By Adli Yashir, a journalist/Internet Coordinator with Berita Harian

UNLESS you have money to burn, it makes sense to buy a printer that is no more sophisticated than what you need it for.

So, you need to know what kind of user you are. Most buyers will be home users who want a machine that will do a competent job of printing the occasional birthday card and stuff like holiday snapshots, recipes and worksheets.

Perhaps you run a small business or have an office at home.

That means you will often need hard copy of documents, sometimes in colour, and you will need it fast.

Or maybe you are a serious photographer who needs sharp and large prints for your collection, exhibition or portfolio.

Having a good grasp of your needs will help you narrow down your choices.

Photo printer vs all-in-one Technology has made even the all-in-one machines affordable.

These do not just print but also copy, scan and even fax, making them ideal for small businesses or the home office.

Dedicated printers that do nothing else are still around but these tend to be geared towards users who want what used to be considered lab-quality photo prints, or people requiring A3 or larger format prints.

Printers like the Canon Pixma iP4760, for example, deliver excellent photo prints because they can shoot out ink droplets no larger than 1 picolitre - so tiny that you would need a microscope to see the droplets.

Dedicated printers usually come with more colour inks.

As in painting, the more colours you have on your palette, the more shades you can produce.

New ink technology has also emerged to make prints waterproof and fade resistant.

Canon boasts that photos printed with its ChromaLife100+ technology can last up to 300 years.

Dedicated printers also usually print faster than the all-in- ones.

It does not mean that the quality of prints from multi-function machines is bad.

The quality is more than decent.

Small compact standalone photo printers such as the Epson PM310 or the Canon Selphy ES40, made especially for the consumer market, can quickly turn out stickers or 4R-sized prints.

They could be fun tools to have at parties or social gatherings.

New technology Wireless printing is another welcome development.

Doing away with a tangle of cables has definitely made it easier to send print data.

Wireless printing also makes sharing printers a breeze for small businesses.

Think before you print is a common enough message at the end of business e-mail messages now.

Another paper saver is a printer capable of auto duplex printing.

That is, it prints on both sides of the paper automatically.

Check if the model you are eyeing has this option.

Saving trees also saves you money.

Printers are also moving towards touchscreen technology.

Vendors are doing away with mechanical buttons and introducing models such as the Lexmark Platinum Pro905 with larger screen displays that double as control panels.

Connectivity Printers have become increasingly independent of PCs, thanks to memory cards and PictBridge interfaces.

It is unusual for a printer now not to have a multi-memory card reader that can view and print images from storage media such as SD cards, Memory Stick or Compact Flash. Similarly, with PictBridge you can connect your camera directly to the printer via a USB cable and print images that were shot seconds earlier.

Lasers or Inkjets Here is a simple guide.

If you need large quantities of decent quality printouts, then your best bet would be the laser printer.

Inkjets produce better quality images but are slightly slower and cost more per page.

But there are newer inkjets that help businesses cut printing costs too.

Machines from the HP OfficeJet 8500 series, for example, are said to consume 50 per cent less energy than comparable laser rivals.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.