What are the Differences between Laser Printer and Inkjet Printer?

The differences between a laser printer and an inkjet printer are really based upon how you plan on using the printer. Unless you are planning to do quite a bit of quality color photo printing both the inkjet printer and the laser printer will work fine. There are, however, a few thoughts to consider as you go about making your decision on what your printing needs really are.

How quickly do you need it?

Pages per minute are one of the leading sales tools of the printer manufacturers. If you need a large print job now a laser printer is likely the printer for you. The laser printer needs a minute to warm up for the first page but once it does get warmed up it can crank out the pages quickly. Then again, think about how quickly you need the print job in a smaller document setting, say several times in a half hour. Do you want to wait that minute three times a half hour, with a client standing at the reception desk? Perhaps the quality can take half a step down in favor of moving that person along.

Spend now or later

Whether it is HP, Cannon, Epson or Samsung printers you can often get an inkjet printer for a song up front. You will, of course, pay as you go in ink costs. If you don’t print that much who cares, an inkjet will do. If you print a bunch then possibly a laser is a better long term buy. The benefit here is that you also get better monochrome printing capabilities. Generally, if you’re talking monochrome printing you’ll find a $0.02 cost per page for a laser printer and $0.15 for an inkjet printer. The difference is that you pay the cost differential upfront with the laser and as you go with the inkjet.

Color

The discussion above was primarily directed at monochrome printing decisions. What if color comes into the equation? Lasers will give nice crisp images but what about their color truthfulness. When it comes to printing pictures inkjets are really the way to go. Laser devotees can chime in all they want but inkjet printers just get the job done better with their individual mixing tanks.

They are also more convenient as you are replacing individual cartridges as you go and not one size fits all. If cyan runs out all you need to do is replace cyan and not the entire cartridge. When it come right down to it, if you want it all buy both and a network card.

James Kara Murat from PrintCountry.com, the contributor of Printer Ink Related FAQ. A longer version is located at What are the Differences between Laser Printer and Inkjet Printer?, and related resources can be found at Samsung ML 2010 Printer Toner Cartridges.