Among the large number of companies that produce a3 printers, Brother is amongst the most prolific. Previously this size of printer, partly to do with usage, but mainly because of the price, was limited to businesses. Over recent years, due to the increase in demand for this type of printer, they have gradually come down in price. This has enabled individuals to be able to afford them too. This has been great news for those looking to start up new printing businesses, or those who require large printing capabilities in the home.

There are many appealing features that the Brother a3 printers have. They have the ability to print extremely wide pieces such as large spreadsheets or posters, and even banners. This feature is extremely useful in a variety of industries. A standard printer simply cannot carry out these huge printing jobs. The speed at which the a3 printer can operate is far faster than the usual printer is too. This can be essential to a business’s success or failure. If they cannot get the printing that they need doing in time, this can mean missed deadlines, or even lost business.

The brother a3 printers have a great deal of flexibility too. Unlike other printers, they do not have the need to make changes to them if the size of the format is adjusted. This can be a fantastic time saver to both businesses, and individuals alike. Time really is money when it comes to things like this. The trades where the a3 printers really come into their own tends to be typesetting, sign making, and banner making. All of these trades find the features of the Brother a3 extremely useful.

Although the costs of the Brother a3 printers can seen quite high when you first purchase one, the money that you are investing is worth it. The time and effort that it will save you in the long run will eventually pay you back. If you shop around properly there are some great deals to be had on this product, and most of these can be found online. It is worth spending a good amount of time searching in order to attain the best price.

More Printing Options
The choice of an A3 laser printer should be made for having the capability to print in A3 sizes. If you don’t expect to print anything larger than a legal size paper, then just go for the ordinary laser printer. However, it does help if you have the A3 capability since it allows you to print different types of materials. With an A3 printer, you can print newsletters, posters, banners, etc. Although the general consumer only needs a maximum of legal size printing, sometimes it helps if one has this capability in reserve for unexpected occasions.

Faster Turn Around
Generally, laser printers are faster than inkjet printers are. This principle remains the same even with the increase in size. The highest recorded speed for a laser printer is at 1440 pages per minute. This printer is the Infoprint 4100. However, this printer is intended for publishing but still utilize laser-printing technology. It is also capable of printing in A3 sizes. Unfortunately, this printer is not suitable for home use. It takes up a huge chunk of room space. It is only mentioned here to show that laser printers are indeed very fast printers.

Higher Quality Printing
Compared to inkjet printers, laser printers are more accurate printers. As proof, there are institutions that use laser printers to print raster marks on their own documents to ensure authenticity. They can be very accurate up to a tenth of a millimeter. Most barcode tags are also printed using laser printers. Laser printers provide texts that are crisper as well as darker black. They are more accurate than inkjet printers are because they use dry ink. With dry ink, there is no possibility of the prints to spread laterally like what usually happens if you use liquid ink.

Cheaper Printing Costs
The acquisition of A3 laser printers is a lot more costly than A3 inkjet printers. However, we did mention before that you should consider buying an A3 laser printer if your budget is more than enough. Generally, laser printers have always been more expensive than inkjet printers have. However, when it comes to frequently using them, using laser printers may be much cheaper because the cost to print one page is a lot cheaper compared to an inkjet printer. This is mainly due to the toner cartridges of laser printers that can go as high as a few thousand pages before running out. Ink cartridges, on the other hand, can only go for a few hundreds.

This is looking at it though one side only. Owning an A3 laser printer has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. Before heading on out to buy one, make sure you also know the other side of the coin so that you will be prepared when making the purchase.

They Cost a Lot and Require Too Much Space
Although salesmen never say this outright, these are already very evident the moment you look at A3 laser printer. Because of its additional A3 printing capability, they tend to be a lot larger than ordinary laser printers and because of the same reason these printers are a lot more expensive. If you plan to buy an A3 laser printer, make sure that you plan to utilize their main features. Otherwise, you may be better off with an ordinary laser printer or at least an A3 inkjet printer.

They Increase Room Temperature
An A3 laser printer works by changing the polarity of a photoreceptor, the drum, according to the image you want to print. It then attracts the toner so only the selected regions with the charge will get the toner. However, this toner is dry so in order for them to stick to the media, it must be heated to a significant degree. Because of this heating process, there is a tendency for this machine to elevate the surrounding temperature. If your home is not air-conditioned or properly ventilated, you may find it very uncomfortable.

