higher upfront costs of laser printers and toner cartridges are partially offset by their lower cost per page. This is because laser toner cartridges can print significantly more pages than inkjet cartridges—even in colour.

How do we calculate the cost per page?

Cost per page is the most accurate way of measuring your printer’s cost-efficiency. To calculate your printer cartridge’s cost per page, simply take the price of the cartridge and divide it by the expected page yield of one cartridge:

For black and white printing:

cost per page = cartridge price /  cartridge page yield

For colour printing:

cost per page =(black cartridge price /  black page yield) +( 3x colour cartridge price / colour composite page yield) + (drum price / total composite page yield)

  • High-volume print jobs

Colour laser printers are known to be workhorses—they simply come built with the capacity to quickly churn out large numbers of documents and pages.

  • Good colour print quality 

With the technological advancements in laser printers, the quality of the colour prints has seen vast improvements in recent years. As such, whether you’re printing photos for personal use or professional use, you can expect excellent colour prints from your laser printer.

Cons of a colour laser printer:

  •  More suited for document printing

Colour lasers are designed to print documents. While they can also handle graphics-and-text documents like brochures and newsletters, laser printers may not be optimal for printing photographs. 

  • Larger footprint

Due to their relatively larger footprint, colour laser printers function best in larger offices and other professional work settings. If space is not an issue for you, you may want to consider colour lasers for your printing needs even in your home.

Quick and Easy Tips To Improve Colour Print Quality

How do professional photographers and designers create high-quality colour prints? This is the million-dollar question that we will address in this next section.

  • Vibrant colour yield (RGB to CMYK Colour Variances)

There are two ways to print in colour: RGB or CMYK.

RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue. The RGB colour mode combines these base colours in varying quantities to form just about any colour you can imagine. For example, if you want to create a yellow colour, you would simply combine green and red.

CMYK works quite differently from RGB—here, the printer uses subtractive colours, or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. In CMYK mode, all of the colours are subtractive which basically means that the more colours you add together, the darker the resulting colour is going to be.

When printing documents on CMYK printers, do ensure that you are creating your documents in CMYK colour mode. If they are not designed in CMYK, you can also convert them to CMYK through a photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop, or layout programs such as Quark Xpress or Adobe InDesign.

●      Print Resolution

Print resolution is measured in DPI (dots per inch). The more dots there are in an inch of paper, the sharper the resulting image. 

Your printer needs to have a resolution of 600 dpi in order to print high-quality documents (and 1200 dpi to achieve sharp, detailed images).

When shopping around for printers, you may notice that print resolution is always presented as a set of two numbers, for example 1200 x 3600 dpi. This means the maximum resolution of that printer is 1200 multiplied by 3600 dpi.

●      Paper Type

Substandard paper can result in substandard colour print quality so be sure not to overlook this small but important factor! Often, print problems such as excessive colour bleeding or colour dullness can be attributed to low-quality paper.   

How to Choose the Right Colour Printer

Now that you’ve learned the characteristics of both colour inkjet and laser printers, your next task is to choose the best colour printer for your use.

1. Print Quality

If you’re expecting to print a lot of photographs on glossy or matte photo paper, a colour inkjet printer may be the best fit for you as the quality of the output is superior when photo paper is used.

However, if printing on plain printer paper, the print quality of a colour laser printer is on par with an inkjet printer.

2. Print Volume

Colour laser printers also work well if you need to churn out many documents per day—for most home printer buyers, this usually isn’t a dealbreaker as they normally only print a few documents every few days.

Thus, as you can see, the right colour printer for you really boils down to your expected print usage and your preference in terms of print quality.

Types of Colour Printers from Brother 

Considering getting an inkjet or laser colour printer? Take a look at these recommended models from Brother.

  1. Best for Affordability
Brother DCP-T420W printer

The DCP-T420W is an affordable colour inkjet printer that offers cost-savings in the long run due to the ultra high yield ink bottles, which allows you to print 7,500 pages in black and 5,000 pages in colour. It also delivers professional quality prints with crisp black text and vibrant detailed images.

