Even as most business communication is done through phones and email these days, there’s still a need for important documents and images to be in physical form. This is why the humble printer is one of the most essential pieces of equipment for any business.
But with a mind-boggling variety of printers available with all kinds of features built-in, how do you know which one will best complement your business?
To help you make a more informed decision, here’s a list of things you should consider when planning to purchase a new printer for your business.
From simple monochrome models to those capable of photo-quality prints, there are various printers suited for different types of printing.
There are printers suited for photo printing, of which Canon is a popular brand because of its advanced imaging technology. For instance, the PIXMA PRO-100 utilises the Optimum Image Generating System that produces true-to-colour prints, ideal for those looking to print vibrant and glossy photos.
If you print mostly text-heavy documents, you may want to invest in a solid monochrome laser printer or a colour laser printer for mixed content, such as the imageCLASS MF635Cx. There are also portable photo printers suitable for businesses on-the-go like the Canon SELPHY or the new Mini Photo Printer, the latter which fits perfectly in the palm of your hand.
If you don’t have the luxury of space or budget, it’s a good idea to go for all-in-one printers that can do it all. Canon’s range of all-in-one inkjets and laser printers allow you to print, scan, fax, print duplex, and print on an assorted paper sizes. An affordable yet versatile option is the PIXMA TS707, perfect for small and home office settings.
Getting a printer that is big on multi-tasking means maximising your resources by having one machine do more of the little tasks fast. And the best part is, all-in-ones are very affordable these days so you won’t have to worry about bursting your budget.
If your business requires printing out bundles and bundles of text-heavy documents, pick up a multi-functional printer with a high-speed output such as the imageRUNNER ADVANCE C7500i III Series, which can print up to 80 pages per minute in monochrome.
Other printers can automatically sort the type of documents by utilising their input and output paper tray capacity. For documents on the go, it would help to have a printer with minimal warm up time like the imageCLASS LBP214dw which has a first printout time of just 5.5 seconds.
Sharing printers through the office network enables you to cutdown on the number of printers your business needs. To do this, the printer must be able to seamlessly connect to your office WiFi or can be easily connected through mobile printing.
Is also a must-have when processing documents of a confidential nature. A number of Canon printers have security options in place to ensure that the right documents are only accessed by the right people, while also keeping printing costs down and saving on paper waste.
This feature, common to most Canon all-in-one printers, makes it easier to save scanned documents directly into the cloud. In fact, you can even send documents promptly to your email right after you scan the document through your office network or Wi-Fi, or send these immediately to other computers within your network, and even to mobile phones via mobile apps. The right printer can give you all these options when you need them.
Even printers with the most cutting-edge features can put users off if they are noisy and difficult to operation. This is why it is important to purchase printers that produce less noise, come in sleek, stylish dimensions, and more importantly, have easy-to-use features like One-Touch intelligent buttons.
You must also think about the long-term maintenance for your printer. Things like cleaning, after purchase services and warranties, ink/toner refills and recycling, and poor energy consumption might unnecessarily drain your resources.
Canon continually strives to improve its products by constantly finding ways to reduce the environmental impact of the industrial processing and of CO2 emissions, to the shipping and package recyclability options of the ink/toner cartridges. Your business can also benefit much from Canon’s Management Document Services (MDS) to help give you detailed cost-cutting strategies by determining where you spend the most on printing.
Having all these must-have features available at your fingertips creates exciting opportunities and an upper hand in creating solutions for your business needs through printing innovation.