A printer often ends up doing much more than printing. A form needs to be scanned and emailed, an invoice needs a quick copy or several pages have to be turned into a PDF. A Brother multifunction printer puts these everyday jobs into one machine rather than taking up space with separate equipment.
The range covers both laser and inkjet models, so there is no single Brother multifunction printer that suits everyone. A home office printing a mixture of documents and colour pages will have different needs from a workplace producing stacks of black and white paperwork every week. Paper capacity, scanning, connectivity and replacement ink or toner can all matter once the printer becomes part of the daily routine.
CartridgesDirect stocks Brother Printers along with replacement Brother Printer cartridges. This makes it easier to check the printer itself as well as the ink or toner it will need later. If you already have a Brother printer and only need supplies, the Finder tool can help you check what fits your model.
What Do You Need Your Multifunction Printer to Handle?
It is easy to look at two multifunction printers and assume they do much the same thing. Both might print, scan and copy, yet the experience of using them can be quite different.
Start with the jobs that take up most of your time. If you mainly print documents and only scan an occasional signed page, a straightforward model may cover everything you need. If scanning contracts, invoices or multi-page forms is a regular part of the week, the scanner and document feeder deserve just as much attention as print speed.
Paper use matters as well. Someone working from a spare room may be happy with a standard paper tray, while a shared workplace may appreciate more capacity so the printer does not constantly need refilling.
There is also the question of how people connect. Wi-Fi can be convenient when laptops and mobile devices are used around the home or office. Ethernet may be useful where a printer is shared over a workplace network. The available connections differ by model, so check the individual specifications rather than assuming every Brother multifunction printer has the same setup.
This is one of the first choices worth making because it affects the way the printer works and the supplies you will buy later.
A Brother Laser multifunction printer is worth considering when much of the workload is made up of text documents such as invoices, reports, forms and correspondence. Toner is a dry powder, so it does not dry out in the same way as liquid ink during periods when the printer is sitting unused. Brother offers mono laser machines as well as colour options for people who need both document printing and colour output.
Inkjet multifunction printers are another route, particularly when colour is used regularly. They can suit home offices and workplaces printing a mixture of text, graphics and everyday colour documents. Brother's inkjet range also includes selected INKvestment models with higher-yield cartridge options for people who want to go longer between cartridge changes.
Neither technology is automatically the right choice for every home or office. Look at what you actually print, whether colour matters and how frequently the machine will be used. That gives you a much better starting point than choosing laser or inkjet simply because one sounds more suited to business use.
Scanning one sheet on the flatbed is simple enough. Scanning a 20-page document one page at a time gets old very quickly.
That is where an automatic document feeder, usually shortened to ADF, becomes useful. Instead of placing each sheet on the scanner glass yourself, you load a stack of pages into the feeder and let the printer work through them.
ADF capacity varies between models. A smaller feeder may be perfectly adequate for occasional paperwork, while someone regularly scanning longer documents may prefer a larger capacity.
Do not look at capacity alone. If two-sided originals are common in your work, check how the printer handles duplex scanning too. That detail can make a noticeable difference when paperwork has information on both sides.
This is an easy specification to miss when comparing multifunction printers. Automatic duplex printing means the printer can print on both sides of a sheet without you manually turning the paper over. It is useful for longer documents and can reduce the amount of paper used.
Duplex scanning refers to reading both sides of an original document. A printer can support automatic two-sided printing without necessarily offering automatic two-sided scanning.
If scanning is only an occasional job, that distinction may not matter much. For an office regularly digitising contracts, forms or other double-sided paperwork, it can matter a great deal. Check the scanning specifications of the individual model rather than relying on the word “duplex” by itself.
Paper handling tends to get less attention than print speed, but it quickly becomes noticeable once the machine is in use. Consider how much paper you normally go through and whether you regularly switch between different paper types or sizes. A larger tray means fewer interruptions for refilling. Additional trays or multipurpose feeds on selected models can also be useful when an office moves between ordinary documents, envelopes or other media.
Paper size is another consideration. Many Brother multifunction printers are intended primarily for A4 work, while selected inkjet printer models can handle A3 printing and other larger-format tasks.
If A3 is something you genuinely use, choose for that requirement from the beginning rather than assuming a standard office multifunction printer will handle it.
The purchase price tells you what the printer costs today. It does not tell you what you will be buying six months or a year from now.
Brother laser multifunction printers use toner cartridges, and many models have a drum unit that is replaced separately. Toner and drum are different parts and they do not necessarily need replacing at the same time.
Brother Inkjet multifunction printers use ink cartridges. Cartridge sizes and yields vary between printer families, with higher-yield options available for selected models.
This is worth checking before settling on a printer. Two machines with a similar purchase price may use very different consumables. If you print regularly, cartridge yield and the replacement options available for the machine can become more important than a small difference in the original printer price.
CartridgesDirect carries genuine and compatible supplies for a range of Brother Printers. Always match supplies to the complete printer model because cartridges that look similar are not necessarily interchangeable.
Running out of ink or toner usually happens at a less-than-convenient time. Knowing exactly what the printer uses makes the next order much simpler.
CartridgesDirect lists printers and their replacement supplies in the same store, so you can check the consumables used by a machine before purchasing it. If the printer is already sitting on your desk, enter its full model number into the Finder tool to see the available cartridges for that machine.
Current pricing, stock information and individual printer specifications are shown on the relevant product pages. This is also the best place to confirm features such as paper capacity, ADF size, connectivity and duplex functions because these differ between models.
Stocked orders placed before 2pm are dispatched the same business day and eligible orders over $75 receive free shipping. Australian based support is available if you need help matching a printer with the right supplies.
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