  1. Best for Features

The DCP-T520W combines multiple functions of printing, scanning and copying into one nifty printer. It uses the same ultra high yield ink bottles as the DCP-T420W, thus allowing you to enjoy better page yields and lower costs per page.

  1. Best for Efficiency
Brother HL-T4000 printer

If you have a need for speed, the HL-T4000DW might be your ideal choice for a printer. It features automatic 2-sided printing, prints up to A3 size, uses ultra high yield ink bottles, and is able to print up to 22 images per minute or 35 pages per minute (in fast mode).  

  1. Best for Versatility and Overall Performance

Brother’s latest inkjet Multi-Function Centre MFC-J3530DW delivers business-class performance at a reasonable price. With low printing costs, you can print high volumes without constantly worrying about your bottom line. Furthermore, it also offers A3 paper printing capabilities, so you can expand and showcase your work without having to lose any details.

  1. Best for Speed

Brother’s colour laser all-in-one MFC-L8900CDW delivers excellent colour performance with fast print/scan speeds. It also offers lower cost thanks to super and ultra high-yield toners. This intelligent multi-tasking printer is equipped with a dual CIS Automatic Document Feeder that allows you to scan up to 70 sheets directed to your preferred medium. It also comes with advanced security features.

  1. Best for Home and Small Business

The Brother MFC-L3770CDW colour laser printer delivers superior colour performance and fast print and scan speeds, making it the perfect companion for your home or small business printing needs. This workhorse is able to boost your productivity with fast colour print speeds of up to 24ppm.

Conclusion

Deciding on the best colour printer for your home or office will depend on your specific printing needs and the factors that stand out the most to you. 

We hope this detailed comparison between inkjet printers and colour laser printers will help you to make the right buying decision for yourself!

How To Choose the Right Printer (Flowchart)

buying printer flowchart

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!

How infographic looks like:

The Perfect Printer To Suit Your Lifestyle or Business

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:

  1. Families with school-going kids
  2. Home office (work from home)
  3. Corporate office with multiple users
  4. Industrial/Manufacturing production work
  5. Budget friendly
  6. Techies
  7. 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.

home family printer

Brother MFC-T920DW Ink Tank Printer

  • Able to print, scan, copy, and fax
  • 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.

print scan photocopy fax all-in-one printer

Brother MFC-L3750CDW Laser Printer:

  • Able to print, scan, copy and, fax
  • Has automatic 2-sided printing and scanning
  • Has fast colour print speed: up to 24ppm
  • Has fast scan speed: up to 27ipm
  • Has multi-tasking capabilities
  • Holds up to 250-sheet default paper tray
  • 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.

office inkjet printer

Brother MFC-J3930DW Inkjet Printer:

  • Has automatic 2-sided print, scan, copy, and fax
  • Connectivity includes: Wireless Network, Wi-Fi Direct, Mobile Print, WebConnect, Brother Cloud Apps & NFC
  • 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.

industrial laser printer

Brother MFC-L6900DW Laser Printer:

  • Able to print, scan, copy, and fax
  • Automatic 2-sided monochrome printing
  • Has up to 50/52 ppm print speed
  • Has up to 1200 x 1200 dpi print quality
  • Has N-in-1 Printing
  • Media types include: Poster Printing, Watermark Printing & Header-Footer Printing (Windows® only)
  • Holds paper sizes of 76.2 to up to 215.9 mm (W) X 127 to 355.6 mm (L)
  • Media sizes include: A4, Letter, A5, A5(Long Edge), A6, Executive, Legal, Folio, Mexico Legal, India Legal
  • Ultra high-yield toner available (up to 20,000 pages)
  • Drum available (up to 30,000 pages)

Alternatively, if colour is required, you can consider the following:

industrial ink tank printer

Brother MFC-T4500DW Ink Tank Printer:

