Introduction
It is a wise thing to think twice before investing money anywhere – be it on a property or in electronic gadgets. This is to balance the expenditure and minimize the college fee as well. Students tend to buy a lot of gadgets and electronic stuff when they are in college but they sometimes forget to add an important item to their shopping list – a printer. Yes, being a student a printer is a must for you as it has innumerable benefits. You can print things right from your dormitory room. But many people would argue that printers are obsolete things considering the modern educational development. But if you try to go paperless then you will be dealing with a lot of inconveniences and unexpected increases in costs. Now it depends on various factors why you should or shouldn’t get a printer for college.
What does your school offer?
The idea of getting a printer for yourself sometimes depends on the policy of your school and the facilities provided by them. It depends upon the intended assignments, concerns related to the environment, and the budget of course. There are some majors like literature, history, creative writing, or psychology that need extensive documentation hence increasing the demands of a printer. Even if you think that your course will not require much documentation but many degree courses require students to take English and humanities courses which have a lot of written assignments. Students studying photography, geography, or art will be able to print their assignments right in the college p; ab but a printer will come in handy in case you want to work during the week hours.
6 major reasons to get a printer for college
It saves both your time and money
Many parents consider buying a printer for college a waste of money. Compared with other stationery items like notebooks and pens, a printer is undoubtedly a huge investment. Imagine you need to print out a report or let’s say a presentation. You are likely to stand in a queue near the library to get your work done. This can sometimes take a lot of time and you could have done something productive rather than waiting for your turn. If you plan to run to the local public printer you won’t be getting much time to give the final touches to your draft. Just in case you live outside the college premises then this becomes a hectic thing to do. Ultimately you will realize how important is to have a printer of your own to get something printed one time.
Professors prefer printed material to soft copy notes
No matter how popular digital devices are nowadays, printed things are always superior to digital ones. You will notice that reading ebooks on a tablet or iPad for a reasonably long period can cause stress on your eyes. Compared to reading a real book, this can result in headaches and even insomnia. Researchers have also concluded that students tend to remember things well that are read from a book than from a printed page or an ebook. So, physicality matters here a lot. The students with reading-heavy majors like literature, history, or political sciences, are likely to suffer if they choose to read stuff on screens.
Printer ink is inexpensive
You will be glad to know that printer ink is not as costly as you think as long as you know where to get it from. There are several compatible ink options available to choose from and this can save 50 to 80 percent every time you change the cartridge. We have several brands which are trustworthy and offer cartridges that are factory-tested. They come cheap and give you good results just as you would expect from the cartridges from reputed companies.
Printing Limits in the libraries
Students think that the library is always there whenever they need to print something. There are also places on the campus where students can get their printing works done and are free up to a certain point. Those colleges which offer discounts on printing rates set printing limits per semester. In case you are a student who needs to print out tons of research papers or lengthy projects, you are likely to exhaust your printing quota very quickly. Then comes the time when you need to pay ten to fifteen cents per page for all those additional sheets when you could have done the same sitting right in your dorm room.
Most the inexpensive printers are designed to save space
Normally a dormitory room consists of two or three people living in a tiny space which is also called “common space”. So, practically speaking there is very limited space for a printer. But, it is no longer the 90’s. Today we have printers that come in different sizes and can fit anywhere. We have document printers that are designed to fit in backpacks and even in briefcases. We also have photo printers which are pocket-size mini printers. You can also opt for the all-in-one types and save a lot of space in your dorm room.
How to choose a printer for college?
It is not always a wise thing to purchase good-looking printers and cheap cartridges. Verify the type of cartridges used in the printer and also ensure the number of pages that you can print with each cartridge. Some cheap cartridges come very cheaply but their ink does not last more than a week. Eventually, you will be spending a lot of money on ink and you will be very much annoyed when you will need to replace the cartridges time and again. So, be smart and get a laser printer. First, you will see that they come very expensive but their cartridges are excellent. A single cartridge can print thousands of pages. So, in the short run, it might be expensive for you but in the long run, these printers will save your additional costs of replacing cartridges frequently. If you need to print in color, you need to buy a color printer. Remember that the basic ones can only print in black and white.
Conclusion
The idea of going completely paperless can cause a lot of inconvenience to students. Tablets and kindle readers are indeed great choices for reading ebooks and newspapers, and checking Facebook and Instagram but they are not at all an ideal choice for jotting down notes and editing thesis papers. Similarly, reading texts on a laptop or MacBook is quite difficult as you get distracted by a lot of things on the internet. Printers on the other hand can be equally beneficial for digital natives too. They can save all your frequent trips to the library and gives you the ability to print things at your convenience. So, if you think that your school has printing limits, you need to print a lot of research papers and project works or you need to print things at hours when the school might be closed then you can consider getting a printer for yourself.