What to Look for in a Home Multifunction Printer

When you're looking for the best home multifunction printer you first need to decide which functions are important to you. You can get a printer that does nothing but print or you can get a printer that does everything for you except tell you when your shoes are untied. And if you look hard enough you might be able to find one that does that, too!

Before you start shopping for that multifunction printer, here are some of the different functions you'll find:

* Standard Printer
* Photocopier
* Scanner
* Fax Machine
* Telephone/Answering Machine

Generally, the more functions your printer performs the more expensive it will be. But that's not the only thing that will affect the price. Be sure to include the following when you're penciling in your budget:

Ink Cartridges - The best home multifunction printer will have individual ink tanks so you only have to change each color as needed. Also, before buying, make sure that the ink you'll need is readily available. If you're looking at an older model that's about to be discontinued you may have a difficult time finding ink 6 months down the road.

Paper - While most printers will adjust to any type of paper if the printer you're looking at also handles photo printing it may require a special type of paper which you'll want to figure into the cost. Be sure to check paper sizes, too. Will you be enlarging photos? Will you be using legal size paper?

Networking - If you have more than one computer in your home you may want to look for a printer with Wi-Fi so you can network all of them to the one printer. Instead of buying a printer for each member of the family then, you could put this one in a central location and save yourself a lot of money.

If you want to make sure you get the best home multifunction printer for your family look for a manufacturer you trust that you know will be around for awhile. For example, the Canon PIXMA MX870 Wireless Office All-in-One Printer has just about any function you could want from a reliable manufacturer. It combines scanning, printing, copying and faxing all in one but it's also got a ton of extra features including - prints directly from USB flash drives, automatic document feeder, 2.5” LCD for photo display, prints on CDs and DVDs and it's fully networkable either via Ethernet or Wi-fi. The same goes for the Canon PIXMA MP560 Wireless Inkjet All-In-One Photo Printer. What strikes me with these two printers is that they get very few complains from customers. Though tastes and preferences may vary, I think you can´t go wrong with these two mutlifunction printers.