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Home Printers

Inkjet Printer

When looking for a new printer for your home, there are two options you need to consider first - Should you opt for a laser or an inkjet printer? Each type of printer matches different uses such as whether you are going to print photos or not, and how much printing you think you'll do. This Choozza helps you select the best printer type for your needs.

Laser Printer

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Cost

Extras

Paper Variety

Photo Printing

Size and Weight

Text Printing

Volume Printing

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Comparison Details

Last updated by Nimo, on 21/7/09

	Inkjet Printer Inkjet printers work by shooting tiny droplets of ink onto the printing paper. The ink is stored in removable and usually disposable ink cartridges. Color inkjet printers will normally have four such cartridges - one for black ink and three others of different colors. Cartridges are usually replaced and can sometimes be refilled.	Laser Printer Laser printers usea a laser beam to process the images they print. The laser printer uses toner - which is a dry powder placed on the paper using electric charges. The toner is encased in a disposable cartridge which is replaced when required.
Cost: Your printing expenses are not over when purchasing a printer. There is still printing paper and ink or toner to buy. The more you print - the more this becomes important, as the ongoing print expenses influence the cost much more than the initial purchase price.	Initially, inkjet printers are quite cheap. It's the ink cartridges that cost the bulk of money (and this is usually how the manufacturers make their earnings). The cost of running an inkjet printer over time is far more expensive than a laser printer. As your printing volumes build up, so do your expenses, and ink cartridges are more expensive then toner for the same amount of prints. Third party ink suppliers are almost always cheaper than getting ink from the original manufacturer. So you probably want to ensure you have this option if you're going for an inkjet. The general rule of thumb is that the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the disposable costs for the cartridges.	While more expensive upfront, Laser printers are cheaper in the long run. This is more true the more you print. This holds for black and white laser printers, and for when you are mainly going to print text pages. Colour laser printers are significantly more expensive, and depending on your print volumes and what you print, may not be such a good buy.
Extras: Sometimes a printer is just a printer. But what if you want more?	Almost all inkjet printers have memory card readers built in. This is very handy for printing photos directly, without a computer. Inkjets very commonly come in the "all-in-one" variety where you get a scanner and a photocopier as well as a printer. It is less common for home-grade inkjets to have wireless connectivity. This is mainly because inkjets don't normally have memory and must use memory from a computer they are hooked up to. This means that while an inkjet can be shared on a home network, and all computers can print to it, it can not work individually.	Laser printers are usually just printers. While you can find models that have memory-card readers and models that have a scanner and a copier in an "all-in-one" combo, they are not as cheap and widespread as their inkjet counterparts. On the other hands, laser printers always have their own memory, which makes them good candidated for being independant printers. Coupled with wireless networking capabilities, a laser printer can be added to your home network stand-alone - you do not need to hook it up to a computer in order to use it.

Paper Variety: What types of printing will you be able to perform with a printer of this type?	Inkjet printers can normally print on many different paper types. They can do regular A4 papers, but also smaller A5, envelopes, glossy papers for photos, transparencies, etc.	Laser printers for home use usually have only one paper size - A4. This is very handy when all you print are text documents, but less so if you'd like to print your photos on glossy papers, envelopes, party invitations, etc.
Photo Printing: Printing is usually divided into text-only (or text-dominated) printing and photo/graph printing. Each printing flavor needs are different, and printers fulfill them differently. Photo printing requires colors, and usually a specialty paper.	Inkjets excel at photo printing, especially when performed on specialty glossy photo paper. The colors and resolution provided by even simple models may be quite stunning and the top-end home printers can produce photos or graphs at an almost professional level. Most models sold today have slots for camera memory cards and take a variety of paper types, some of which are specific for photo printing. The only downsides are the slowness of printing and the fact that for some models, very few photos may require you to change ink cartridges.	Home grade laser printers use ink for color photos and graphics, and are really not well suited for printing photos. The quality is poor and they can not usually use the special paper types sold for photo printing.
Size and Weight: Different printers have different sizes and weights. The size and weight of the printer determine how easy it is to move from one place to another and what the space requirements for it are.	Most inkjet printers are compact and lightweight. They can be easily moved around the house if required, and do not take up too much space on the desk. Many people store the printer away and take it out to hook up to their computer only when they need it, thereby avoiding clutter in their work area.	Laser printers are generally heavy and rather on the large side. The size and weight are affected by the imaging drum, toner cartridge which is usually larger than the several unk cartridges of the inkjet, and the laser technology encasement. Laser printers are not easy to move about the house, and most people find that they need to set a permanent space for them in their work area. That being said, newer models targetted at home users are getting smaller and smaller.
Text Printing: Printing is usually divided into text-only (or text-dominated) printing and photo/graph printing. Each printing flavor needs are different, and printers fulfill them differently. Text printing requires high precision and the ability to produce clear, well-defined letters.	Most inkjet printers sold for home use today provide good-enough quality for text prints. However, they can't match laser printers in clarity and quality of text and fonts. This is especially true for larger fonts where most inkjets fail to provide flawless letters. Freshly printed pages are a bit wet, and care should be taken to let them dry for a short while so as not to smear the ink.	Laser printers normally boast very high and very accurate print quality. The reason for that is that the laser printers generally have higher print resolution, and can lend more sharpness to the text they print. The fine print in laser printers is really fine.
Volume Printing: How fit is a printer of this type for printing large volumes?	Inkjet printers print relatively slow and are not really designed for high volume printing. Additionally, the ink on the printed paper is still a bit wet when the paper emerges from the printer, and this could mess up large printing volumes. On top of that, the paper feed tray usually holds a smaller amount of pages than the laser printers' trays, meaning you may have to stop and reload paper half-way through a big document. All in all, the occasional hundred pages document is fine, but if you're going to print these amounts a few times a week - you may want to opt for another printer.	Laser Printers print fast and they are excellent at handling those large volumes. The text quality they produce is a lot better than what you get with most inkjets, and the printed papers do not have wet ink on them, and are less susceptible to smears.

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