When you use a computer printer, the colors of toner used most and least may not be what you always expect after you examine the content of your printed material. The printer settings you use directly affect which toner colors the printer uses.
Black
Black is the most-used toner color in computer printing because most printed documents contain some black content, with many comprising exclusively black printed content — for example, word processing documents or spreadsheet tables. If you have a color printer and are printing black content, your printer may sometimes actually use color ink as well as black. This unexpected usage happens when your computer sends the printer data indicating that the black content is not entirely black, causing the printer to mix black with color toner.
Color
Of the three composite colors in computer printers, red colors tend to be used most. Red printouts use the magenta ink in your toner cartridges. Since red tends to be used frequently, your cyan and yellow ink will often be least used. Even when you print black content, you may find that one or more of the other colors are also being used.
Choices Determining Toner Color Usage
Since you can assume your printer will use black ink more than the other colors, you will replace your black toner cartridges more often. To minimize on how much of the cyan, magenta and yellow toner you use, you can set your print jobs to use only black ink when your documents do not need any other color content. In the printer settings on your computer, you can elect to use black or greyscale whenever you send a print job, ensuring that the printer only uses the black ink.
Quality Implications of Toner Color Choices
Any steps you take to reduce usage of certain toner colors may affect print quality. Although choosing black and greyscale options will reduce the amount of color toner your printer uses, it may also affect the intelligibility of your printouts. In cases where you wish to preserve optimum quality, you may wish to set the printer to use full color even if your printed material only contains black content. Using full color will prevent any reduction in quality you will see if you choose greyscale.

Go to any big box retailer and it’s easy to get lost in a sea of printers. With so many options and deals, consumers tend to gravitate towards the printer with the cheapest price tag, allowing other equally important factors to fall by the wayside. Many assume that if the machine comes at a a decent (or cheap) price, the cartridges, page yield, and print quality must be too. Especially now that most printers look sleek and stylish, we can easily get distracted by aesthetics from investing in a printer that truly fits our needs. In this article we’ll go over the ways cost can add up over the lifetime of a printer and also cover a couple of popular printers by type so you have a pretty good idea on which machine can get the job done best.

1. Be Wary of Printer and Cartridge Price
   Cheap printers generally use expensive cartridges. They end up costing more to maintain in the long term. A current real life example is the incredibly cheap HP Deskjet 2655. At first glance it looks like a steal. It’s an all-in-one machine, meaning it has print, copy and scanning capabilities. It’s wireless, uses both black and color printer ink cartridges and comes in a slick looking off-white color. The downside? The cost of the cartridges. A brand new machine includes starter cartridges that are partially filled which is common practice for most printer manufacturers to get you up and running. Soon enough, you will be back in the store paying full price for a brand new set of standard or high yield cartridges. The average cost for a genuine high yield black cartridge for that Deskjet printer is $30.99. and the color equivalent goes for $35.99. After one trip to the store you’ve already spent more than the initial cost of your machine. At that rate, you might be better off buying a brand new printer every time you run out of ink! We’ll go over ways to circumvent paying full price on ink later in the article, but for now we want you to simply consider the price tag of the printer and ink cartridge.
2. Find the Printer that Fits Your Needs
   Printers nowadays offer many different functions and features. You first need to decide if you need an inkjet or laser printer. Inkjet printers are compact, versatile and capable of printing both documents and decent looking color photographs. The majority of them feature all-in-one capabilities, allowing you to print, scan and fax with ease. Most include a wireless feature and require multiple ink cartridges to keep your machine running. Laser printers are considered the workhorse of the printing world. Common in offices, the most popular laser printers are monochrome, meaning they only print in black and white. For a legal office that prints a lot of documents and color is not a necessity, a monochrome laser printer makes the most sense. Laser printers use a toner cartridge to produce a print and although the cost of the toner itself is typically more expensive than an inkjet cartridge, they print considerably more in the long term. Color laser printers are also an option for offices that print a lot of color but instead of spending money on one expensive toner cartridge, you will end up spending it on four.

