Read the fine print

With access to the office printer cut off, and most printer shops shut, many of us have found ourselves in need of a printer. However, buying the right printer might be a little trickier than you'd think and you have to figure out what your use case is to find the right one that best matches it. Our handy guide will help you break down use cases and suggest the best printer in each category.

Printing photos and pictures

For printing photos and pictures specifically, you will want to get a higher-end inkjet printer, preferably one with an ink tank included. The paper here also makes a difference, so make sure you get photo-quality printing paper to go with your printer. Photos require a significantly decent printer capable of high DPI (dots per inch) printing for best results.

Recommended printers
Canon Pixma G1010 Rs 7,999

Canon Pixma G2012 AIO Rs 10,399

Low cost

Low-cost printers are fine; they work well, cost under R3,000 and do the job at hand. The downside is the prints from these machines are usually of lower quality and the cost of the cartridges are not economical in the long run. However, if your use case is 1-2 prints in a day, these can serve that purpose well. Just don't go printing your family vacation pictures, because it might be cheaper to just go to the photo studio for that. Low-cost printers also tend to be smaller in size, so it may work for you if you have limited desk space.

Recommended printers
Canon Pixma TS207 Rs 2,525

HP DeskJet 1212 Rs 2,049

Family Printer

All-in-ones (AIO) make great family printers, they can scan, print and copy. I would recommend getting one, if you have to do a lot of printing, scanning or copying. If you have kids, this printing will come in handy for printing worksheets and homework. The scanner is also a great addition, it lets you scan documents and use the printer as a colour photocopier. You will also want to get an ink tank version if you tend to print a lot of pages in a week. Ink tanks are economical and you never have to go searching for a compatible printer cartridge again.

Recommended printers
Epson L3152 WiFi AIO Rs 13,999

Canon Pixma G2012 AIO Rs 10,399

Best for office work

If you are looking for a printer for office work, an inkjet may not be something that will work for you. The prints from inkjet take too much time to print. If you are not concerned with colour, then I would recommend going in for a cheap laser printer. They are cost-effective and do a good job when printing documents. The cost per print is also significantly lower when compared to an inkjet. You even have colour laser printers that can print colour prints. The colour prints are usually of lower quality when compared to a similarly priced inkjet printer.

Recommended printers
Brother HL-L2321D Rs 8,499 monochrome

Canon MF3010 AIO Rs 14,099 monochrome

Canon ImageClass MF613CDW Rs 22,999 colour

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