How to Choose an Office Printer: A4 vs A3, Mono or Colour

To choose the right office printer, match the device class to your monthly print volume, decide between A4 and A3 paper handling, choose mono or colour, and confirm the agreement covers toner, parts and onsite support.

Australian SMEs printing 1,000 to 5,000 pages per month usually suit a 25 to 45 page per minute multifunction device, available through a printer leasing solution with service included.

This printer buying guide walks through each choice in a practical order: printer type, print volume, paper size, colour, features, then running costs.

Laser or inkjet: which type of printer suits an office?

For a shared office printer, a laser printer is usually the right type of printer.

A laser printer fuses toner powder onto the page with heat, so text stays sharp and the page is dry the moment it lands in the tray.

An inkjet printer sprays liquid ink through fine nozzles, which suits photos and occasional colour work.

Standard inkjet cartridges hold far fewer pages than a laser toner cartridge, so ink costs climb quickly once a team prints every day.

Most office laser devices also print faster than desktop inkjets, which matters when five people send jobs at once.

Choose inkjet for a home printer that mainly prints photos, and choose laser for office printing where the printer runs all day.

Home office printer or shared office printer?

A home office printer serves one person, so a compact printer with wireless printing and a small paper tray is usually enough.

A shared office printer serves a team, so it needs a larger paper capacity, faster print speed, user codes and a service arrangement.

Staff working from home part of the week can still send jobs to the office device, as set out in our guide to hybrid and remote printing.

A single function printer only prints.

A multifunction printer, also called an all in one printer, prints, copies and scans to email or a shared folder from one device.

Most offices need the multifunction printer, because they scan as well as print.

Match the printer to your print volume

Your monthly print volume decides the device class more than any other factor. Our guide on how to choose the right office printer for your budget works through the same sizing questions step by step.

Consider your monthly print volume and the balance between colour and black and white printing needs.

As a guide, one to five staff printing under 1,000 pages a month suit an A4 mono multifunction device.

Five to fifteen staff printing 1,000 to 3,000 pages a month suit an A4 colour device.

Ten to thirty staff printing 3,000 to 8,000 pages a month suit an A3 colour device.

Offices above 8,000 pages a month move to a high volume A3 model with finishing options.

Print speed is measured in pages per minute, and our table of pages per minute by team size shows the speed each team size needs.

Small businesses with five to twenty users can follow our four step guide to leasing a copier for a small business in Australia to size the device correctly.

If your team maps to a specific industry, our dedicated pages for a 50 staff accounting firm, a 20 lawyer legal practice and a 10 staff medical clinic show the recommended device and fleet size for that profile.

A4 or A3, mono or colour?

Factor in the various paper sizes and types your business regularly uses, along with essential network connectivity requirements.

An A4 printer handles letters, invoices and most reports.

An A3 printer adds the larger sheet for plans, spreadsheets, posters and booklets, and usually brings a bigger paper capacity and faster engine.

Our explainer on the difference between an A3 and an A4 printer covers the trade off in more detail.

Choose a mono printer when nearly everything you print is text.

Choose a colour laser printer when proposals, marketing material or charts leave the office regularly.

Our comparison of A3 against A4 and colour against mono shows how each choice changes the monthly cost.

Printer features worth paying for

Business printers now do more than print pages.

Wireless and network connectivity let staff print from multiple devices, including laptops and phones.

Automatic duplex printing, set as the default, puts two sides on one sheet, which cuts paper use on every job longer than one page.

Scan to email and scan to folder turn paper into searchable files without a separate scanner.

Strong security features are essential for protecting sensitive documents and maintaining data compliance.

Secure print release holds each job until the owner logs in at the device, so confidential pages never sit in the tray.

Our printer security guide provides detailed insights on protecting your printing infrastructure.

For brands running short label runs across multiple SKUs, an in house label production system can replace outsourced trade print orders, subject to availability as stock is limited.

Kyocera printers use a long life drum that is separate from the toner cartridge, so the drum is not replaced at every toner change.

If you are weighing brands, our side by side Toshiba vs Kyocera comparison and Toshiba vs HP comparison set out the spec and running cost differences for each device class.

Built in security features protect your sensitive information, while published Typical Electricity Consumption figures let you compare power draw before you sign.

Many devices report low toner over the network, so a replacement can be sent before the cartridge runs out.

Running costs: the purchase price is only the start

When you compare printers, look past the sticker price.

A cheap printer can cost more over three years than a dearer one, because the ink or toner cartridges are often where most of the money goes.

When you buy a printer, every replacement cartridge, drum, repair and service call is a separate bill.

Add the energy the printer draws and the staff time lost to paper jams and downtime.

The full figure is called the total cost of ownership, and it is the number to compare between models.

Look at the whole cost, including a set monthly lease payment you can budget around, set out in our transparent quote process.

For complete cost visibility across several devices, consider managed print services that provide usage reporting and optimisation.

Should you buy or lease an office printer?

Buying suits a single home office printer that prints a few pages a week.

Leasing suits a shared office printer, because the device, toner, parts, service labour and call outs sit in one set monthly payment.

Our leases start from $160 a month ex GST on a 36 to 60 month term, and the only thing you buy is paper.

Our worked comparison of whether to lease or buy an office printer runs the numbers over a full term.

Office printer checklist before you choose

Write down your monthly print volume, then the share of it that is colour.

List the paper sizes you use, and whether you need A3.

Count the users, and check they can print from every device they work on.

Decide which features you need: scanning, duplex, secure print release and wireless printing.

Compare running costs over three to five years, not the purchase price alone.

If you would rather answer a few questions, our printer selection quiz suggests a device class in about two minutes.

Choose the right printer for your office

Don't let outdated printing technology hold your business back.

Our team will help you select the right printer solution for your needs and budget.

Whether you need printer leasing in Brisbane, printer leasing in Perth, printer leasing in Adelaide, printer leasing in Canberra, or printer leasing anywhere across Australia, we provide same business day phone and remote support and next business day onsite response for confirmed service requests.

The same A4 against A3 and mono against colour questions apply outside the capital city CBDs, and the answer often lands on a different device class because a suburban or regional office often runs lower volumes across a wider mix of jobs.

Businesses weighing that trade off can start with printer leasing in Kalamunda or Busselton printer leasing.

On the NSW Mid North Coast the same sizing decision is worked through town by town, starting with the Toshiba printer lease range in Taree.