November 19, 2005

Jim Rossman is your Tech Adviser offering advice and tips for computer hardware and programs. Helpful links are included. Jim Rossman is desktop support manager for The Dallas Morning News.

I'm in the market for a new printer. My last printer was a 5-year-old Hewlett-Packard inkjet that worked well for my needs. Most of my printing is straight Word documents, but I also just bought a digital camera and would like to print some photos, too.

What should I look for in a printer? They seem so cheap compared with the last one I bought.

B.D., Red Oak, Texas

Inkjet printers have come a long way in the last five years, and you are right – they have become much cheaper.

What hasn't become cheaper is ink.

Printer companies are much like razor companies. They want to give away the razors to sell the blades. In other words, they make more profit from selling you ink than from selling you the printer.

With that in mind, look for a printer that is inexpensive but has features that save you money in the long run.

I'm willing to bet that your old printer had two cartridges – one for black ink and one for color ink. There may have even been a third cartridge for photo-quality prints.

A single color ink cartridge has cyan (blue), magenta (pink) and yellow ink. The problem is that if you run out of cyan but not the other colors, the entire cartridge must be replaced. And because you might have plenty of magenta and yellow left, you are forced to waste ink.

So the lesson is to buy a printer with separate ink cartridges.

You will also find printers with four or six ink cartridges. Six-ink printers add light cyan and light magenta to the mix to help print more realistic photographs.

Ink still isn't cheap. Individual color cartridges run $10 each and black, which is usually larger, runs about $20. So you are talking about $70 to replace the ink in the average six-color ink printer.

Because you do most of your printing in black and white, put your priority on speed first and photo quality second. You might find that taking your photos to CVS or Wal-Mart to be printed is cheaper and easier than doing it yourself.