They Have Higher Power Consumption
A3 laser printers require more power than ordinary laser printers because they have larger components. The fact that they are laser printers also add to the required power compared to inkjet printers. For inkjet printers, it only needs minimal power to operate on the print head. However, for the laser printer, it needs additional power for the laser as well as the heating element inside. It requires more power because it takes more power to elevate the temperature of certain components compared to just shooting out ink.

Possible Health Risks
Recent studies show that laser printers emit ultrafine particles that have adverse effects to one’s health, mostly targeting the respiratory system. The emission of these particles may vary depending on the age, size and use of these laser printers. However, it is directly proportional to the size of the toner. Considering that A3 laser printers have larger toners, you may be getting more of these ultrafine particles with A3 printers. Although, there are claims that proper ventilation of the room is enough to reduce the risk involved.

Don’t let this article discourage you about getting an A3 laser printer for your home. Sometimes, the good things about something outweigh the negative things of something. However, it is important that you know what you’re getting into so that you’ll be able to take extra precautions when dealing with the cons of laser printers.

First of all, A3 printers are not only capable of printing on A3 size. It is also capable of printing on A4 printer paper as well as other papers such as Letter and Legal. This allows you more versatility in terms of media selection. If you need your output to be larger, then choose A3. If you want them smaller, then choose A4 or Letter. In a way, you also have faster turnarounds because, in one sweep, you can print an A3 size, which is equivalent to two A4 sizes.

Aside from having multiple selections of media, you are open to more options into what you can print. If by having a standard printer you can only print documents and other letter size documents, by having a an A3 printer, you can print other documents such as memos brochures, newsletters and other things that need to be on large media. This is why most A3 printers are usually bought for office use. Offices have more need for printing on different sizes compared to home printing. At homes, the printing involved may only be for reports and homework.

Those are all for buying an A3 printer. However, having an A3 printer is not all good. Like owning any other machine, there are always downsides. The first major disadvantage of these machines is their size. Most A3 printers are bigger and heavier so they are not that easy to handle. If you’ve chosen a spot for them in your house, it is better not to move it anymore. Because most of them are bigger than normal printers, sometimes you can’t just place them on your work area. In most cases, you have to allocate another desk or space for your printer.

Aside from its size, another major disadvantage of these printers is their power consumption. Due to their size and larger components, they would require larger amounts of energy in order to do the same job. If you seldom use the printer, then it won’t really make that much of a difference in your electric bill. However, if you’re a frequent user of printers, you can expect to see some changes in your bill.

Other advantages and disadvantages may be added to this list depending on the kind of A3 printer you’re considering. If you’re considering an A3 laser printer, it may have additional advantages such as cheaper printing costs. It also has additional disadvantages as well, such as elevated room temperatures.

One of the primary indications that an A3 laser printer is built for heavy tasks is its speed. Most laser printers operate at a very fast printing speed. The Infoprint 4100 is capable of printing 1440 letter size pages in just one minute. It would awfully be a waste of resources if this printer were only purchased to accommodate 10-page printing. With a 10-page report, you’ll be done in less than a second and your machine will be left idle for most of the time.

Another thing why they are good for printing heavy tasks is because their performance does not decline even for a thousand pages. Assuming that the printer is properly maintained, the performance of these printers should not deteriorate. Inkjet printers have the tendency to clog up their nozzles whenever they are not used for some time. This is because inkjet printers use liquid ink. Laser printers on the other hand already use dry ink to begin with so there is no possibility of clogging.

Another reason why these printers are built for heavy tasks is their capability to accommodate different types of media. The Infoprint 4100 is capable of accommodating various paper sizes from 4”x6” to A3 sizes. It is even capable of running rolls of paper at 18 inches width.

On top of the speed and various paper selections, this printer can hold paper stacks up to 16 inches high. That is only for the input. In terms of output, it can hold a paper stack up to 14 inches high. If your printing needs exceed this amount, the Infoprint 4100 has pre-and-post printing interfaces that allow you to add more capacity for either the input or output stacks.

Another feature, which makes this printer convenient to take heavy tasks, is that you can change the toner in the middle of a printing job. This minimizes the down time experienced by the printer so you can maximize your output with this printer. Most printers require you to even turn off your printer whenever you change your toner cartridge. However, for a printer designed to produce thousands of pages for publication purposes, having the ability to change the toner without stopping the printer is a very important asset.

Aside from the Infoprint 4100, IBM has other printers as well that are built to take on heavy tasks like the Infoprint 5000. The only difference between them is that the Infoprint 5000 operates on inkjet technology.

