When buying a printer, you need to determine first what you need it for. You should choose the type printer based on the products that you need. Pick the right type of printer that will serve your needs based on your print media whether they are documents, photos, posters, tarps, surfaces and blue prints. The four main groups of printers are lase, dot-matrix, ink-jet and dye diffusion printers. Laser printers are fast, efficient and produce high quality printouts by the numbers. Toners are expensive as well as the printers themselves.

Dot-matrix printers print via an impact mechanism transferring ink from the ribbon onto the paper. They are very cheap but have poor quality.

Ink-jets produce high quality printouts fast, but have lower quantity yield compared to laser printers. The printers themselves are cheap, but ink cartridges are expensive.

Graphic artists on the other hand demand dye diffusion printers which produce the highest quality prints. They offer millions of shades of colors as ink from rolls of film is heated into gaseous form diffusing the colors onto the printable surface. With this mechanism, the color gets diffused evenly over the whole printable surface.

There are sub-categories of printers that are available for home, office and industrial use. There are portable and desk printers that offer basic printing needs. These printers use ink cartridge and thermal transfer technology.

Photo printers print photo quality images and can replace traditionally developed photograpghs. They use ink-jet technology with extra colors of ink.

Finally there are multi-function printers that combine ink-jet and laser printing. These are known commonly in the market as all-in-one printers and are capable of printing, photocopying, scanning, and faxing documents. They are available in desk sizes are office type and industrial sizes.

Hewlett Packard produces top quality printers both for home and office use. These printers are known for their reliability and high quality prints. HP toner cartridges and HP printer ink cartridges are known to produce more and have better quality. HP printer ink and HP toner cartridges are the reason why HP printers are preferred by the market.

To know what printer to buy, you need to identify your needs first. You have to determine what print products you will have to create. For your printing needs, click here for HP printer ink and HP toner cartridges.