Color thermal printers These Rolls Royces of the graphics world use intense heat to transfer color from ribbons to specially coated paper. Judging printer quality Some printers are better at graphics than text. That's why you should never buy a printer based solely on its specifications. Your eye is the best judge of quality, and you know what kind of printing is most important for you. When you're shopping, always demand a sample page and see if it meets your standards.
All printers work by laying down tiny dots of ink, toner or dye.
The dots are so small and close together that they fool your eye into thinking it's seeing solid images. The finer the dots, the better the image quality. A printer with a resolution of 300 x 300 dpi can produce 90,000 dots per square inch. That's the minimum you'll need for decent-looking text in normal correspondence. To get sharp text at smaller sizes, as well as graphics and photos with a professional look, you'll want a 600 dpi printer, which produces 360,000 dots per square inch.