Getting things online certainly offers a lot of advantages like queue-less shopping, wide variety of options. Most people have been hesitant to go through online shopping for fear that they will be scammed. The fear may be well deserved but you can always take up extra precautions like ensuring the authenticity and security of the sites before making the purchase. However, there are sites that have proven themselves through time.

Amazon.com
Amazon is one of the most preferred choices of online store because it has operated more than 10 years and it has consistently satisfied its customers. Amazon offers worldwide shipping, which makes it convenient for people who have lesser access to consumer electronics. Aside from purchasing an A3 laser printer at Amazon, you also have the option to purchase additional accessories and supplies for your printer. Various kinds of cables, cases, and ink supplies are available and are even linked to certain products that they are compatible with. This makes it easier for customers to easily find accessories that are compatible with your choice of printers.

EBay
EBay is a good source for getting an A3 laser printer and it’s a good choice for getting something cheap. You may be able to get very cheap A3 laser printers because the discounts are controlled by the seller themselves. There are also options to bid on certain products so you can get them for the price that you want. However, as a word of precaution, when dealing with sellers on eBay, you need to familiarize yourselves with the merchants on eBay. To aid you with your choice of merchants, customers usually rate merchants so you’ll have an idea if the merchant is honest or not.

Search Engines
If what you’re looking for isn’t found on eBay or Amazon, you can always search for them on the internet. There are a lot of online stores where you can find the certain model you are looking for. Simply searching the specific type of model you want is enough to point you to online stores that offer that specific model. Aside from getting a lot of options in terms of models, you also get the chance to look at different stores that offer various printer models. It also helps if you check different models this way so you can be sure that the model you are looking for is the one you need.

The internet is a very good place to look for various consumer electronics even if it’s just A3 laser printers. The more rare the model you’re looking for, the more chances you’ll get them if you search them online rather than look for them at local stores.

Another a3 printer you may be interested in is the Epson Stylus Photo 1400. Quality photo print professionals all agree that this is one of the best on the market, even if it is not the fastest one out there. The tray can hold 150 sheets of paper up to 13 x 44 inches in size, but the printer only produces 15 pages a minute because of the high quality resolution it yields. This printer offers an astounding 5760 x 1440 dots per inch, and it uses Claria Photographics Ink – guaranteed not to fade or smudge. It sells for less than $200, and it is incredibly easy to setup and use. You can even do CD and DVD labeling with this a3 printer, offering a little something for everyone.

For top quality speed and production, you might want to purchase an Epson LQ 2180 Black and White Dot Matrix Printer. This printer has a low resolution of 360 x 360 dots per inch, but it can whip out pages faster than anything else we have discussed here. It is made for high volume print jobs in big companies, not for high quality photo prints. If you are in need of mass production and quality is not as important as quantity, this could be the perfect a3 for you. This unit is still affordable, remaining under $600 in most markets.

You should not have a trouble affording some of the best a3 photo printers out there. It all depends on your needs. As the market continues to get more competitive though, prices will continue to drop. If you do some diligent searching, you should be able to find just what you need for your business.

Lower Printing Cost per Page
Laser printers may be more expensive than inkjet printers may. But when it comes to their printing cost, laser printers are much cheaper. You factor in the price of the toner and the number of pages it can print, their cost is a lot lower. Most laser printers have a printing cost of 2 cents per page, unlike inkjets, which is at 8 cents per page.

Infrequent Cartridge Replacement
Laser toner cartridges have higher yields compared to inkjet cartridges. An ink cartridge may be able to yield a few hundred pages but laser cartridges can reach to a few thousands. This means you don’t need to replace the cartridge as frequent as when you have an inkjet printer.

Additional Media Option
A3 laser printers allow an additional option for A3 sizes. Normally, ordinary desktop printers can print on a Legal size the maximum. With an A3 printer, you have the additional option of printing in A3 sizes while maintaining the capability of printing in smaller sizes.

Fast Printing Speeds
Laser printers have faster printing speeds compared to inkjet printers. This is mainly because of their printing method. An inkjet printer prints by having the printer-head go sidewise. This means that the computer only has to pass data to the printer by line. However, the laser printer uses a different method. First, it stores the image on the surface of a drum. The drum is a photosensitive device, which uses light to store the image. Then the image is printed on the paper by rolling the drum.

