Inkjet Vs Laser Printer
by: John Sollars
In the early days there was a vast difference between
an inkjet printer and its laser version but with time the difference has narrowed down to point where it is sometimes difficult
to differentiate between the two. Most individuals continue to use the
Inkjet printers, as they are less expensive and nearly all of them
are colour capable. The quality of the inkjet printers has improved over
time and now there is not a huge difference in printing quality with the
Laser printers. It’s for this reason that small or home business can use
an inkjet printer without having to worry about documents looking
unclear or looking cheap.
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The laser printer is capable of printing much faster
and usually produces better quality image, it is far more expensive as
compared to the Inkjet version. Laser printers are usually used for
black printing but there are colour laser printers available now.
Having pointed that out, it is also useful to note
that the general
rule of the thumb for printers is ‘the lesser the cost of the printer,
the more expensive the running cost”. This could however depend on the
volume of printing the printer is being used for. If the printing volume
were minimal, it would be more cost effective to use an inkjet printer.
It is very easy to get carried away by the initial price of an inkjet
printer but people buying them are often not aware that the running cost
of the machine would play a huge part and should be factored into the
decision making.
This would be better understood with an
example. Let us consider a Canon
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i320 colour bubble jet printer. It usually does not
cost more than £30 obviously subject to the discounts applicable at your
store. The cost of a cartridge is usually in the £10 range and on an
average it prints 170 pages. Even if you print as few as 7 pages a day
that works out to 2100 pages over the year. This in turn works out to an
annual expense of approximately £135. The amount one spends on
cartridges is approximately 4 times the price of the printer in the
first year itself. This is the reason the subsequent expenditure needs
to be taken into consideration while buying a printer.
Inkjet printers come with some added problems that
need to be looked at and taken into consideration.
1. To begin with they are not as fast as the Laser
printers. This is one reason why Inkjet printers are not recommended
when printing needs to be done in large volumes.
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2. They are known to throw up cartridge error messages
even though the cartridges might be working just fine. This is not to
say that Inkjet printers are always problematic but these are just a few
errors that do crop up once in a while.
3. The print can also start going haywire sometimes
and it may start printing in endless loops.
4. It is often difficult to minimize and regulate the
amount of ink being used in the Inkjet printers.
5. There is a difference in quality of an Inkjet print
and a laser print. Often the laser print is of better quality.
It is for these reasons that the laser printers sales
have taken of in a very big way in spite of being a more expensive buy.
However, in comparison to the laser printers, there
are a few positives about the inkjet printers, which are more suitable
to the requirements of a small or home business where they do not need
to print as many in terms of volumes.
Colour laser printers have been around for some time
but they were frightfully expensive a few years ago. A recent study
found that last year nearly 1.85 million colour laser printers were
sold, a substantial growth from the previous year. A large number of
offices are going in for the colour page printers. This is however not
recommended if you do not need to print fliers or brochures in large
volumes consistently.
There are a few other advantages that come with a
laser printer, for example:
1. Using a duplex unit: This would enable the user to
print back to back. This is particularly useful for creating brochures
and leaflets.
2. Add a paper drawer: This would reduce the number of
user interventions and in turn reduces the printer errors
3. Assigning different paper trays for different
drafts can be used to print different documents without messing about
with the tray each time.
4. An Ethernet or a wireless network card can be added
to the printer to attach it to a network. This functionality can be
availed in the laser printer.
This is just to outline the benefits of using each
kind of a printer. This is aimed at helping the user to weigh the pros
and the cons before buying a printer.
About The Author
John Sollars is the managing director of Solar
Electronics, which are both ink and pc peripheral suppliers based in
Shropshire, UK. To access a comprehensive online shop of original
and re-manufactured printer inks please visit
http://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk |
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