Laser Printers Vs Inkjet Printers – A No Nonsense Guide

It can be hard choosing a new printer. There are so many available in the stores or online that working out which type of printer is going to be right for your office is daunting. There are lots of issues to consider, including cost and print quality, so you will need to sit down and make a list of what features you need the most in a printer.

Royalty free photo

Inkjet printers and laser printers are very different. They both perform the same task – that is they print – but they function differently and are suited to different printing tasks. In order to make an informed choice between a laser printer and an inkjet printer you need to understand exactly how these differences will impact on your business (if applicable) or usage at home.

There will be variances between different makes and models of printer, but in general, an inkjet printer is good for printing out photos and less good for text documents. Laser printers are normally used primarily for printing out text documents. They are much faster than an inkjet printer.

Reasons to Buy an Inkjet Printer

Inkjet printers are ideal if you need to print out excellent quality photographic images. With an inkjet printer you can enjoy high resolution imagery, so if your main goal is to have a printer than can produce good quality graphics, an inkjet printer is the one for you.

Reasons to Buy a Laser Printer

Laser printers are popular in an office environment because they are much faster than an inkjet printer. Printing from a laser printer gives you crisp text, which is ideal if you predominantly print black and white text documents. Laser printers are also cheaper per page to run. Small desktop laser printers tend to be black and white only. It is possible to buy color laser printers, but they are a lot more expensive to buy.

Cost of Ownership

Now that we have established what an inkjet and laser printer can and cannot do, it is time to think about the cost of ownership of each type of printer.

Inkjet printers are cheap to buy and are therefore well within the budget of most people. However, the reason inkjet printers are so cheap to purchase is because the manufacturers make their money in replacement consumables, specifically ink cartridges. The printer might be cheap to buy, but the ink cartridges are expensive unless you buy them from discount websites such as usaprinterguy.com. Because inkjet cartridges don’t last very long, the cost of ownership will rise quite steeply once you start using the device regularly.

Laser printers are more expensive to buy at the outset. However, laser printer toner cartridges last significantly longer than inkjet cartridges, so in the long term, they are more cost effective.

Other Points to Think About

Inkjet printers need to be used often or the ink jets inside the printer dry up. If this happens, the print quality will be adversely affected and you will probably need to replace the printer. However, if you need to print color, a laser printer is only cost effective if your print output is high, so do bear this in mind before you splash out.