A printer is a pretty big investment that you expect to steadily work for years, which is why you want to find the best printer there is. The most important choice you need to make is between a laser printer and an inkjet printer. Find out which is better for home: inkjet or laser printer.
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1. Pros and cons of inkjet printers
If you have over a decade of computer experience, you probably remember inkjet printers being everywhere. They are a pretty good choice for a home printer, but they have their drawbacks too.
1. Pros
- Cost. Inkjet printers are the most affordable option when you’re shopping on a budget. You can buy a new inkjet printer with a scanner and copying machine for under $200. If you need to buy printers for an office, you can buy several inkjet devices for the price of a single laser printer.
- Print quality. Unless you work in a field where printed images should be as bright and crisp as possible, you’re going to be happy with the print quality produced by an inkjet printer. Plus, inkjet are much better at printing photos than laser devices.
- Startup time. Inkjet printers don’t require any time to warm up, unlike laser printers. It means that you can start printing on an inkjet device immediately after turning it on.
- Size. A major difference between inkjet and laser printer is the size of an inject device, which makes it a particularly good choice for a typical home, where space can be limited.
2. Cons
- Print permanence. The most common type of ink used in inkjet printers does not have very good print permanence: it can get bleaker with time, and papers printed with the help of inkjet technology should not be exposed to water.
- Durability. If you’re planning to heavily use your inkjet printer, keep in mind that it can only print between 10,000 and 25,000 pages a month, which may be enough for home use, but not so much for business needs.
- Cost per page. Only the cheapest black-and-white inkjet printers are cheap to run; other, more advanced types of inkjet printers will eat up a lot of your budget on ink refills and new cartridges.
2. Pros and cons of laser printer
To know which is best, inkjet or laser printer, take into account these positive and negative sides of laser printers.
1. Pros
- Print speed. No matter how advanced inkjet printers may get, laser printers are still unbeatable when it comes to printing large volumes of documents in limited time.
- Print cost. Laser printers and laser toner cartridges may have a higher price upfront than their inkjet counterparts, but the cost of printing a single page using a laser printer are still considerably lower.
- Flawless graphics. If your printing needs depend on the sharp quality of graphics, there is nothing better for you than a modern laser printer.
2. Cons
- Toner leaks. There is always a risk of the laser toner cartridge leaking or spilling, and you can only imagine what kind of nightmare it is for cleaning up and surrounding objects.
- Photo printing. Laser printers can handle many difficult challenges, but printing colourful and sharp photographs isn’t one of them – if you often need to print photos, you’ll be better off with an inkjet device.
- Size. Laser printers are famously bulky, and while some laser models are getting slimmer, they are still too expensive for an average buyer.
- Paper types. Unlike inkjet printers, which can print on most types of paper and even certain kinds of fabrics, laser printers perform well only with standard paper that is not sensitive to heat.
3. Conclusion
Making a choice between an inkjet printer and a laser printer is not easy, but it needs to be done. We believe that an inkjet printer is a better choice for home use: it’s cheaper, it can work with all kinds of paper, it can print beautiful photos, and even though it can’t reach the print speed of a laser printer, high print speed is rarely needed at home.
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