Printer manufacturers sell proprietary cartridges to coax you into buying more of their products. Inkjet printers, meanwhile, use ink as the name suggests. Laser printers use toner, a powdered substance that comes in a cartridge. Your ink choice depends on the kind of printer you buy. They also don't have ink heads which means they can sit idle for longer periods without clogging issues.ĥ surprising items that are cheaper than printer ink Laser printers can't match the quality of a good inkjet model, but they typically use less ink when printing and cleaning.
They also use less energy than laser printers, costing about $2 a year to run compared to $30 for a laser. While inkjet models used to print at a slower rate than lasers, speeds have improved over time. This can drive up the cost, but a number of manufacturers sell models with refillable tanks that can significantly decrease running expenses. Though the cost of ink itself may not be higher, there are more cartridges to replace and more left over when the printer finally expires. Others have not only the standard black, cyan, magenta and yellow, but also "photo black", "photo cyan", "photo magenta", "light cyan", "light magenta" or "grey". Some, especially the cheaper ones, bundle the colours together, so you're forced to buy a new cartridge when one of the colours runs out. Inkjets also have a wider range of ink cartridges. In fact, some models use a lot of ink during the cleaning process. They work best when used regularly, to minimise head-cleaning cycles and avoid problems such as clogged heads when left unused. Inkjets can print on heavier speciality papers such as gloss photo paper to produce lifelike photo-glossy prints suitable for framing, or directly onto printable CD/DVD blanks. However, the introduction of printers from HP, Epson and Canon with refillable tanks deliver some affordable options for those with high print volume needs. They're ideal for everything from documents to photos but ink costs can be an issue for some models. Inkjet printers can produce sharp, vibrant, top-quality prints across a range of paper types. The best way to find the most suitable printer for your needs is to check our test results. Today, you have a range of inkjet and laser options to suit your budget and text/image quality demands. Many models are just as fast as one another and both types can handle bulk printing with ease. Though ink costs for the most part remain high when using standard cartridges for separate colours, they've become much more efficient and affordable particularly if you use one of the refillable tank (aka CISS) systems. The trade-off was lower quality photo prints so they've always been the preferred alternative for businesses where text and graphic quality weren't as important.īut times change. Laser printers, meanwhile, were the more functional, affordable option designed for pumping out pages and pages of documents on the cheap. Inkjets delivered top-quality prints with vibrant colours across a range of paper types (including photo), but the ink costs were high and they required regular maintenance. There was a time when you could make a clear distinction between inkjet and laser. What's the difference between inkjet and laser printers?
Multifunction printers (left) have additional features compared to standard models (right) but they're typically more expensive. Having a separate scanner means one less point of failure for your printer, but you'll need the computer to be switched on to use it, and it may not be as simple to make copies. If you need to scan or copy documents from time to time, consider a separate scanner as they cost around $150.
These are an all-in-one device better suited for home offices, as they let you print, scan, copy and even fax if you're living in 1995. Standard, which is just a printer, and multifunction (or MFP). You'll find two types of printers for sale. Mono mode, if available, may be able to be used indefinitely to save on colour ink usage if the colour cartridges are not empty. However, this may be allowed only for a limited time, as printing without ink can suck air and grit into the empty cartridge and risk damaging the print heads. Inkjet models may also allow you to temporarily print using black-only (mono) mode even when a colour cartridge is empty.
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Check with your printer's instruction manual first, as the function varies from brand to brand and model to model. Laser printers with a dedicated "mono mode" will usually allow you to continue to print until black toner runs out. This is because many colour printers mix in a little colour ink/toner even to print black text (which makes the black look 'richer'). Most colour printers will stop working when one of the ink/toner cartridges runs out, even if you just want to print with black only (sometimes called 'mono' mode).
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