Do You Still Need a Printer? Let’s Talk About It.

I know, I know. “It’s so Millennial. Who even uses printers anymore?” you’re thinking. Et cetera, et cetera. Given the stories floating around the news of younger people unable to figure out the somewhat admittedly (by apps’ modern day usability standards) Byzantine settings menus that felt perfectly at home on Windows 98, I don’t blame you.

But having one at home really does make life easier. Even if printers in general have earned their reputations as the mules of the office—vital but cranky. Very, very cranky.

let go of your hatred

Nobody’s ever liked using a printer. Even when they work fine, there’s an element of Russian roulette that you’ve just gotten away with some trick of fate. And I’ve had several of the cheaper $40 models die on me after a couple of years.

Printing shipping labels is the biggest one. That alone is reason enough to own a printer. It saves huge amounts of time in the age of e-commerce.

I have to vehemently disagree with this Washington Post article from 2023 that suggests the home printer’s time has passed into the graveyard that holds the rotary telephone and the steam-powered car.

Needing to run to Staples or a UPS Store to print off a page or two negates the convenience of printing off a prepaid shipping label. Returning unwanted or damaged items that I bought online or shipping out the occasional eBay sale is a lot easier when I can breeze past the line of waiting, half-dead customers at the post office or UPS and just leave the box.

As for brands, I’ve had nothing but problems with Canon and HP printers. Most printers are junk, regardless of brand. But I’ve had a Brother for four years that just keeps on kicking. You don’t need anything fancy.

No printer capable of winging off ludicrous numbers of pages per minute, no special model that can print off beautifully glossy photographs on special photo paper. You just need one that can handle black-and-white printing.

You don’t even need one that does double- or triple-duty by packaging in fax or scanner technologies. You can find fax services online that take scans of documents and send them as faxes for free; I’ve used them for the more hilariously retro government agencies.

And for scanning, 10 or 15 years ago I’d say to always get a scanner. Nowadays, your smartphone or tablet can do the job more than adequately with an app such as Microsoft Lens or Google Drive. I use both a lot for work, and they work at least as well as any printer-scanner combo I’d ever had.

So that’s it. A basic, black-and-white printer that can handle shipping labels and the occasional government-required document. That’s it. Just small and reliable. Get one by Brother, if you can. Go on. It’ll make your life easier.