Top 10 Myths About Printers / Scanners

1. Laser printers are always better than inkjets.

Back when inkjets smeared easily, were incredibly slow, and soaked into normal paper, businesses always used lasers. Now, however, technology has improved to the point that households that print correspondence, prints of Web pages, or simple photo prints will be quite happy with an inkjet. And if you want high-quality color photos, an inkjet photo printer will trump a laser printer every time. (If you print a lot of documents over the long term, of course, a laser printer is the way to go.)

2. Refilled ink cartridges are always bad.

Not anymore. Have you seen the latest ads from Staples? They, and other retailers, have begun (finally!) to sell professionally refilled ink cartridges at a slight discount. You won't get the type of savings that you'll get from small, over-the-Internet services -- but you'll be certain that inferior ink won't clog your print heads, either. (Note: There are some decent third-party refillers out there -- but make sure you've got a reliable recommendation before you try one.)

3. You have to use paper with the printer manufacturer's name on it.

Many printers come with the warning that you should only use paper manufactured by the printer vendor. Why? Mostly, so that the vendor can make more money. Printer vendors hire third-party paper companies to produce paper with their brand on it. That paper is often identical to cheaper brands.

There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes, photo paper is manufactured to the printer vendor's specification to work best with their special inks -- in that case, you may want to stick to their paper.

4. Cheap printers are bad printers.

There are printers out there that sell for about $75 that will suit a family's printing needs perfectly well. While you will usually get an increase in features, color quality, and speed as you get into the high price ranges, if all you need is a simple printer for your home, there's no need to go overboard on the credit card. Just read the reviews, and you can probably find a low-cost printer that will work for you.

5. Low-cost printers will always save you money.

Do you know why you can buy a $50 inkjet printer? Because if the cartridges cost $25 each, and you buy three sets of cartridges over the course of a year, you'll soon spend more on cartridges than you did on the original printer.

So make sure that "low" refers to the cost of the cartridges as well. When you've chosen a printer, check out the price of its cartridges and compare that to the price of a similar printer's cartridges. If there's more than a $10 difference, you may want to rethink.

6. Print speed is the most important factor when considering a printer.

Just as you don't buy a car simply for the mph it can attain -- well, at least, most of us don't -- you don't buy a printer based simply on how fast it runs. Before you buy, think about how important speed (also known as performance) really is -- if you're in an office and have several 20-page documents to turn out, speed can be vital, but if you just plan to do an occasional image or five-pager, and can do something else while printing, then color and text quality should be your primary goal.

7. All all-in-ones come with fax.

Many all-in-ones claim to come with faxing capabilities. However, some of the less expensive really do their faxing using your computer's modem. This means that your computer has to be "On" in order to send or receive faxes.

So if you plan to use an all-in-one's faxing features more than a couple of times a month, look for a device that has a direct phone connection. However, since direct fax also adds to the price, if you only fax occasionally, you can settle for the PC-based system.

8. You need a network printer or a print server in order to share a printer.

If you're running a simple peer-to-peer network and want to share a printer, you don't have to invest in a network-capable printer or a printer server.

Go to your Control Panel and select the Printer and Faxes section. Find the printer you want to share, right-click on it, and select "Sharing..." Select "Share This Printer," and name the printer something identifiable. Now you can go to any computer on your network and add it as a printer that can be used by that computer.

9. Scanners used with all-in-ones aren't as good as standalone scanners.

With today's miniaturization, advanced optics, and other factors, many of the scanners included in all-in-ones are quite as good, if not better, than their standalone cousins. If you want a very high-quality film scanner, or need professional-level scanning, an all-in-one probably won't work for you. And if you don't need an all-in-one, by all means look for a standalone. But don't be shy about buying an all-in-one because you heard that its scanner is necessarily inferior -- that just ain't so.

10. Most printers are only good for only three years.

I know somebody who was in despair because her ten-year-old HP LaserJet had finally given up the ghost. Is she buying a new one? Nope -- she'd rather look for replacement parts than replace it.

The lifespan of a printer depends on the sturdiness of the machine, how much you use it, and how well you maintain it. Printers will eventually fail -- as we all will -- but some will last nearly forever. Take good care of your printer, and it will take care of you -- for a longer time.