How to choose a home printer or scanner, new or used

What to take away

Size the job before the machine

Estimate a quiet month and a busy month. Count black text pages, colour pages, photos, envelopes or labels, and scan jobs separately. Note how long the printer may sit idle between jobs.

Then read the maker's two volume numbers. Brother's US specification page for the HL-L2350DW shows both. It lists a maximum monthly duty cycle of 15,000 pages and a recommended monthly print volume of up to 2,000 pages. Brother's footnotes say the duty cycle is the maximum pages per month and can compare designed durability between like Brother products. They also say the recommended volume is the range for best performance and printer life, and that consistent use above it may affect print quality or machine life.

Brother's footnote adds that, for maximum printer life, it is best to choose a printer with a duty cycle that far exceeds your print requirements. A household that prints a few dozen pages in a typical month sits far below both numbers on a model like this. Editorial suggestion: at that volume, the more useful questions are how the machine behaves with little use, what it costs to keep supplied and how long the maker supports it. This model is only an example of how a spec sheet is laid out, and the US page may differ from the UK listing. Check the sheet for any model you are considering.

Pick the technology at decision level

The cost arithmetic is in the inkjet, laser and ink-tank comparison, so this guide stays at the level of choice.

The table is an Editorial suggestion. It is a starting shortlist, not a ruling. Brother's page, for example, lists a starter toner of about 700 pages and a drum rated at about 12,000 pages, both described as approximate. Parts like that are part of the running cost.

How to read a yield claim

Page yield is the number of pages a cartridge or refill is rated to print under a stated test. It is not a promise for your documents.

Epson's yield FAQ says colour page yield uses ISO/IEC 24711 as the method with the ISO/IEC 24712 test pattern, and monochrome yield uses the same method with the ISO/IEC 19752 test pattern. It also says yields vary considerably with the images printed, print settings, paper type, frequency of use, humidity and temperature. Brother's page cites toner yield under ISO/IEC 19752. The standards are published by ISO and IEC, so the makers' own descriptions are the sources used here.

Editorial suggestion: compare yields only where the footnote names a standard, and be wary of a rated yield with no test named. Do the division yourself: price of the supply divided by its rated pages gives a per-page figure for that supply.

Paper, scanning and connections

Paper. Write a media list from the manual, not the shop filter: paper sizes, weights, envelopes, labels, photo paper and duplex. Check which tray or slot takes each.

Scanning. The UK National Archives' digitisation guidance, written for organisations digitising records, says to use a minimum of 300 PPI for ordinary documents and 600 PPI for photographs, and warns that lower PPI can cause a loss of information and stop OCR (text recognition) working properly. Check the optical resolution on the spec sheet, then test with your own originals. A flatbed copes with single sheets, photos and some bound items. Editorial suggestion: use a feeder only for plain, flat, undamaged pages, because fragile or stapled originals can jam or tear.

Workflow. Decide where scans should land: a computer, a phone, a shared folder, email or a cloud service. Check whether any of those need a vendor account or a subscription.

Printing from phones and laptops. The Printer Working Group's IPP Everywhere standard lets computers and mobile devices find and print to networked and USB printers without vendor-specific software. Mopria says Android's built-in print service uses Mopria core technology. Look for these names on the box or spec sheet, and confirm your operating systems are covered.

Lock-in, firmware and privacy

Cartridge authentication. HP's own 2020 document on Dynamic Security says that in printers with the feature, cartridges with a non-HP chip or modified circuitry may not function. It adds that the authentication can change during the life of the printer, including through firmware updates, so such cartridges may work for a time and then stop. It says the Instant Ink programme requires the printer to accept automatic online firmware updates, and that using a non-HP cartridge does not void the limited warranty, though damage attributed to it is not covered. HP's text applies to printers with the feature, not all HP models. This guide has not checked other makers' policies.

So, before you buy, find out three things from the maker's pages: whether the model authenticates cartridges, whether you can turn off automatic firmware updates and whether any subscription is tied to the machine. Editorial suggestion: treat a printer you cannot run on other supplies as a machine tied to one supplier's prices for its whole life.

Stored data. The ICO's page on deleting your data says personal data can be stored on any device with permanent memory, including printers and faxes, and that a factory reset relies on the manufacturer having built in a secure wiping stage, so you should check with the maker. The data recovery and privacy guide covers the ICO's wider advice.

Energy. ENERGY STAR covers printers, multifunction devices and scanners, with criteria that call for efficient operation, automatic duplexing and certain power management features. The page lists the current specification as effective from October 2019. Check the exact model in the listing rather than assuming a brand qualifies.

Buying used

Editorial suggestion: a used printer can be cheap because its costly consumables may be nearly spent. Work through this list.

Your rights depend on the seller. In the United Kingdom, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 goods rules apply to a contract for a trader to supply goods to a consumer. From a trader, goods must be of satisfactory quality. A private seller is not a trader, so check the description closely and keep the listing. For more on tested and graded stock, see the refurbished tech warranties guide.

When the machine arrives, set it up, run all the tests above and keep your receipt. If it later jams, streaks or goes offline, the printer and scanner problems guide takes the faults in order. For the general method behind this guide, see the technology buying guide.

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