Mini Printers: Why They Are So Great, And What To Look For
The mini printer is a convenient upgrade of the already convenient wave of at home printers. When computers began to be produced for people to own in their homes (rather than just in research facilities and government agencies, such as NASA), the average consumer suddenly had a whole new world open up to them. Computers with word processors and, yes, printers, let people type up, edit, and save documents, rather than type them out one time (errors and all) on a typewriter.
The printer is an important part of this convenience, and with the advent of smaller and more portable computers, it is only natural that printers would become smaller and more portable as well. Hence, the mini printer.
These printers are not super-tiny, in that they must be at least the width of a sheet of paper (generally 8 inches by 12 inches for most office and printing documents). But besides that constraint, the modern mini printer is more convenient, lighter, and easier to transport that the large, clunky, desk space-hogging printers that were produced even a few years ago.
Of course, the advantage of the larger, bulkier printers is that they come with a great many functions (or at least they should, to justify the size). Large printers will often include faxing, scanning, and copying functions as well.
But the small, portable printers are intended for another purpose. That is to simply give you the option of printing out documents whenever, and wherever, you need to. Modern, convenient portable printers will attach to your mini laptop (or desktop) via USB cable. All you need to do is make sure you have the correct driver installed to allow your computer and printer to ‘talk’ to one another, and voila- you can print things out right at your business meeting, or even in the coffee shop!
This convenience is the number one reason that people are flocking to these smaller, lighter mini printers. But they have a lot more going for them. Because they are portable, they are smaller, meaning that even in at-home use, they take up less space. They’re easy to store on a shelf and just pull out when you need them. And because they use less materials (and are simpler in their functions), they often cost less, as well.