Inkjet printers are ideal printers for simple home and office settings since they are able to perform all the necessary printing tasks without the high costs. This type of printer uses ink cartridges and print heads for spraying tiny drops of ink onto the paper so they can produce high quality prints in color or monochrome. They usually match the print quality of new models of laser printers but they are slower and they tend to smudge easily.

Kinds

Most inkjet printers have a resolution of around 300 dpi (dots per inch). Depending on your printing needs, there are three types of these printers meant for different settings: the home, the SOHO, or photo printer. However, before buying one, check on their printing speed, connectivity, duplex printing options, paper size, memory, and resolution.

Home inkjet printer

This can print your text documents, basic computer graphics, and photos. Newer models have simpler controls and compact bodies. They can usually be connected to your computer through USB ports or the parallel port. However, they tend to print noisily and slowly.

SOHO inkjet printer

The small office/home office inkjet printer has bigger ink cartridges for faster printing since they cover more paper area. While they are bulkier and heavier, they are able to provide more controls for speed, resolution, and paper orientation. Their paper feeds are also bigger and they can easily be connected directly to your Ethernet or wireless port or to your computer, which makes it ideal for use in a local network.

Photo inkjet printer

These are for printing high-resolution photos with color and detail that is accurate to how it is displayed on the screen. They make use of special ink meant for photos and have more ink cartridges. Some models can also be directly connected to digital cameras or other devices without computers.