In our Laser printer buying guide you can read about what printer languages laser printers use and how much memory you need to operate your laser. Whether it is for your personal or business needs, we would like to arm you with all the information you'll need to help you decide on the right Laser printer. 

Learn more about Printer languages, connectivity options, memories, prices and warranties of laser printers.

Laser Printer languages: Printer Control Language is the standard printer internal language for most laser printers found on the market. The most popular printer job languages usually were developed by the leading printer manufacturers, such as Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox and Epson. It can provide a method for switching printer languages at the job levels and establishes and maintains standard operations of the laser printers. It gives more job-level printer control, requests the resources that a printing job needs to run on the system and provides printer status information to applications.

 The language resides in the printers memory, and can manage font size, graphics, compression of data sent to the printer and specifies such things as how to recognize and respond to control codes. It enables laser printers to process complex documents with embedded images, charts, and tables in multiple frames and in several languages.

 The two standard printer languages are: PostScript (developed by Adobe) and Printer Control Language (or PCL) created by Hewlett-Packard.

Printer manufacturers also offer nonstandard languages to take advantage of the particular printers unique capabilities.

PostScript and PCL are widely implemented PDLs but printers can almost always switch languages to achieve compatibility.

How to connect the Laser to your PC?

Laser printers are very talented devices today, but they can do nothing at all without a host computer to provide data and control the job files. So a communication link must be established. You can connect the laser printer to your PC's parallel port or USB port (Universal Serial Bus, and IEEE 1394.) usually at the back of the computer. The USB cable is popular due to its relatively high speed and its simplicity to handle data.  The USB hubs allow you to connect more than one printer or scanner to your computer's USB port. The network laser printer instead of the parallel or USB, usually plugs directly into a hub or switch, or Ethernet adapter, which usually communicates with the printers built-in network interface card (NIC.), that enables the printer to connect to a network.                                                                           

If space, flexibility or wiring price is a worry, the wireless laser printer can bring the network design solution to your company. These wireless printers work just like wired counterparts. The completely integrated device will interface with all of the line of print-capable products, making it a clever choice for companies who regularly expand or reorganize their office, or need to accommodate a variety of network configurations. Some newer business models have an infrared (IrDA) port alternative, which allows notebook or PDA users to print by beaming information to infrared ports at the printer.

Almost all the network laser printers come with installation guides on CD-ROM disks that give you detailed, easy to follow instructions for installing the printer management software and drivers.

Because virtually all commercial laser printers are designed for global sales, and US domestic and European voltages can vary, you can find a switch (usually at the back of the Laser printer), which enables you to set the laser printers power operation to a proper stage.    The power cable always comes in the box, but with some models, a USB cable is not included with the printer and must be purchased separately.  

Memory of laser printers.

In general, inkjet printers come with built in memory, which will determine its memory capabilities, but usually Laser printers are upgradeable so its memory can be extended anytime. Before any data is printed, it is sent to the print queue for temporary storage. From there, the print spooler sends the data to the printer. The data from the processing part of the printer and the memory must take place at a very high rate of speed in order to advance the printers working potential and maintain high speed image processing. Additional printer RAM helps by allowing the printer to queue pages in memory as it prints. While one page is being printed, your computer can begin transferring the contents of the next page into the printer's memory.

With Laser printers, the contents of an entire page are transferred to the printer before the print process starts. With an adequate amount of memory your Laser printer will print better at higher resolutions and may cut print time significantly. It allows a page to contain more information and make it possible to send large volumes of data, such as an image, to a printer in a short time. Graphical image, two sided documents and photographs can be printed more efficiently and clearly with a sharper detailed result. Some laser printers include multiple memory slots, allowing you to easily expand the memory of the printer if needed.  

How much memory should your laser printer have?

The higher the better, but start with at least 2MB. If you plan to print complex and sophisticated documents, or you intend to use the printer in workgroups with many users, you should consider purchasing a Laser printer that has at least 16 MB of RAM. Without enough memory in most cases, the printer either won't print or will print only part of your file. An error message will inform you that a memory shortage has occurred.

If you are sending a printing-order to your printer and you have to wait, the second printer memory option that you should think about is the buffer. The computer usually can send data to the printer faster than the printer can print. A printer buffer can save you lots of time if you print many documents and can also connect two or more printers to a single computer. The buffer stands between your computer and a printer. They accept print data from the computer as fast as the computer can send it, store the data in local memory, and parcel it out to the printer as the printer is able to process it. It retains the printing-information from the PC and speeds up the work to your laser printer.

If you have more than one laser printer, you need at least one queue for each printer.

Price of laser printers: The cost difference between Ink jet and laser printers used to be measured in thousands of dollars; now it is measured in hundreds. But if manufacturers can manage to break the $1000 barrier by driving down the cost of materials, or finding new manufacturing efficiencies, the laser printer could become more ubiquitous than anyone has imagined.

The price tag for monochrome lasers are a bit more than that of their inkjet brothers, beginning around $250 and go up from there to up to $1,000 for a high-end office printer.

Although there is a distinct parallel between the arrival of  new printer technology advances and the recent price drops on the printer market, the price that you have to pay for color lasers are much higher than that of their monochrome cousins. It begins around $650 and goes up from there to more than $4,900 for a high-end office color printer, but their capabilities will compensate for the price difference.

Price of the Network Printer: This printer machine is definitely for businesses.

Many Networkable monochrome laser units starts in the $1900 range and expect to pay around $4000- $5000 for a brand new Networkable color laser printer from the box.

To get a fairly fast, fairly economical alternative to a multitalented laser printer, consider buying a multifunction laser printer, which fetch between $250 and $1,800.

Warranty of lasers: These units usually come with at least a one-year warranty. Make sure that the product comes with a next-day replacement warranty. This means if the manufacturer is not able to fix your printer a replacement unit will be sent the next business day.

Tip: Many companies purchase a maintenance contract to minimize expensive downtime and even more expensive service calls

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