  • Able to print, scan, copy, and fax up to A3
  • Automatic 2-sided monochrome / coloured printing
  • Has up to 22 ipm (mono) & 20 ipm (colour) print speed
  • Has up to 1200 x 4800 dpi print quality
  • Holds up to 250 sheets Input Tray (Standard)
  • Holds up to 100 sheets Multi-Purpose Tray
  • Holds up to 100 sheets (up to A4/letter) & 50 sheets (over A4/letter) Output Tray
  • Media types include: Plain, Inkjet, Glossy (cast/resin), Recycled
  • Media sizes include: A3, A4, LGR, LTR, EXE, LGL, Folio, A5, A6, Photo(102x152mm/4×6″), Indexcard(127x203mm/5×8″), Photo-2L(127x178mm/5×7″), C5 Envelope, Com-10, DL Envelope, Monarch
  • 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:

cost efficient laser monochrome printer

Brother DCP-L2550DW Laser Printer:

  • Able to print, scan, and copy
  • Automatic 2-sided monochrome printing
  • Has energy saving mode
  • Has toner saving mode
  • High-yield toner available (up to 3,000 pages)
  • Drum available (up to 12,000 pages)
  • Dimensions: 410 x 398.5 x 318.5 mm (W x D x H)
  • Weight: 11.8kg
cost efficient refill ink tank printer

Brother DCP-T420W Refill Tank Printer:

  • Able to print, scan, and copy
  • 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:

smart laser printer

Brother MFC-L8900CDW Laser Printer:

  • Automatic 2-sided print, scan, copy, and fax
  • Connectivity includes:
    • Hi Speed 2.0 USB
    • Gigabit Ethernet (10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T)
    • Wireless (IEEE 802.11b/g/n)
    • WiFi Direct (IEEE 802.11g/n)
    • WebConnect (Brother Cloud Apps)
    • NFC (Card Reader / Print&Scan / Link to Solutions Center / NFC Shortcut)
  • Up to 31/33 ppm print and copy speed
  • Up to 28/28 ipm scan speed
  • 2.5 sec fax transmission speed
  • 600 x 600 dpi, 2,400 dpi class (2,400 x 600) print quality
  • Has secure print function
  • Display: 5.0″ TFT Colour LCD Touchscreen
  • 1GB memory space
  • Supported Operating Systems include:
    • Windows: Server 2008 (Network only), Server 2008 R2 (Network only), 7, 8, 8.1,
    • Server 2012 (Network only), Server 2012 R2 (Network only),10, Server 2016 (Network only)
    • Mac: OS v10.10.5, 10.11.x, 10.12 (Download only)
    • Linux: CUPS, LPD/LPRng (x86/x64 environment)
smart inkjet printer

Brother MFC-J3930DW Inkjet Printer:

  • Able to print, scan, copy, and fax up to A3
  • Automatic 2-sided printing and copying
  • Connectivity includes:
    • Wireless Network (IEEE 802.11b/g/n)
    • Wi-Fi Direct (IEEE 802.11g/n)
    • 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.

photo ink tank printer

Brother HL-T4000DW Ink Tank Printer:

  • Able to print up to A3
  • Automatic 2-sided printing
  • Up to 1200×4800 dpi print quality & 1200×6000 dpi PhotoCapture Centre print quality
  • Allow for borderless printing
  • Allow for colour enhancement (Brother image enhancement)
  • Connectivity includes:
    • Hi Speed 2.0 USB
    • Wireless Network (IEEE 802.11b/g/n)
    • Wi-Fi Direct (IEEE 802.11g/n)
    • Mobile Print (Brother iPrint&Scan, Airprint, Mopria, Google Cloud Print)
  • Media types: Plain, Inkjet, Glossy(Cast/Resin), Recycled
  • Media sizes: A3, A4,LGR, LTR, EXE, LGL, Folio, A5, A6, Photo(102x152mm/4×6″), Indexcard(127x203mm/5×8″), Photo-2L(127x178mm/5×7″), C5 Envelope, Com-10, DL Envelope, Monarch

Using this printer will guarantee that the quality of your artworks will never be compromised.