Multifunction printers: These devices, in addition to providing typical printer functionality, fax and scan as well.

We expect them to produce high-quality photos that are just as good as you would get from your corner photo finisher.

Snapshot printers: These small printers are designed to print photos exclusively, typically using dye-sublimation or inkjet technology.

We expect them to produce high-quality photos on special photo paper, but not to perform as well with text on plain paper.

Consumer photo inkjet printers: These inkjet printers are designed primarily for printing photos.

We expect them to be good with text and some graphics but not as proficient with photos.

Regular inkjet printers: Budget-minded inkjet printers are designed for everyday printing needs.

Printers are installed according to the manufacturer's instructions.ĬNET Labs divides printers into five distinct subcategories and applies different testing methods to each. Before testing a printer, we refresh the test system with a clean hard disk image containing the operating system, applications required for testing, and our test documents. Test environmentĬNET Labs tests all printers on a desktop system with a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 550 processor, 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM running at 533MHz, an Nvidia GeForce 6600 PCI-Express graphics card with 256MB of memory, a 74GB Western Digital WD740 Raptor hard drive, and Windows XP Professional SP2. Our tests use a printer manufacturer's recommended consumables (ink and toner) and papers, and they mimic the ways that the average person uses their printers when printing text, photos, and graphics. To help you determine which printer is the right one for you, CNET Labs performs a variety of tests that evaluate print quality and speed.

If you're going to print documents, you want to know that they are going to look good and print quickly.

Be they letters to Grandma or photos from your most recent vacation, things have more impact when you can hold them in your hands. For better or worse, we are not a paperless society.

Test print black and white