Because printing is central to the use of the Dollar Homeschool material I know a lot of you have questions as to which printer would be best.  The good news is that technology is now delivering the ideal printers at a lower cost than ever before.  Someone said that the power of the press is for those who own one - and have something worthwhile to print!  Your computer, one of these printers, and the Dollar Homeschool give you that power.

The main factor to consider when choosing a printer is cost per page since this cost is often more than the cost of the printer in the long run. Paper costs about $20-$30 per 5000 (1/3 to 1/2 cent per sheet which is 2 pages) so this a minor cost. Generally ink jet printers can cost from 3-5 cents per page for ink. Laser printers are faster and cost from 1-3 cents per page. Thus the major cost is the ink or toner.

The ideal is a duplex printer that will print both sides of the paper at one time.  Amazingly, the cost of these printers has dropped in half in just the last 3 years. A duplex printer is the closest thing you can have to your own printing press.  And with prices for toner down at 1 cent per page it is cheaper than buying preprinted books. The ones that best fit the bill are:

* K means 1,000 pages.  A 5K toner cartridge is good for 5,000 pages.

Tip: Our expereince has shown that the best print driver to use with the Brother printer and our curriculum is the HP LaserJet 8100 Series PCL.  This print driver is available on your MS Windows CD.  It is very reliable and stable.