Inkjet printers can produce outstanding photos, crisp multi-page office documents, and everything in between. Find your ideal inkjet with these handy shopping tips and our top picks, drawn from PC Labs’ reviews.
Is an inkjet in your future? You can find the technology in a huge variety of single-function printers and all-in-ones designed to fill a wide variety of roles at home or at the office. Here, we’ll explore the different types of inkjets, and highlight some key features to look for when shopping for one. With so many models to choose from, it’s helpful to determine just what you want to do with the printer before you start shopping. Some inkjets are meant for family and home use, another subset of them is aimed at offices, and still others are good for dual use in a home and a home office. Certain models are made to output nothing but photos, and are ideal for printing out snapshots on the spot, while others print text and graphics as well. And a few top-end models, aimed at imaging pros, excel at producing gallery-worthy prints. Those last printers, so-called “near-dedicated” photo printers, are widely used by professional photographers, artists looking to output high-end work, and amateur photo enthusiasts alike. There are even inkjets designed for mobile printing, complete with batteries. Most home inkjets are meant for personal printing of a handful of pages per day. They tend to be compact, and the vast majority of them are small enough to share a desk with. Graphics and Text Quality Nowadays, you can count on almost any inkjet to print graphics good enough for both internal business use (like printing PowerPoint handouts) and home tasks (like producing party invitations). If you choose carefully, you can have output quality that would please a graphic artist. Text quality used to be the Achilles’ heel for inkjets, but now many of them can print text nearly as crisply as a laser printer, though not always with the same archival quality. Surprised? We bust more printer myths in our inkjet vs. laser comparison. Photo Printing: Expect Excellence Nearly any current inkjet can print photos that at least match the quality you’d expect from your local drugstore’s photo-processing counter. The few exceptions are among printers aimed at offices, but even most office inkjets will do a decent job with pictures. You can even find a few all-purpose inkjets whose output rivals photo printers meant for professional photographers. If you’re looking for a home printer to output mainly photos, but also capable of printing a range of other document types, you want an inkjet. Printers meant for home use fall into two categories: inexpensive models that typically cost far less than $100 for single-function printers and $150 or less for MFPs; and highly photo-centric printers, with prices of $150 or more for single-function models and $300 or more for MFPs. The inkjets in the first category often include limited photo-oriented features, such as the ability to print directly from memory cards and PictBridge-enabled cameras. Inkjets in the more expensive category are photo-centric to the point where you can effectively use the single-purpose printers as simple photo kiosks and the all-in-ones as standalone photo labs. They typically come with relatively large LCDs for previewing photos, and often have touch screens for giving commands.
