The perfect printer

What is your definition of a great printer?

I am sure most of you have a pretty well defined idea on what makes a great printer. A lot of time that resumes to the following attributes:

1) Moderately priced;

2) Fast;

3) Produces great quality prints;

But does this actually define a great printer? In my opinion, these are good starter points but very deceiving. Why? Because the sales people are very well aware of these questions and they will always find a way to make it sound like the printer you are looking at is the best in its class at all three points.

So what then?

Let's look at the real picture, and let's start with the details lost in the background, the ones that truly give you a better understanding on how the device will fit in workflow and will perform in your environment. Let's ask ourselves:

1) Is is supported by my rip of choice? It may not sound like something you should ask in the first 5 minutes of testing a printer but what if you are heavily invested in one rip and you find out the new printer is not supported? That would mean additional cost for rip licenses, training and maybe even a longer integration time.

2) Does it handle well my main medias? Yes we have all seen the amazingly beautiful and weirdly complex prints vendors use for testing, but is this what you print day to day? Don't be afraid to ask the vendor to produce some of your most used graphics. Go even one step further and bring your own medias, have him print on them to check for gamut, coverage, adhesion, etc. Ask him to print some full page single colors in light blues or light orange colors because these are usually hard to achieve.

3) Is it well supported? How many technicians are trained and available to help you in case the printer goes down? What is the travel time from their home base to your site? Are parts stocked for emergencies? Is there weekend support? Those questions are very important. A printer is only good if it works, that is when it produces money for you. When is down, well, it costs you money, so you want to minimize the possible downtime.

4) What is the original warranty and how is it supported after the expiration of your warranty? Are there service plans offered? If yes, are these a good option? Some people are not interested in pre-paying the service, but in many cases that may come back to haunt you on a long term. Make sure you weigh in all options and understand the consequences.

5) What is and what is not covered under warranty? Most printer manufacturers are covering the printer but maybe not the printheads so be careful to inquire about the cost of the jets and their replacement. These could be very expensive and sometimes a set of jets may be accounting for more than 20% of the initial cost of the printer.

6) Are inks stocked locally or nearby, where you can receive them overnight at a moderate cost? You would be amazed how often your operator will forget to replenish the stock and you will need some ink "yesterday". You do not want to be in the situation where you have to wait for few days for delivery. Remember, a printer not producing is actually costing you money!

7) How long has the printer been on the market and is it near to its end of life? That is a question a lot of people fail to ask. You do not want to buy a new printer just to find out 6 months later a new model was just launched on the market and is maybe even cheaper or faster than yours. Make sure you look at the frequency of releasing new equipment for the vendor, that will tell you a lot about when you should buy or maybe wait it out a bit. Understand the sales person is under no obligation to answer your question but if he wants you for a long term customer, you may be in luck.

8) When you are ready to sign the contract make sure you stipulate very clearly what your expectations are from the device. Ask the sales person to clearly state in the contract the speeds you are expected to print at quality expected, cost of ink, cost of consumables, jets, etc. Perhaps you can even ask him to agree to a grace period in which you may be able to return the printer if it does not perform as you both agreed. This may not be something easy to achieve but why not try?

9) Ask for references. Yes it sounds like you are hiring somebody instead of buying a printer but have you considered the relationship you are about to embark on? It is not very different from a relationship with an employee, so why not talk to few people who have experience with this device? They may be able to answer some questions you were not able to find a good answer for.

These are just few of the questions I always ask when shopping for a new printer. By all means they are not all of them and neither should you stop at only these. But by all means, these will help you make a decision on what are you about to buy: is it "a great printer" or not?

What favorite question do you have?