How will you solve this riddle and decide on a printer? Today we have thrown the two types of printers into the frying pan so we can help you decide which to pick.
Way of Working
The two printers have different ways of working and different mechanisms. Let’s start off with inkjet printers; they rely on ink cartridges that can print in monochrome and in color.
These cartridges use fast-drying liquid ink that gets dropped onto the paper. Some printers come with 3, or 4, or 5 ink cartridges, which is known as the CMYK system.
Moving on to laser printers, they use powder toner instead of ink cartridges. The toners are dropped onto the paper and melted using heat, so they are able to stick to the paper.
Workload
An inkjet printer is perfect for light use, for instance, a student who will only print a document once or twice every week. Furthermore, when working with an inkjet printer, you have the capability of printing in both white/black and color.
Laser printers are more oriented towards heavy use. For instance, they’re more used in mega-companies and offices.
Duty Cycle
The maximum duty cycle of a printer is the number of papers it can print within a month before requiring maintenance. The difference in numbers between the two printers is vast, and it shows that inkjet printers are suitable for home use while laser printers are more suitable for mega-companies.
Inkjet printers can print somewhere between 20,000-30,000 papers per month, while laser printers can print 80,000-90,000 papers per month.
Price
When it comes to printers, you need to think very carefully about their price. Because not only will you be paying for the printer itself, but there will also be money paid for cartridges and maintenance. Therefore, you must think this through very carefully.
Inkjet printers are cheaper when compared with laser printers. However, you’ll have to change the cartridges as soon as they dry out, and that could be costly. Even though there are other options like remanufactured or OEM cartridges that are a bit cheaper than the original cartridges, they are still expensive.
On the other end of spectrum, laser printers are much more expensive than inkjet ones; however, their toners last for a much longer time than the cartridges of an inkjet printer. Therefore their total cost decreases by a few levels.
Final Thoughts
We’ve concluded our debate. We hope that you can now see things more clearly and can come to a better and well-informed decision. When it comes to inkjet vs. laser printers, you need to know how each one works, their duty cycle, workload, and your planned budget.
