I won’t say I entirely agree with Joanna (of the Wall Street Journal who recommends an ink Tank printer), nor do I entirely disagree. The cost of cartridge inkjet printers over the life of the printer is artificially high (ink cost) and her math is spot on regarding what it costs for those who regularly print ( $1200 or more over the life of the printer if you print a few pages each and every day); but, my experience says there are a lot of consumers who print a few pages once or twice a month and leave the printer alone for the rest of the month.
For these people, the inkjet printer has always been expensive because the heads get dried ink on them and eventually have to be cleaned (burning through lots of ink) and eventually leading to the failure of one or more nozzles and forcing either an expensive repair or less expensive replacement of the printer. If you are one of these folks and you insist on having your own printer (to avoid the inconvenience of having printing done by a service and then picking it up), then consider an inexpensive laser printer. If you let it sit for a few months between printing sessions, you may want to take the toner cartridge out and shake it or gently rock it back and forth; but, it is highly likely to print just fine after a long time being ignored and the cost per page will quickly favor the laser for users who print sporadically.
Calculating the cost of any printer over the long haul (please restrict yourself to a 5-year expected life for a printer in today’s world) is a simple matter of figuring out how much paper you have been using and then using the manufacturer’s estimate (I know, but I have found these estimates to be close enough) for toner or tank life and doing some really simple math to determine which printer will be the most cost-effective for you. For instance, my wife and I buy 2 reams of paper most years for 1000 pages of printing a year, and our little laser printer (using the XL size toner) prints 3000 pages per $80 cartridge so I expect to buy one additional toner cartridge over the life of the printer to print roughly 5000 pages (5 years at 1000 pages per year). As a result, my $130 printer will cost $210 over that 5-year life to print 5000 pages.
Installation difficulty also factors in; if you have to hire a technician to set it up, you will need to factor in another $60-$125 for that service unless you can find a full-service retailer (who may charge slightly more for the printer) but include delivery and set up in the price. Here is where I put in my pitch for HP and Epson who both have superior installation routines that make it possible for most users to set up their own printer.