True colors: lower prices put inkjet color printers within anyone's reach - Buyers Guide

Entrepreneur, May, 1996 by Jill Amadio

Lower prices put inkjet color printers within anyone's reach.

Advertisements and fliers that are printed in brilliant reds, greens or blues attract our attention far more quickly than something printed in black and white. A word, paragraph or headline highlighted in canary yellow or fire-engine red delivers your message far more effectively than a monochrome marketing piece.

To attract attention with color-packed marketing pieces, sophisticated laser printers provide the best quality color printing available. Unfortunately, their higher prices and large sizes are not always appropriate for small offices. That's why many small-business owners are turning to inkjet printers.

Inkjets are like workhorses for people on a budget. And with the cost of inkjets lower than ever, you can inexpensively produce professional newsletters, fliers and other materials on your desktop computer.

Small-business owners shopping for affordable equipment can find inkjet models, most costing between $200 and $500, that produce sharp-looking, cost-effective documents on a variety of paper sizes and shapes. This year's falling prices mean you can buy a brand-name color inkjet printer, such as Canon's BJC-210 or Hewlett Packard's DeskJet 680C, for as little as $299 and $309 respectively, or Lexmark's model 1020 for $199.

While the prices of color inkjets are reaching all-time lows, their versatility and vibrant quality are reaching all-time highs. Imaging may not be quite as sharp as a laser printer's, but today's technology brings inkjets as near to laser quality as possible. And most are simple to install, easy to use and compact.

As for features, all the printers in the chart on page 44 handle envelopes and letter- and legal-sized sheets; one or two even have an automatic envelope monitor that senses what you're inserting into the feeder and resets itself electronically.

Some inkjets print on transparencies for overhead projectors. Others allow you to insert color photos into your documents. Some, such as Hewlett Packard's model 680C, let you print on both sides of the paper. And the Epson Stylus Color II, among others, lets you switch to different settings so you can print rough drafts faster at a lower resolution that uses less ink.

What To Look For

How do they work? Put simply, inkjet printers spray ink through a series of nozzles directly onto paper. In most models, the powdered ink is contained in one or two replaceable cartridges, where it is heated to a vapor, then forced through the jet openings, or nozzles.

The key to selecting a printer that gives you brilliant, professional- quality results depends on the "resolution," or the number of dots of color per square inch. The denser the dots, the sharper the image. Until recently, most low-cost inkjets had a black-and-white dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution of 300 or less. Today, some have increased that density to 720 dpi in both color and black and white.

Technological advances mean increased efficiency, too. Some printers use a single cartridge for both color and monochrome printing; others have a dual-cartridge container so you don't have to remove one to insert the other.

Here's a rundown of the most popular and widely available color inkjets:

Apple: The Color StyleWriter 1500 and 2500 were introduced in March specifically for small office use. The 2500, as well as Apple's popular portable Color StyleWriter 2200, can print two or four reduced-size documents on a single page. Both printers use water-resistant inks for reliable quality.

The 2500 automatically chooses the best ink density for the paper you're using and prints a color page in about 90 seconds. The 1500 is Apple's most affordable, easy-to-use color printer, with cartridge options for color and black and white; it prints a color page in just over three minutes.

Apple's portable Color StyleWriter 2200 is compact and lightweight enough to tuck into a briefcase. It has laser-quality text and graphics; a built- in, 30-sheet paper feeder; and handles plain, coated or glossy paper, transparencies and envelopes. A "watermark" feature on all three models allows you to add words such as "draft" or "confidential" on the background of a page.

Canon: A leader in printers, Canon makes three moderately priced inkjet models that print on a variety of paper. When you've finished your business for the day, they can also produce cotton-fabric text and graphic transfers to iron onto T-shirts for the family, plus print out personalized greeting cards and craft items.

All three have automatic sheet-feeders for 100 sheets and 15 envelopes, and handle letter- and legal-sized paper. The main difference between the models is speed. The BJC-210 is the entry-level version; the BJC-4100 is for more professional users; and the BJC-610 is for entrepreneurs who want to print more than one color page per minute. Each comes with bonus CD-ROM software.

Epson: The Stylus Color II prints out some of the fastest and clearest- quality documents available, using Epson's own coated, glossy papers and transparencies. Even using plain paper, your charts, graphs and text will be exceptionally clear if you use the maximum 720 dpi mode (the Stylus II has three different dpi modes: 720, 360 and 180). This $649 printer is Macintosh-and PC-compatible and can function on both platforms simultaneously.