subject: The Joys Of Small Printers [print this page] Back in the day, traveling with a printer either meant that you were going around with something the size of a small desk in a moving truck (and providing printer support on site to a business), or you were traveling with an ink jet, or you were traveling with a thermal printer, like grocery stores use for printing receipts.
Every single type of printer had drawbacks. With the thermal printer, you had to use a special kind of paper and the output looked rather strange. Ink jets had good results, but even slight changes in the temperature, the humidity and the way they were placed could affect their ability to function; you might spend way more time trying to clean the heads that you ever did on the printing and the cost per page was exorbitant!
A laptop printer, on the other hand, could be brought in, but it required excessive care and usually saw the end of its use life in three months. These were not great solutions and the people who used them and the people who supported them were unhappy.
However, as technology has advanced, desktop printers have shrunk in size, from 70 lb behemoths to 20 lb items that are somewhat smaller. This has happened with both inkjet printers and lasers, and some inkjets have gotten more robust at how they deal with temperature and humidity changes.
The real winner has been the ever shrinking laser printer. While initially marketed for college students who needed to pack a printer they could fit into a dorm room, these small 'personal laser' printers are still pretty impressive, with pages per minute in the 12+ range, and good durability cycles - and they're small enough to fit into a suitcase.
When you are looking at a laser printer when it comes to consumables means that you get rates of about 7 cents per page; this is when you are looking at black and white pages with about 10 percent coverage. Remember that if you want something more like photo printing, the cost will go up, but in many ways, the quality is worth it.
Remember that when we are talking about small printers, we mean small! For instance, the PH 1006 Personal LaserJet is just a little bit bigger than a toaster. When we go to trade shows, it is invaluable for printing out sales reports and data sheets for our customers, it comes in at 14'' wide, by 8'' deep by 9'' tall, and it even folds down neatly into its box.
Though the pass through tray is something that you can use, we leave it off, as it is something of a pain. The ease of getting it set up, the low cost of its ink cartridges and the impressive functionality all make this a great printer and when you are on the road, these factors are all things that you need to look for.
