Need to buy a printer for your home or office, and wondering whether an inkjet printer or a laser printer is better? Wish to know the difference between inkjet and laser printers?
First, do consider your printing needs and priorities, as this will help you to decide which printer is most suitable for you!
What to Consider before Buying a Printer
Here are the top five factors to think about before buying a printer:
#1 Type of Printing
Do you need to print mostly text documents, colourful graphs and charts, or high-quality photographic images?
#2 Size of Printouts
Will you print mostly A4-sized documents, or will you need a printer that can handle a variety of print sizes, e.g. A3 or A2?
Examples of printouts that might require wider formats include educational charts (for schools), banners and posters (for retail, F&B, personal services, and creative agencies), and 3D renderings and layouts (interior design firms).
#3 Type of Printed Media
Will you typically print on standard A4-sized printer paper? Or will you be printing on cardstock (a heavier and sturdier paper), photo paper (usually glossy and coated for high quality images), or some other medium for your hobby or business?
#4 Speed and Volume of Printing
How much printing will you be doing in a day, or a week? The occasional report (low volume) or multiple copies of documents every day (high volume)?
Is there a certain volume of printing that you will require for your office, shop, or home? For higher-volume printing, you will need printers with a greater capacity and durability.
#5 Total Cost of Printing
Apart from the initial cost of purchasing a printer, you should also factor in how often you will need to replace the print cartridges, the printer’s power consumption, the cost of printer paper, scheduled maintenance, as well as wear-and-tear costs.
What is an Inkjet Printer?
An inkjet printer uses ink cartridges—containing liquid ink—to print documents. Here’s how it works:
- An inkjet printer processes a document or image from a device. This may be either a black and white image/text, or colour image/text.
- The inkjet printer is equipped with a printhead that contains small nozzles, which will spray ink droplets onto a sheet of paper when it passes through the printer.
- It takes many ink droplets to form even a single character on paper!
- In many of today’s inkjet printers, printheads are built into the ink cartridges, so you will be replacing both the ink and the printhead each time you change a cartridge.
If you intend to purchase an inkjet printer, do consider these common print cartridge combinations:
- 2 cartridges: a black cartridge and a tri-colour cartridge (with cyan, magenta, and yellow ink)
- 4 or more cartridges: a black cartridge and individual colour cartridges
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What is a Laser Printer?
How are laser printers different from inkjet printers? Do laser printers use ink too?
Although many people talk about ‘changing the ink’ for a laser printer, laser printers don’t actually use ink cartridges for printing. Instead, they use cartridges with a dry powder-like substance known as ‘toner.’
Here’s how a laser printer works:
- A laser printer processes a document or image from a device.
- The laser printer then uses an electrical charge to attract toner particles to a transfer roller.
- Toner particles are pressed onto a sheet of paper.
- A fuser unit—known as the ‘drum unit’—uses heat and pressure to help the toner particles ‘stick’ to the paper.
- In many of today’s laser printers, drum units are built into toner cartridges, so you will be replacing both the ink and the drum unit each time you change a cartridge.
Laser printers are normally used by larger organisations with high-volume printing needs.
If you only need black-and-white printing, you can purchase a monochrome laser printer, which uses black toner cartridges. However, if you need to print in colour, you will then need a colour laser printer, which uses four toner cartridges for printing—black, cyan, magenta, and yellow.
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Inkjet Vs. Laser: Which Printer to Buy?
Still not sure which printer is most appropriate for your needs? Below, we’ve listed some of the key differences that you should know about inkjet vs laser printers:
| Comparison Factors | Inkjet Printers | Laser Printers |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Inkjet printers are cheaper to purchase, but inkjet cartridges can be expensive to replace. | Laser printers and toner cartridges cost more upfront, but toner cartridges can be used to print thousands of pages, so the overall cost-per-page is lower. |
| Media | Inkjet printers can print on any paper type, including glossy paper. | Laser printers can’t print on paper or media that is sensitive to heat. |
| Image Quality | Photo inkjet printers are designed to produce detailed photos, with the colour accuracy and tonal depth that photographers and creative professionals need. | Photo inkjet printers are designed to produce detailed photos, with the colour accuracy and tonal depth that photographers and creative professionals need. |
| Text Quality | Inkjet prints may bleed or smudge, and while the print quality is acceptable, the individual letters won’t be very sharp in their detail on closer inspection. | Laser printers are best suited to printing text documents—they produce crisp and clear letterforms, superior to inkjet prints. |
| Speed | Inkjet printers can print about 16 pages/minute. | Laser printers can print 15 to 100 pages/minute. |
Need expert advice on which printer to get for your home or office? Contact our RAM-E team and we will be happy to assist you!