Network and Personal Printers

Network Printers for Departmental Use

NUIT generally recommends laser printers as network printers. Our experience is that in the long run laser printers are more cost-effective than inkjet printers. Although the cost of a laser printer is generally higher than that of an inkjet printer, the per-page cost of toner is higher for inkjet printers. Laser printers also tend to have built-in networking capabilities, whereas only high-end inkjet printers tend to be networkable.

NUIT recommends working with your local technical support staff for specific recommendations.

Personal Printers

Many vendors include a free or deeply discounted inkjet printer with a new computer purchase. However, network printers are preferred because they reduce costs to the University and enable better support options. In addition, consider:

1. Printers are cheap. If the printer breaks down, it may be cheaper to replace than to repair.
2. Find a printer with two toner cartridges — black and multi-color. And make sure applications know to print text documents in black ink. It is not uncommon for printers to "create" black ink for text documents by using the appropriate amounts of blue, green and red ink instead of just using a black ink cartridge.
3. NUIT does not support personal printers. Our consultants may be able to give some basic advice for printer problems, but we will not necessarily be able to solve these issues.