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So you're looking for a printer for your home or office. You'd think that it would be a simple enough task. But then you're confronted with the sheer mass of choices out there, with varying feature sets, and suddenly, you've got printer panic. But you don't need to drown in inkjets and lasers. PCMag Labs has tested hundreds of printers, from the cheapest inkjets to the priciest workhorse lasers and everything in between, and we've done the dirty work of figuring out the best printers for varying needs.
The three most useful ways to categorize printers are by purpose (general or special), intended use (home or office), and technology. Define your needs by all three categories, and you're well on your way to finding the right printer. Most printers—including most inkjets that manufacturers market as photo printers—are general-purpose printers, meant for printing text, graphics, and photos. Special-purpose printers include portable printers, dedicated and near-dedicated photo printers, and label printers.
The two most common technologies—laser and inkjet—increasingly overlap in capabilities, but there are still differences. The most important are that all lasers (and laser-class printers such as solid ink and LED-based printers) print higher-quality text than any inkjet, and almost any inkjet prints higher-quality photos than the overwhelming majority of lasers. Ask yourself whether text or photos are more important, and pick a technology accordingly.
Before anything, it's important for you to determine what you'll use the printer for. Is it for work or home, or both? Will it be primarily used for printing out word documents or spreadsheets? Does it have to be a jack-of-all-trades device? How much are you willing to spend, both on the printer and the ink/toner? Do you need to print in color or are black-and-white printouts just fine? Be sure to check out our printer buying guide for more tips. Once you've figured out what you need, check out the 10 best printers we've recently reviewed.