Network Printing: What to Look for in a Wireless Printer

When you want to print something, you want it right now. Not 5 minutes from now. Hooking up the desktop or laptop to a printer is so 1990s and it’s very inconvenient. That’s why most printers today have wireless connectivity. But, beyond that, what should you be looking for in a printer?

Look For Wireless Direct

A lot of the early wireless printers relied on being connected to a local network. This is OK, but it’s not ideal, especially if you have a slow Internet connection. It’s also inconvenient when your printers goes into sleep mode and wakes up to find that your dynamic IP address has changed so it can’t find the network.

This is where wi-fi direct printers come in handy. A new technology allows printers to establish a private connection with your computer, bypassing the network.

Printer companies, like Epson, employ this kind of tech to entice users to switch over to their brand – it seems to be working. And, Epson is a household brand, so there’s no arguing that they have done something right in the marketplace.

Duplex Printing

Duplex printing is the elephant in the room when it comes to wireless printing. Because you may be printing something from across the room or in another part of the house or office, you want to make sure that you’re not running out of paper in the middle of the print job.

Duplex printing helps you cut down on paper waste, and it reduces the risk you’ll run out of paper for the job. Duplex means printing on both sides. It’s not offered by all manufacturers, and some that do only use manual duplex printing. If you really want this feature, get automatic duplex printing. It will print both sides without you having to flip paper over and re-feed the machine.

Mobile Device Printing

Mobile device printing has traditionally been a challenge for manufacturers because not all mobile devices read the same type of documents. Special applications needs to be built to handle the document types found in Apple devices, for example.

But, more and more printer manufacturers are devising these applications so that mobile printing can be done with one or two taps. This is a feature you’ll find handy if you have an iPad, iPhone, or Android phone or tablet.

Most people who surf the net in their home – and you might already know – do so on a mobile device. It’s become almost the default computing device for millions.

High-Capacity

High capacity printers will hold 200 or more sheets of paper so that you don’t have to refill the paper tray nearly as often. This is important if you’re in an office setting and you don’t have the printer located in the room with you or if a lot of people share the same printer.

The whole point of having a wireless printer is so that you don’t have to babysit it. Having a large paper tray is sort of essential in that respect.