Printers, scanners and multi-function devices

Printers are essential for most businesses. There are three basic types of printer.Laser printers produce colour or black and white pages and are suitable for most office printing needs. They are more expensive than other types of printers but are more economical if you do lots of printing and are relatively fast.

Inkjet printers are used for either colour or black and white printing. Some inkjet printers can produce photographic quality images. Although cheap to purchase, inkjet supplies, like paper and ink, make them expensive per page printed. They are also slower than comparable laser printers.

Impact printers, such as dot matrix printers, are now rarely used except for special purposes, eg for printing forms used with accounts packages.Printers can be directly connected to desktop PCs, or shared on a network. Shared printers are preferable for most small offices, but some workers may need a personal printer in a secure location, particularly if they are dealing with sensitive or confidential information. As with most computer equipment, unless you have in-house expertise, it is worth paying for a maintenance contract for your printer. Any failure of the equipment can then be dealt with quickly, reducing the disruption to your office.


Scanners are used to capture images digitally. They can be useful in an office for storing content digitally that is only available in print and for extracting text from documents such as books. Scanners can be connected directly to a desktop PC.