When it comes to choosing a printer, the first question that comes to your mind is – should I buy an inkjet printer or a laser printer? Every printer comes with different technologies and serves different purposes. So, when buying a printer for your home or office, knowing the basics and making a comparison of inkjet vs laser printers are essential in order to select the best one.
In this article, we will tell you some basic differences between laser printers and inkjet printers and what kind of printer you need at home. Moreover, you will know how printer type affects print quality, speed, and cost of it. Hopefully, you will make your decision about what kind of printer you need just after reading this article. Let’s get started!
Laser Printer Vs Inkjet Printer
The basic difference between a laser and an inkjet printer is that the inkjet printer works with inks to print documents whereas a laser printer works with toner and uses laser technology to print something. However, due to their different functionality, they offer different print quality, speed, page yield, etc.
The inkjet printers produce high-quality results as well as good for printing graphics. They are considered perfect for homes, schools, and small offices to print documents. On the other hand, laser printers are bigger in size and allow faster print speed than inkjet printers. They are used in large organizations where print speed and volume are the main concerns. Moreover, they come with advanced security features.
How Does An Inkjet Printer Work?
As we have mentioned before, inkjet printers use ink for printing. The small nozzles on them aim to spread droplets on the sheet of paper. For that, the heat is passed through the nozzle by electricity and it turns them into bubbles. And further, they are squirted on the paper. In this way, they make characters and words. The inkjet printers are best if you want to produce colored and high-resolution images and documents.
How Does A Laser Printer Work?
Unlike inkjet printers, they work under laser technology and use toner powder to print documents and images.
The laser technology aims to produce electrostatically charged dots on a photoreceptor drum which helps to attract toner powder. Inside the laser printer, the drum revolves continuously carrying a positive electric charge. The laser beams reflected by the mirror fall on the drum and ultimately, images are drawn on it.
However, when the beams fall, they turn a positive charge into a negative charge. Further, after releasing the positively charged toner onto the drum, it is only attracted by the negatively charged parts on the drum. Then a paper rolls through it heating with a negative charge and the positively charged toner sticks onto it. This way, images, and text are printed onto the paper.
Laser printers are very good at producing color prints with more speed and volume. So if you need to use a printer excessively then laser technology will be the best choice.
Choosing The Right Printer For You: Basic Considerations
Do I print often or less? Are quality and cost my concerns? These are some questions you must ask yourself before choosing between inkjet vs laser. Therefore, take into account the following considerations when you intend to buy a printer for yourself.
1. Print Quality
If print quality or high resolution is your concern, you should need an inkjet printer. It will definitely meet your expectations and produce high-resolution images and documents. And, when it comes to printing in black and white, you will get the most out of it. However, if you expect sharp print results and want to see everything colorful, then laser printers are likely more reliable. Moreover, they also offer borderless printing.
2. Color Printing
If you want to see your documents in colors, you should think about both types of printers because both produce vivid colored images and documents. But the important thing is, if you want to print only in black and white, then a laser printer is the best choice.
3. Print Speed
There is no doubt, laser printers are extremely faster than inkjet printers. Sometimes, you need to finish your printing work earlier but the inkjet printers do work not at your required speed. In that case, laser printers come forward and help to finish your time-taking printing jobs in no seconds. That’s how you can handle these printing challenges easily.
4. Print Volume
If you want to use the printer at home, it is okay – the high print volume is not your problem. On the other hand, if you run a large organization or share the place with larger workgroups, you may need to print the documents and images in bulk. In this situation, you should buy a laser printer because it prints high-volume documents and serves the purpose perfectly.
5. Page Yield
Do you know what page yield is? This means how many papers a printer can print before replacing its ink or toner cartridge. So if you print many times in a day, you must consider this factor before buying a printer. In that case, both printer types are perfect and come with high-yield cartridges. Ink cartridges have the capacity to print 135-1000 pages and on the other side, toner cartridge allows printing between 2000 to 10000 pages. Along with saving you time, this will reduce ink costs. Although if you need a printer for home use, then buying an inkjet printer will be the right decision.
6. Cost
Cost is also an important factor when it comes to buying inkjet vs laser printers. Firstly, the initial cost of buying a printer affects your budget a lot because laser printers are far more expensive than inkjets. When it comes to replacing cartridges, toner cartridges are less expensive than ink cartridges.
Because ink cartridges get empty soon and need to be replaced frequently. For example, the initial cost of an inkjet Canon PGI-280XL is around $28 with 7 cents cost per page and the initial price of a laser HP 80X is around $200 with 3 cents cost per page. Hence, ink cartridges reduce initial costs and save a lot of money. But in terms of the use of toner or ink, laser printers are more cost-effective.
Conclusion
So selecting inkjet vs laser printers, the right one is that which fulfills your printing needs efficiently. If your purpose is to buy a printer that reduces costs and enhances print quality, then there is no better choice than inkjet printers. On the other hand, if you need to print documents and images in bulk with faster speed then you should go for laser printers. Staying informed about the replacement of cartridges will also let you buy cost-effective printers. Moreover, it would help if you also considered other factors such as page yield, printer technology, printer brand, etc.
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