There are various brands of 3D printers for models and these use different types of technology. It’s important to understand what makes one device differ from another. Hence, you should be aware of the factors to consider before purchasing one.
Read the following carefully to understand the implication of each factor on your buying decision.
Precision
Since the models and miniatures are just that – miniatures – it’s important to know how detailed output the device can churn out. Precision is measured in millimeters and hence, you ought to know how small and detailed prints you can get.
Technology
This is the main part of any 3D printer for models. Digital Light Processing or DLP and Stereolithography or SLA are better technologies than Fused Filament Fabrication or FFF or FDM. FFF technology is based on the filament.
FFF or FDM technology uses an extruder with a heated end to melt the filament. The melted filament is then dropped on a platform to create the model layer by layer. This type of technology is easy to use and gives you the maximum scope for large volume printing.
It also offers value for money with lower costs of operation. In addition, FFF technology doesn’t leave a mess behind after you’ve done the printing. That’s not the case when you use resin-based or SLA technology.
There are a few cons of using a printer that uses FFF technology. You can get a lot of hassle if you’re using this for printing smaller models. In general, the overall quality and resolution are inferior to SLA technology 3D printers. You can’t beat an SLA operated printer when it comes to precision and detail.
Size Of The Build
Although the build size should not matter for printing miniatures, it’s good to have in case you want to print larger models. So, it’s wise to find out if the printer is capable of taking large outputs.
User-Friendliness
A very important factor to consider is how easy it is to use the printer for 3D models. It’s basically essential to know how much blood, sweat, and tears you have to put in to get a standard and acceptable model from your printer. The extent of post-printing processes and fine-tuning required will determine this.
If you have to manually level the bed of the printer or you get worried over the possibility of the model getting botched up, then the printer is not user-friendly.
Printing Materials
Two types of plastic are used for making miniatures.
Poly Lactic Acid: PLA is a plant-based plastic that is recommended for beginners. These are bio-degradable and therefore, environment-friendly. As this type of plastic cools down fast, it prevents the model from getting warped.
PLA results in miniatures with a glossy look and is available in both solid and translucent colors. The downside of this plastic type is that it’s difficult when you try to work with it on joints and interlocking elements. Another con is that under high heat, its low melting point can result in a deformed model.
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene: The second type of plastic is ABS. That’s a mouthful! It’s the more recommended one as it’s petroleum-based. This gives it flexibility and strength features. It’s great for working with interlocking parts.
With a higher melting point, you won’t get deformed models. However, as it takes a longer time to cool down, there’s a chance of warping. Plus, another downside is the fume emission when it’s in process.
Therefore, depending on the final product you want, you need to choose the right 3D printer. All printers don’t accept both types of plastic to work with.
Filament size is another consideration. There are two options of 1.75 millimeters and 3-millimeter diameter. More renowned brands opt for a 1.75 millimeter one.
Quality
Quality factors in both printing speed and print resolution. The latter is measured in microns and tells you how many details you can get. The smaller the micron, the higher is the detail level you can get from your 3D miniature printers.
A higher print speed translates to a faster printing process. If the printer can move its extruder fast, then its printing speed is high. However, acceleration and deceleration features of a printer can also affect the printing speed.
Additional Features
Some printers, especially the high-end ones, come with additional features to make the process of printing 3D models easier. One such feature is the touchscreen one, where the user has the benefit of the smoother operation. As no pressing buttons are involved, touchscreens provide a better interface.
There are other 3d miniature printer models that have a way of detecting when you’re nearly running out of filament. With such a filament detection system, refills become timely and easier.
Threading the filament can be a tedious job. Not so with some 3D printers that have a pre-constructed cartridge already filled with filaments. Another important feature is the failsafe. This means if you’ve run out of filament or electricity,