Wireless printing explained How to connect a wireless printer

Printers: Wireless printing explained How to connect a wireless printer

Plenty of printers have wi-fi, like the Canon Pixma MX870.

With a wireless printer it's easy to print from multiple computers, tablets and smartphones. You don't have to be in the same room, or in some cases the same building, as the printer to be able to print.
But before you can start printing you must first connect the printer to your home network - you'll need is a wireless router and a wi-fi printer.
Read our guide to buying a wireless router if you need one and check our reviews to find the best wi-fi printers.

Connect to a wireless network

Printers with colour screens display step-by-step instructions for setting up the wireless connection when you first turn on the printer. They're easy to follow, even if the screen is quite small and you're not overwhelmed with information - you can only progress one step at a time.
If you don’t set up the wireless connection during the start-up process you can set it up later. Look for the wireless set-up 'wizard' within ‘wireless settings’ or ‘networking’ in the printer’s menu.
There’s more that one way of connecting to a wireless network, and you may be offered a few different options for setting up the connection.

Wi-fi set up using WPS

If your printer and router are both compatible with Wireless Protected Setup (WPS) this should be an option in the printer’s network menu.
If so, when prompted, all you need to do is press the WPS button on your router and the corresponding button on the printer to wirelessly connect the printer to the network.

Wi-fi Auto connect

This feature is mostly available on Epson printers and is very easy to use. You can use it if computer is already set up on your wi-fi network.
Selecting Wi-fi Auto connect, the printer looks at the network your computer is on and then uses this information to connect itself to the wi-fi network. It may take a minute to connect, but it quick and done with a press of a button.

Connecting using a network key or PIN

If your printer doesn’t have WPS, you’ll probably have to enter a ‘network key’ – a series of numbers and letters – into the printer using the function buttons and screen on the printer in order to establish the connection between your printer and router.
Provided you haven't changed it, the network key will be in your router’s documentation, or on a label on the router.

Printers: How to buy the best printer Buying the best inkjet printer

An all-in-one inkjet printer can do a bit of everything and prices start as low as £30.

Inkjet printers are the most common type of home printer. They tend to be smaller than laser printers, so they're more convenient for small home work surfaces.

Inkjets are cheaper

They're generally cheaper than laser printers. You can get an all-in-one inkjet colour printer (that can print, copy and scan) for as little as £25. All-in-one colour laser printers cost upwards of £100 and take up more desk space.
A4 inkjet printers that only print - sometimes referred to as 'single function printers' - are rare now.
You can still find a couple of models in high street stores, but with the low price of all-in-ones, even if you think you'll rarely use the copier function you won't be paying any more up front to have a copier in your printer.
Manufacturers make money from sales of ink, so they want to you use more of it, whether that's by printing or copying.

Inkjets are better for photos

If you want to print photos, an inkjet printer is your best option - they generally print better photos than laser printers.
Text speed isn't likely to be as fast as with a laser printer though.
You can find out which are the best inkjet printers in our inkjet printer reviews.

What makes a good inkjet printer?

• Good print quality In our tests we print text, graphics and photos to find the best printers. 
• Good print speed The average inkjet printer can print high quality text pages at around six or seven pages per minute.
• Low ink costs The price of the printer is only the beginning. Ink cartridges can be expensive. We test the running costs of printers to find those that produce the cheapest prints.  Dismiss

Features to look for

• If you regularly print photos Look for an inkjet printer with dual paper trays - this way you won't have to keep swapping paper in and out of the printer when you switch from printing glossy snaps to web pages or documents. Many printers aimed at photo printing include a preview screen, memory card slots and a USB connection on the front
• Paper-saving measures Look for a printer with 'auto-duplexing'. This means you can set the printer up to automatically print on both sides of a page.
• Want to print from more than one device? If you want to be able to print from a tablet or smartphone, look for a wireless printer. If you want to print from an iPad or iPhoe look for 'AirPrint compatibility'. Wi-fi printers also make it simple to print from more than one computer or laptop without trailing cables around. 
• Scan to USB If an all-in-one printer has a USB connection, it's likely you can use the connection to print photos from a USB stick and also to scan documents on the printer directly onto the USB stick without having to turn on your computer. 
• Automatic document feeder Some all-in-ones have an automatic document feeder (ADF). If you're scanning or copying multiple page documents you can put them into the ADF as a stack rather than having to manually lay them on the scanner one page at a time. However, many ADFs can't automatically scan or copy double-sided (duplex copy/scan). Our reviews let you filter to show models that have ADFs which can duplex copy and scan.

Printers: How to buy the best printer Buying the best laser printer

Laser toner can be pricey but you'll get lots of prints for your money.

Laser printers are good choices for a home office. They are quick to print but they tend to be quite bulky, so you'll need desk space.

Laser printers cost more

Although you can get a laser printer for as little as £60, toner cartridges tend to be expensive at around £40 or more for just one cartridge.
A toner cartridge will produce lots of prints so, so you'll get your money's worth.
Black-and-white laser printers start from around £40, and you can get relatively compact models from brands like Brother and Samsung.
A colour laser printer will cost considerably more as will multifunction laser printers that can also copy and scan. Expect to pay upwards of £80 for these models.

Laser printers are better for text

Laser printers generally aren't good when it comes to photo printing. If you'll want to print photos at home, an inkjet printer is the better way to go.
But if you print lots of Office documents, lasers offer sharper text quality and better print speeds, even for colour documents.
You can find our which are the best laser printers in our laser printer reviews.

What makes a good laser printer?

• Sharp text It's rare to find a laser printer that fails to print crisp text. 
• Rapid print speed The average laser printer can turn out black text at around 10 pages per minute, compared to six or seven with an inkjet.
• Fast colour prints Photos, or colour web pages with images take around two minutes to print at top quality on an inkjet printer. The average colour laser can turn these pages out in around 40 seconds. 

Additional features to look for

• Auto-duplexing You won't find automatic double-sided printing on cheaper laser printers. Expect to pay upwards of £140 for a laser printer with auto-duplexing. This feature is worth having if you print a lot and want to save paper without having to flip the page manually. 
• Multiple print trays Look for a laser printer with more than one paper tray so you can keep different types of paper in the printer at all times, such as plain or headed paper. The paper trays on most laser printers can hold at least 50 sheets of A4.