RAY: Hi, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and we’re the hosts of Deemable Tech. On the show, we answer your questions about computers, tablets, mobile phones and the Internet, like this question:

TOM: Joe asks, I have a printer problem but not with how it works: it’s the cost of operation. We bought two inkjet printers for my kids to use in college.

While the printers were very cheap to purchase, they have been very expensive to operate. I am not sure which cost more – college tuition or the ink for the printers! Now that the kids have graduated, I would really like to find a printer that’s inexpensive to run and has decent print quality for occasional home use. Any ideas?

RAY: Great question, Joe.

Inkjet printers are often cheap to buy, but they are notoriously expensive to maintain. When I was working for a certain office supply company years ago, I learned that the companies that make the printers actually make their money off selling the ink.

But here’s a question for you, Joe: how much do you really need to print?

That question may sound crazy but, do you have a mobile device that could replace whatever you are using the printer for? In my house, we hardly print anything anymore because we have an iPad. You would be surprised at how much a tablet or good smartphone will replace printing stuff out.

TOM: Wow, so a good argument for buying that shiny new tablet is to save on printer costs!

RAY: Absolutely!

Remember going to MapQuest and printing out directions before you went on a trip? A device with built-in GPS can take care of that.

And, one of the main selling points for inkjets is that they are fantastic for printing out high resolution color pictures. But how often do you really need to do that? Again, that’s something that a lot of folks who own tablets and smartphones don’t need because the pictures look better on the mobile device, and if you want to show them off, most of them have a way you can show the pictures on your high def television screen.

TOM: And if you do need to print some pictures, your local print shop can probably do a much better job and do it cheaper, all things being equal.

RAY: Right.

Now, my wife really only uses our printer for couponing and the occasional form that has to printed out and signed. You don’t need a color printer for that. So, she did some research and discovered that the cheapest solution was actually a black-and-white laser printer. You can get a consumer grade laser printer for around $1-200, and the cartridges, comparably, are insanely cheap.

TOM: Really?

RAY: Yeah, they run you about $50, but they last for thousands and thousands of pages instead of the only 200-500 prints you’ll get out of most inkjet printer cartridges.

You know, the next time you go into your office Joe, take look around at the printers and see if they are inkjets or laser printers. I’ll bet you the majority are black-and-white laser printers because businesses know that these are the most cost-effective printers.

So, if you do print a lot, I would ask how often you need to print in color. And, if the answer is not often, get a black and white laser printer, because it’s gonna be your best bet for the money.

Unless you’re a photographer or you print out a lot of color pages and you really need to have control over how they print, a color inkjet printer is probably not a good investment.

But if you just need to do basic printing, I recommend getting a black-and-white laser printer. You’ll get a great cost-per-page, and it’s usually a lot faster!

TOM: That is great news Ray!

RAY: Why is that?

TOM: I finally have a legitimate excuse to go out and buy that $500 tablet I’ve been looking at!

RAY: Oh, brother.

To hear more answers to questions like this one, listen to our show at Deemable dot com, that’s D-E E-M A-B-L-E dot com. There you can listen to all of our previous episodes, and subscribe to our podcast.

TOM: If you have a question for Deemable Tech give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or you can send us an email at questions at deemable dot com.

RAY: For Deemable Tech, I’m Ray Hollister…

TOM. And I’m Tom Braun.