Copy paper or something else?
PROPERTIES OF PRINTING PAPER
Print quality and printing problems, such as jams, are greatly affected by the print material used, i.e. usually paper. The main rule is that inkjet printers have their own papers and laser technology has its own. Black and white lasers for printing and color lasers also have their own papers. Pay attention to the uniformity of the paper, which you can see when you look at the paper against the light. Recycled paper is more uneven than traditional paper and the print result is therefore also more uneven and the images are not as sharp. Likewise, there is a difference in the degree of whiteness and gloss and thickness. The whiter the paper, the better when printing pictures. There are differences in copy papers!
INKJET PAPERS
Printing the basic text with an inkjet printer on ordinary copy paper is quite possible. If you print pictures, it is important to change the copy paper to a thicker "glossy" i.e. glossy or matte photo paper. The difference between the print mark is like night and day. On the other hand, putting that glossy inkjet paper into a laser printer easily breaks the entire laser printer, because the coating melts. There are photo papers from both printer manufacturers and other manufacturers. The printer manufacturer's photo papers are very expensive, and you can get an equally good print with significantly cheaper papers than "branded" products.
PAPER THICKNESS
Of course, you should choose thicker paper for invitations or cards, for example 160-220g. Normal copy paper is therefore 80g. The thickness is also important in double-sided printing, because thin paper shows through. Two-sided image printing must have at least 100g of paper. Business cards are often about 230-260g of paper.
OTHER PRINTING MATERIALS
It is also important to inform the printer what kind of paper is used so that the printer can optimize the print mark. If, for example, you print on a sheet of stickers or a package card, you should go to the printer settings and select "sticker" as the print material . The sticker has glue and the color powder cannot be attached to the paper with settings that are too hot. The printer also needs to know if you are printing on an envelope and especially a windowed envelope.
PAPER SIZE
Also remember that the most common A4 or A3 printers can also print directly on smaller paper, i.e. A5 or A6 paper. This can be useful for different purposes instead of cutting an untidy looking mark on A4 paper. For larger prints, the so-called "wide format" printers and these days still at a reasonable price. Consider getting one if you often print shop window posters, for example.
CHANGING COPY PAPER
Larger printers usually have different trays for different sizes of paper or materials. So you should consider buying one printer with many trays instead of buying many different printers. In smaller printers, copy paper is easy to change or add directly to the visible tray, but in larger devices, the paper trays are hidden as "cassettes". Keep the printer's user manual next to the printer so that other users know how to change the paper themselves. If the matter is unclear and the instructions are missing, it is easy to download new instructions from the manufacturer in no time from the internet for free. You can download or print them for yourself for future needs. You can Google the name of your printer, e.g. "HP Laserjet P1102W user manual" or search through the manufacturer's website.