For the home user, today's printing needs have become less important. The explosion of Web 2.0, with its social media applications, has tied the computer user to the screen more than ever. Add to that the fact that mobile phones and tablets are viable devices in accessing the web and you can see why there doesn't seem to be a need for a printer in the home like before. This premise though goes out the window for printers that are used by an entire family. For this type of home environment, a multifunction device (printer, scanner & copier in one machine) would be an excellent consideration.

While the foregoing premise may have validity for users who mainly navigate to the Web to engage in social media, any user who does use a computer for more than Facebook or Twitter will find the need to use a printer sooner rather than later. At this point, the question that comes to mind is what printer to buy for occasional use. There are a ton of choices out there and unfortunately, the prevalent business model is the one where printers are sold at cost and the manufacturers then offer refills at exorbitant markups. This gave birth to the ink cartridge refill business that has given the manufacturers headaches. Nowadays, most manufacturers have begun putting microchips in their cartridges that give an end-of-life signal to the printer, even though it has been refilled. Refillers and remanufacturers have tried to circumvent this by using replacement chips. Printer manufacturers tackled this by embedding the chip deep in the casing so that getting to the chip would wreck the cartridge, making it unusable.

If the purpose of the printer is for occasional use only, then the needs of that particular user would be best served by an entry level model from any of the well-known printer manufacturers. However, what type of printer to buy, whether laser or inkjet, would depend on what the printer would be most-used for. If the majority of your printing will be black and white text, it would make sense to buy a black and white laser printer as the toner cartridge will print thousands of pages. A colour laser can also output photos but the general consensus is that inkjets provide noticeably better quality. Social media types would most probably prefer a colour printer, and inkjets offer very good quality and compatibility with various media types, from plain paper, photo paper, even handmade paper, to transfer paper for ironing on T-shirts. For users such as these, total cost of ownership would not be a big factor in their purchase. Convenience and ease of use would be the overriding factors in choosing one printer over the other. Amazingly, there are also colour laser printers now that sell for $80. Lasers provide sharper text and are faster than inkjet printers. In the long run, cost per page is lower with laser printers because they print more pages, compared to an ink cartridge. Initial outlay for toner cartridges are quite a bit higher though, which is what puts people off. Inkjets are the better choice though for photo printing and cheaper to operate for low volume use.

Since the issue of printer type is pretty much in favour of the inkjet printer, the next question to resolve would be what entry-level inkjet to buy. If one is lucky enough to run into a sale at the time of purchase, a good inkjet can be bought for $50. Epson's provide excellent print quality and reliability, as do printers from Dell and HP. The output from these printers even rival the longevity of traditional silver-halide based picture developing. In fact HP boasts of 100-year life for photos printed on their HP DeskJet cartridges and compatible paper. The new Kodak printers are being marketed on a different business model and as a result, their original replacement cartridges are very cheap. Printing professionals will always recommend original ink cartridge replacements, based on experience.

Actually, at price levels under $100, there are now units that aside from being a printer, also offer scanning and copier functions. These are excellent bargains for this price point and these multifunction devices use the same HP DeskJet cartridges that the entry-level printers use. For example, you can buy an HP DeskJet F370 printer for about $100 you get a printer, copier and scanner for your money. All name brand ink is expensive, but you if you work at it, you can get cheap new replacements, such as Dell printer cartridges at online outlets.