Choosing a new printer for home or work
If you’re buying a printer, either for work or for home, one of the choices you’re likely to be faced with is whether to get an inkjet printer or a laser printer. Inkjet printers use liquid ink sprayed through microscopic nozzles onto the paper, and laser printers use a toner cartridge (filled with fine powder) and a heated fuser. Each technology has its own strengths and weaknesses. The two types use different approaches and each is appropriate for meeting different printing needs.
Initial costs
Surprisingly enough, you can purchase a basic laser or inkjet printer for almost the same price. If you’re looking for a budget multifunction printer — which will include the ability to photocopy and scan images as well as print — there’s not much difference in price between inkjets and lasers. One distinct difference between these two types, however, is that only the budget inkjet printers can print colour pages — budget laser printers are only capable of producing black-and-white documents.
The cheapest printers will generally come with ‘starter’ cartridges, which don’t have a full charge of ink or toner. This means you’ll need to refill them after fewer prints. The other consideration is the budget printer will often not take the higher yield cartridges so you will be changing them sooner and paying a high cost to print.
Ongoing costs
As you continue to use your new printer over a period of time, you’ll need to keep it supplied with appropriate consumables like paper and ink or toner. The ongoing running costs of printers are generally quoted in cents per A4 page. You can calculate this by dividing the number of pages an ink or toner cartridge can produce (this figure is provided by the manufacturer) by the price of the cartridge. Remember the quoted page count is based on the industry standard of 5% coverage per page. This doesn’t include the cost of paper though (but this won’t change depending on the type of printers).
Larger laser printers have additional ongoing costs when compared to inkjet printers as they often require an additional fuser cartridge or the replacement of parts with a maintenance kit.
Print speed and text print quality
When it comes to printing black and white text pages, laser printing used to be unbeatable. Even in low-end cheaper monochrome laser models you can expect print speeds of up to 20 pages per minute. However with recent changes in inkjet technology the manufacturers are producing business focused inkjet printers that are matching the performance of laser printers.
Colour printing and colour print quality
If you want to print colour — whether it’s a full-page colour photograph or simply a pie chart — you’ll almost certainly be better off with an inkjet printer.
Colour laser printers are often bulky and quite expensive and generally aren’t suited to home or small office use however they come into their own in a larger office environment.
Even when comparing a colour laser printer to a colour inkjet, the inkjet is likely to produce better colour images. Inkjet printers are able to reproduce subtle colour gradation in images where laser printers will display banding (distinct changes in colour saturation).
Size
Size is an important consideration for some users. If you’re looking for something to fit into a small space on or underneath your desk, it’s hard to go past an inkjet printer. However, if you don’t need scanning or copying a single-function laser printer may be small enough to suit your needs.
Conclusion
If you’re buying based on price the choice between a laser printer and an inkjet was simple but with new advances in inkjet technology the lines are blurred. If you can afford to pay a little more upfront and if you’ll only be printing black text documents, a laser printer is a convenient solution. Inkjet printers are far more versatile, which is important for home use, and if you choose well you’ll pay no more in ongoing running costs.
Choose carefully and if in doubt ring our friendly Ink Post team on 1300 793 593 for advice on printer consumable costs before you make that purchase!