Your choice of printer depends on the kind of work you expect to do and how much you're willing to pay. If you want your printer to churn out hundreds of pages of business correspondence every week, your needs are entirely different from someone who prints the occasional letter or party invitation.

The big decision: Laser or ink jet

Until a year or so ago, this question was a no-brainer. If you needed a printer for business, you bought a laser printer because the print quality was so much better. However, that's not the case anymore. The better ink jet printers can produce copy that's almost as sharp as a laser's, and they offer color as a bonus. Still, a number of factors can shape your decision to purchase a printer:

You'll want a laser:

• If you do a heavy volume of work (100 or more pages per week) or frequently produce multiple copies of the same document. Laser printers are still much faster than ink jets, especially for printing multiple copies of a document. You'll also pay far less per page for laser toner than you will for ink jet cartridges.

• If high-quality business correspondence or black-and-white graphics are of major importance. Laser printers still produce sharper images, and they're less prone to banding and smearing.

You'll want an ink jet:

• If you don't need to print a large volume of pages. Ink jet printers are slower than laser printers at the same resolution. Because they have to print each page one line at a time, they're not as good for multiple copies.

• If color is important to you. Color charts, graphs photos and accent type can add a lot of snap to a presentation or report. You may be willing to trade a laser printer's slightly higher text quality for color capability.

• If you have kids. Kids love color printers, and graphics programs designed for youngsters will draw them to the computer and inspire them to use it. But be careful! Kids can go through a lot of expensive color ink cartridges in a big hurry.

What to look for in a laser printer:

Resolution. You can still find 300 dpi laser printers, and they're OK for business correspondence, but you can get a 600 dpi printer for a few dollars more. They'll produce better text and amazingly sharp graphics.

Speed. If you're using a printer in an office environment or churning out multiple drafts of a 300-page novel, you'll want a faster printer -- at least six to eight pages per minute. For home or occasional office use, a printer that can produce four pages per minute will work fine and cost less. Printing graphics depends more on the time it takes to produce the first page than how long it takes to provide additional copies of the same page.

Paper handling. Does the paper load from an open tray in the back of the printer or from a cassette that slides into the bottom of the machine? You'll have fewer paper alignment problems with a cassette. If you print a lot at one time, look for a printer that can hold many sheets of paper. Some printers hold fewer than 100 sheets, while others hold up to 250. Also, if you plan to produce legal-size documents, see if the printer will handle the paper without a special tray. If not, find out how to get one.

Memory. Because a printer stores an entire page before printing, it needs a considerable amount of internal memory. A 300 dpi printer will need at least one megabyte of memory to print a full page of graphics, while a 600 dpi printer may need two to four megabytes. High-end graphics printers may have 20 to 30 megabytes of memory.

Manufacturers use printer memory more efficiently than they once did, but more memory is still better. The more memory your printer has, the faster your computer will be freed to process other tasks. At the very least, make sure your printer comes with enough memory to produce an entire page of graphics at its top resolution.

What to look for in an ink jet printer:

Print quality. There's no way to tell this other than to print a sample page. Better yet, create a page with a word processor and print it out on the machine you're thinking about buying. Color ink jets vary in their ability to produce crisp, black-and-white text. If you're going to use your printer for business correspondence, make sure it looks good. Some printers can produce vivid blocks of colors -- great for graphs and charts -- but fall short on subtle images such as photographs. Some ink jet printers do just the opposite. There's no way to find out other than testing the printer yourself.

Resolution. Some color printers are advertised as having two resolutions. For instance, they may be able to produce 600 dots per inch in black-and-white and 300 dpi in color. This may not be noticeable on the page, but it pays to take a look. Also, to reach their rated resolution, ink jets may require specially coated paper. This paper can cost anywhere from 15 cents to $1 a sheet.

Speed. You can grow old waiting for some color printers to produce a full page of graphics. In fact, speed is one of the things you pay for when moving from an inexpensive color ink jet to a mid-range model. Check out the printer's ratings for graphics pages per minute. Better yet, try printing out a page with a color image and see how long it takes.

Ink cartridge design and capacity. Color printers store cyan, yellow, magenta and black ink in separate reservoirs and mix them on the page. Some older and cheaper printers might not use black ink at all: They produce black by mixing the other colors, and the result is often an ugly green or purple. Stay away from these machines. Make sure the one you buy has a separate reservoir for black ink. Printers designed to reproduce photographs will sometimes use two kinds of color cartridges, one for regular graphics and one for photos. The photo cartridge will usually contain six color shades instead of the normal three. If you're interested in photos, make sure you get a photo cartridge with the printer.

Because you're likely to print more text than graphics, you'll use more black ink than colored ink. You're also not likely to use all three colors at the same rate. However, if one color runs out, you may be stuck replacing a pricey three-color cartridge. Look for a printer with separate, replaceable color reservoirs. Although these printers come with higher price tags, they may be cheaper to operate in the long run, especially if you use the printer a lot. If you're on a budget, you may have to settle for a printer with two cartridges -- one for black and one for the three primary colors.