But you'll find an incredibly wide variation here, and there's no sure rule of thumb for picking a winner. Your best bet is to look for comparison tests in computer publications such as PC Magazine, PC World and MacUser. Duty cycle refers to how hard you can work a printer before it breaks. One reason you can buy an inexpensive, high-quality home printer is that manufacturers use lighter, cheaper parts than they put in office machines. If you plan to give a printer a heavy workout, inquire about its duty cycle, which is generally expressed in pages per month.
Printers also vary in their ability to deal with envelopes.
Some make it easy, while others will try your patience. If you expect to use anything other than letter-size paper, carefully check the printer's specifications before you buy. PostScript fonts were also the first widely available typefaces that could be scaled to any size without a loss of quality. As a result, PostScript has become a standard in the publishing industry, and PostScript printers are common in offices that produce many graphics. Although it doesn't hurt to have PostScript capability, it won't be needed for most common home and small-business applications.