Office Printer Buying Checklist: Kodak Step, Deskjet, and 3D Printer CAD

Who this checklist is for

If you are the person who gets asked to 'just get a printer,' this is for you. I am the admin buyer for a 90-person office. I manage roughly $120K of annual spend across about a dozen vendors, and I report to both operations and finance. That means I see the printer as a tool and as a line item. Both views matter.

This is the checklist I use when a new print request lands in my inbox. It has eight steps. No theory. If you follow them, you will avoid the kind of mistake I made in my first year: I ordered a label printer that did not accept the roll size our shipping team used. $700 of hardware, $400 of labels that did not fit, and one very unhappy warehouse manager.

Here's the thing: most printing problems are process problems, not printer problems.

Step 1: Write down what actually gets printed

Get a piece of paper. Ask: What will go through this machine in a normal week? Invoices, labels, product photos, ID badges, packing slips, CAD drawings? Each one pushes you toward a different printer.

An all-in-one is fine for general office documents. For product shots at a trade show, a portable photo printer might make more sense. The Kodak Step instant mobile photo printer, for example, is small enough to fit in a field kit and prints 2x3 photos straight from a phone. It is not a replacement for a lab printer. But it is an example of why the use case has to come first.

If you skip this step, you end up with a printer that does one thing well and four things poorly.

Step 2: Separate hardware cost from consumables cost

Printer prices are misleading. A cheap printer can cost more over a year than an expensive one, depending on ink and paper. I compare cost per page, not sticker price.

Kodak Black Label is a name you will see in listings for Kodak photo products and supplies. It may sound like a special product family, and in some cases it is. For a purchaser, the important thing is to confirm what's in the box: which printer it works with, what media type it uses, and whether the per-print cost makes sense for your volume.

Look at page yield. Look at ink tank architecture. Then talk to finance.

Step 3: Check the boring technical stuff first

I learned this after a 2024 purchase that our security team rejected. The printer supported Wi-Fi, but not the 802.1x network authentication our building required. It took us three weeks to return and replace it. (Note to self: ask about network auth before the PO, not after.)

Before you buy, ask whether the printer works with your network security settings, your laptop image, and your fleet management software. Also ask if scan-to-email needs a separate driver process. This is not glamorous. It saves you from the most annoying kind of meeting.

Step 4: Do not fall for the brand name trap

Every year someone asks me: 'Is Deskjet an inkjet printer?' The answer is yes. Deskjet is a product family from HP, and inkjet is the technology it uses. But the name does not tell you whether it is right for your office.

Look, familiar names are fine. You still need to know the actual technology. Inkjet, laser, LED, thermal, dye-sublimation, and zero-ink systems all have different trade-offs. For photo prints, dye-sublimation or zero-ink is common. The Kodak Step instant mobile photo printer uses a zero-ink process. For shipping labels, thermal is often better because there is no cartridge to replace. For high-volume text, laser is usually more economical. Choose based on the workflow, not the famous logo.

Step 5: If labels are involved, read the USPS specs

Shipping labels do not care about the brand on the box. They care about dimensions, adhesive, and envelope thickness. Before you buy a label printer, measure the labels you will actually use.

According to USPS pricing effective January 2025 (usps.com/stamps): First-Class Mail letter (1 oz) costs $0.73, large envelope (1 oz) costs $1.50, and each additional ounce for large envelopes costs $0.28.

USPS also defines a letter as 3.5-inch x 5-inch minimum to 6.125-inch x 11.5-inch maximum, with thickness up to 0.25-inch. Large envelopes can go up to 12-inch x 15-inch and 0.75-inch thick. If your label makes the envelope too stiff, it ships at the flat or parcel rate, and that changes your postage budget. (I checked the USPS page again in January 2025; rates change.)

Label printers are where offices make expensive mistakes. A label that looks fine in hand can still trigger an extra postage charge or require a manual scan. Prevention is cheaper than re-shipping.

Step 6: Verify the vendor before you hand over a PO

This is the step nobody wants to do. Calling a vendor to ask about invoicing feels like a waste of time until the first invoice is rejected by accounting. A vendor we used early on could not provide proper invoicing. Finance rejected $2,400 of eligible expenses because the receipt was handwritten. I have checked vendor AP setup before ordering ever since.

We did not have a formal approval chain for rush orders once. That cost us when an unauthorized rush fee showed up on the invoice. Even after choosing a vendor based on a good sample, I kept second-guessing until their first delivery arrived correct. The anxiety does not stop if you do not know how the vendor handles billing.

So I now check every new vendor for proper invoice format, accepted payment methods, PO numbering requirements, and the dead-on-arrival process. If they cannot produce an invoice with a PO number, I do not care how good the printer is.

Step 7: If someone mentions 3D printing, start with the CAD

Additive manufacturing is no longer a niche request. In our office, we have looked at 3D printers for custom jigs, spacers, and replacement parts. The first question I ask is not 'Which 3D printer?' It is 'What does your 3D printer CAD workflow look like?'

A 3D printer without a CAD workflow is an expensive paperweight. If you already have an engineer or a design firm creating files, you can talk about build volume. If not, budget for training or outsourcing before you buy equipment.

The same goes for resin printing. People search for the 'largest resin 3D printer' as if bigger is better. Larger build volume means more resin, more post-processing, more cleaning, and more waste. For most office projects, a medium-format resin printer is enough. The bottleneck is usually the CAD model and the post-cure station, not the build plate.

Step 8: Follow up at 90 days

The purchase is not done when it's delivered. After 90 days, compare the actual page count, paper waste, and consumable spend with your estimate. If you are off by a lot, adjust the process or the machine.

I created a 12-point checklist after my third ordering mistake. It has saved me an estimated $8,000 in potential rework. That is not an exaggeration. Most of it comes from catching quantity errors and incompatible media before they ship.

Five minutes of verification beats five days of correction. Every time.

Common mistakes to avoid

If you only read one section, read this.

Do not buy a huge machine because 'we might need it someday.' The largest resin 3D printer sounds great in a presentation. It is less great when you are storing gallons of resin and explaining why the ventilation system is not enough.

Do not assume Deskjet is the answer just because the name is familiar. Yes, Deskjet is an inkjet printer. But 'inkjet' does not tell you whether the printhead is built into the cartridge, what the page yield is, or whether the software stack works with your systems.

Do not order supplies without checking the media number. I once ordered compatible label rolls for a thermal printer and got the wrong core size. The supplier accepted the return, but the shipping cost ate any savings. That was a process gap, not a product problem.

And do not skip the AP setup. The vendor who can't issue a proper invoice will not make your life easier, even if their quote is 30% lower.

Final thought

I do not have a perfect track record. In 2022, I had two hours to choose a vendor for a rush order. Normally I would get multiple quotes, but there was no time. I went with a vendor based on a sample and a phone call. The order arrived on time and correct, but I still remember the stress of telling finance I had skipped my own process. In hindsight, I should have pushed back on the timeline.

Printing is probably not the most exciting part of an admin buyer's job, but it is one of the easiest places to waste money if you skip the boring work. The checklist is cheap insurance. Use it.