Ink jets, ink jets, ink jets. That's all that most people talk about these days. When it comes to printing out great photos from digital sources, inkjets can't be beat. Inkjet printers also bundle more features into a small space if you opt for an all-in-one with a built-in fax and scanner, and they're cheaper to buy and own, at least on first glance.
Laser printers, by contrast, look like technological dinosaurs. They're big, bulky, more expensive to buy and seemingly more expensive to run. Shouldn't the ink jet have killed laser off by now? The truth is, laser still beats ink jet technology by a big margin in some areas, including cost of ownership.
High Definition Text
If you're looking for vivid, sharp photos, ink jet is the technonolgy to choose. Because ink jets spread tiny bubbles of ink across the page, the basic colors can be mixed to create any color imaginable.
If you're printing text, however, those tiny bubbles are your enemy. Some inkjets struggle with text, and none can match the crispness of a laser printer. Laser printers became popular during a time when text documents were the most common prints. Because of this, they were built to deliver high-resolution text that looks as good as the text from a printing press. If your inkjet letters and writing projects are causing eyestrain for readers, a laser printer will solve the problem.
Speed
Laser is faster than ink jets for high-volume printing. The Canon I-9900, one of the fastest ink jet printers available, can produce an 8 1/2 x 11 print in about a minute. Color laser printers can produce 15 full-color prints in the same amount of time.
The color is likely to be better on an inkjet print, because laser printers place full layers of color on the page one at a time, using transparency rather than blended ink to create different shades. This can be a real issue with photos, but it's seldom a concern for logos and line art that doesn't use a lot of different colors. For business presentations, reports and some graphic design work, the high-volume speed of laser is a major advantage over inkjet.
Ownership Cost
In recent years, the price of laser printers, including color laser printers, has been declining. Good quality color laser printers can now be found for around $200, making them competitive with mid-range inkjet printers.
The savings really start to add up when you consider the cost of printing individual pages. Many inkjet printers include print heads in their cartridges, making them expensive to replace. Laser cartridges only contain toner, and laser toner goes a lot further than the ink used by ink jets. The average ink jet printer can produce 150 to 200 pages per cartridge, compared with outputs of 5,000 pages for laser printers. That translates into a per-page cost of as little as 2 cents for laser printers and 10 cents for ink jets. You'll pay more for replacement laser cartridges than you will for replacement ink jet cartridges, but you'll get a lot more pages out of every laser cartridge.
Unless you need high-quality photo prints, laser printers are worth a second look. When it comes to speed, text quality and ownership cost, laser still has a significant edge.
 | While laser printers create an image and throw powdered ink (toner) to paper that passes over an electrically charged drum, an inkjet printer sprays tiny dots of ink onto the page to create the image. A laser printer is standard equipment in offices around the world. |
 | With all the different types of print technology available, the decision of whether to get an all-in-one color laser printer or some other type of printer could be tough. While inkjet printers are losing ground to all-in-one color laser printers in some respects, they're still a better choice for some applications. |
 | If you're like most people, you follow the instructions to change laser printer toner when it's necessary and then forget about it. However, you might be missing out on opportunities to extend the life of your laser printer toner, and you may not be disposing of it properly. |
When laser printers first came on the market, they were ridiculously expensive and those who just had to have the latest in technology paid the price. However, now that so much time has elapsed since their debut, the prices have come down to nearly affordable. |
By far the most annoying peripheral for a computer has to be the printer. It either jams, runs out of ink or just plain acts funny. You have finally gotten to the point where you have to break down and buy a printer, but the technology changes every six months and you just can't keep up. |
