Working from home – you might have the absolute desire to use as little paper as possible, but sometimes there’s just no way around that. You’ll have documents and files that need to be printed and stored, and that’s without even taking into consideration how useful a multi-function printer/scanner combo can be for any small business.
So you’ll need some kind of printer for your home. The question on most people’s minds really comes down to this: what is the best home printer – a laser or inkjet printer?
You also need to take into account that because you’re working from home you probably need a printer that’s not only useful for business printing but can handle all your family printing needs, too. What’s the point of having two separate printers if you can get away with just using one?
Let’s take a look at how you go about choosing a printer for your home-based business. One that doesn’t leave you doing this:
Difference Between an Inkjet and a Laser Printer
An inkjet printer sprays teeny, tiny droplets of ink onto paper, whereas a laser printer uses heat and an electromagnetic charge to “fuse” a very fine powder called toner onto the paper.
There were other competing technologies in the past like dye sublimation and wax-based printing, but they never took off. Go figure!
Inkjet printers tend to be physically smaller, cheaper to buy, and less expensive to run if you’re not printing a lot of stuff.
Laser printers take up more desk space, have more expensive consumables, but are far more economical if you’re printing tons of documents.
Entry-level inkjet and laser printers both cost roughly the same amount of money.
Related: what is inkjet printer, what is a laser printer
What will you Use your Printer For?
The reason I keep asking you to answer this question is that it will save you from spending way more money than you need to and get a printer that’s perfectly suited to your needs. So, take a few seconds to think about exactly what you’ll need to print.
Will it just be plain text documents, with the odd chart and some basic graphics? Or will you need a printer that can also produce high-quality photographic prints for either your business or your kids’ projects? In either of these scenarios, a basic inkjet printer should be more than capable of meeting your printing needs.
Or, will you need to print out hundreds of documents on a weekly or monthly basis, including handouts and presentations? If that’s the case then a laser printer is a far better choice because they’re designed for that type of work.
If you need to print in color then an inkjet printer makes sense. If you only need to print lots of plain text documents then a laser printer makes more sense.
Best Home Printer (Speed, Quality, Budget)
- Brother HL-L2350DW Compact Monochrome Laser Printer
Brother printers are widely known all over the world, as they are one of the leading companies in this market. Amongst Brother printers, the MFC series is one of their most famous. Of course, all of this leads us to this offering from Brother. It is an all-in-one laser printer, which supports 50-sheet ADF and a 250-sheet paper tray.
The printing speeds of this printer are top of the line, with a speed of 24 pages per minute; it also supports duplex printing. The printer offers a 3.7-inch touch screen and provides a lot of connectivity options including wireless, Ethernet, and USB. It also provides support for printing through Cloud services such as DropBox, One Note, and Google Drive.
- Canon Maxify MB5420
Canon is one of Brother’s primary competitors and both companies are doing very well lately. Canon MB5420 is an inkjet color printer that is targeted toward small businesses or home offices.
The printer provides single-pass duplex printing and the Automatic Document Feeder has a 30-sheet capacity. There are two paper drawers at the front of the printer which can hold 250 sheets each. There is a 3.5-inch touch screen for the user interface along with six big buttons.
- Brother MFC-J6945DW
Here we are with another Brother printer, the MFC-J6945DW, an inkjet color laser printer. It is a wide format printer with a maximum printing paper size of 18 x 11 inches.
The printer provides three trays for papers, two with a 250-sheet capacity and one with a 100-sheet capacity, leading to a total of 600 pieces. Along with a speed of 20 PPM, multiple connectivity options such as USB, Ethernet, Wifi-Direct, and Wifi; no Bluetooth, though, which is kind of weird.
