Computer Printers, Scanners & Supplies

Computer Printers, Scanners and Supplies

Every office has a computer printer , and nowadays its very common for every household to have a printer and scanner as well. Computer printers, scanners and supplies come in a wide range of types, with many different brands supplying their own machines and supplies.

Types of printers and scanners

Laser printers tend to be used in businesses where you need to print lots of black and white documents, such as letters. There are colour laser printers available, but these are not very common outside of high end graphics companies.

Its rare nowadays to see a black and white inkjet printer, though you can still buy used or older model versions, with colour printing having become much cheaper and more accessible than it used to be. So colour inkjet printers are the most common choice of printer for home or a small office.

Scanners will take a "photo" image of a document or picture, then digitise it via your computer software. You can then print this image or document directly - like a photocopier - or save it on your computer for later use.

Printer and scanner supplies

For laser printers, youll want spare toner cartridges. These are the "ink" (actually a very fine powder) that gets printed onto your paper. The vast majority of laser printer cartridges use black toner, though you can get coloured toner if you have a colour laser printer.

Inkjet printers use ink cartridges. These will come either as "all in one" cartridges - with the black and colour ink being stored within the same cartridge. Or you can even get separate black ink and colour cartridges.

Some inkjet printers have one black and one 3-colour cartridge, where others have 1 black and 3 separate colour cartridges. (Its the mixing of the 3 colours via the printer mechanism that gives you the end results of colour you see printed on the paper.)