Dry Printouts
Laser printers are known for producing dry printouts. This is one of the main differences between an inkjet and a laser printer. The process uses dry ink granules instead of wet ink. This is why printouts come out dry. In order to stick to the paper, the ink and paper is heated to a certain degree where the ink fuses to the paper. This advantage allows users to immediately pick up their output instead of waiting for a few minutes for them to dry.

Laser printers, especially A3 laser printers, are expensive machines. However, it is the advantages that these printers offer that make customers decide to purchase one despite their cost. If you look at it in a long-term perspective, the initial cost plus the operational cost of using laser printers will be lesser than that of the inkjet printers. However, this presupposes that they will use the printers on a regular basis.

To start off, A3 laser printers are capable of printing in A3 sizes. Ordinary inkjet printers, which are advertised for commercial or domestic use, the ones you usually see on the shelf of a computer shop, are only capable of printing on Letter or Legal sizes. With the exception of some multifunctional printers, these printers have limited media size options.

With the additional A3 capability, it allows you to do more tasks. Where you originally entertained jobs for printing regular documents, you can now take on jobs for printing posters, banners and even newsletters. Presentations and publications can be done with your printer instead of looking for a shop that offers expensive printing services. With a laser printer, printing costs are minimal because of the high yield toners that they have. It will take you more than a thousand pages before replacing the cartridges.

Mass printing or mass production of documents, flyers or even booklets is an easy job with A3 laser printers. Being a laser printer, it has fast printing speed, which is general knowledge among printers. There’s no need to wait for prints to dry up with a laser printer. Printouts come out dry. This is because laser printers use dry ink granules instead of wet ink. This means no more ink blotting, unlike inkjet printers. Some inkjet printers tend to have ink smudges especially if the printer is suddenly moved. This never happens with laser printers.

If you’re planning on distributing a new book, or publishing newsletters, you can save money by using a laser printer instead of an inkjet. Laser printers have lower printing cost per page. The value is somewhere within 2 cents per page, unlike inkjet printers which can reach up to 8 cents per page. Knowing this difference, you can finish a book or publication at a quarter of how much it would have been if you had chosen an inkjet printer.

If you intend on producing colored documents, there are laser printers that can print in color. Of course, the colored laser printers are much more expensive than the monochrome laser printers. However, these printers will still do a very good job when printing colored documents.

Quality and accuracy are not sacrificed with these printers. In fact, that’s partly the reason why these printers are very expensive. These printers are known for being accurate to a length of a hundredth of a millimeter. Some institutions even use laser printers in order to print raster marks that indicate the authenticity of their materials.

A3 laser printers are the best printers for most printing jobs. They offer quality and speed. However, they offer it for a price.

Physical Attributes
Let us start with the most common characteristic that these printers have which is their physical attributes. A3 laser printers are bigger compared to A3 inkjet printers. Laser printing technology makes use of a drum that rotates along with the page. Since it is an A3 printer, a larger drum is needed. This makes it even heavier than normal laser printers. Unlike an inkjet printer where all that is needed is a printer-head to weave back and forth until the end of the page, the laser printer needs to store the image of the page on the drum. So in terms of physical attributes, the inkjet printer has the advantage.

Printing Quality
Laser printers used to have lower resolutions due to the memory they needed. Fortunately, most printers today are capable of holding high memory levels. However, the highest resolution that a laser printer has is 2400 dots per inch. Unlike inkjet printers which have already crossed the 9600dpi mark. Laser printers are known for their accuracy in printing. Some companies even use their technology to print “secret” marks for their own identification purposes. Laser printers are capable of printing 0.1mm dots.

Printing Speed
It is without a doubt that the A3 laser printer has a faster printing speed. This is made possible with their technology. The inkjet relies on the data sent by the computer for each line until the page is finished. However, for a laser printer, it first generates the page for printing on the drum and then rotates along with the page. There is no need for ink to dry since ink granules in laser printers are always dry. They stick to the paper depending on which part is charged via the drum, and then it is heated by the fuser so that ink granules stick to the printer without getting wet.

Wet And Dry Prints
Because of the printing technology that laser printers use, prints are never wet. Inkjet on the other hand has no other option but to use wet ink. Depending on the kind of paper used, inkjet prints may come out blotted or wet and may still need more time to dry up. Laser prints come out dry and can be touched immediately.

Each one of these printers has its own advantages and disadvantages. Although most of the times, the cheap cost of the inkjet printer outweighs the advantages of laser printers. If it were not for the cost, most people will buy the laser printer. After all, the laser printer is fast, accurate and can take on heavy jobs.