Which ink or laser printer should you choose? complete guide

We know that choosing an ink or laser printer is not easy. Therefore, here is our guide to dispel your doubts. Ready?

Over time, printers have evolved and improved their features, becoming multifunctional tools. This has made it difficult to go for an ink or laser printer because the price of ink printers has dropped to very competitive levels, which raises many questions.

Next, we explain how both work and we face them so that you can draw your conclusions.

Index of contents

Ink printer

This type of printer is focused on home use and they are the most abundant among consumers because they have a low purchase price, print at high quality and do not require high maintenance.

The ink printer works with replaceable ink cartridges, there are black ink cartridges and color cartridges. Depending on the model, we will have to buy cyan, magenta and yellow cartridges to be able to print in color; on the other hand, there are printers with multicolored cartridges, only needing one.

Obviously, it is possible to find normal inkjet printers, but the purchase of a multifunction inkjet printer is more frequent because it is a more versatile tool since it includes a scanner or photocopier.

How does it work?

The printer incorporates some heads and, in turn, these have some nozzles, which are the ones that throw the ink. The head moves horizontally on the sheet with the help of two motors: one to move from side to side and the other to move from top to bottom.

In this way, the printer moves the paper, instead of the head, as if it were a car wash. This entire process is done at a fairly good speed that is measured by PPM (Pages Per Minute). Printing in color typically takes longer to print because more precision and different ink cartridges are required.

On the other hand, the quality can be measured by PPP (Points Per Inch) and comes to express at what maximum resolution the printer can work. Both PPM and PPP are quantities that are used in the ink or laser printer to determine its printing speed, as well as its quality.

Laser printer

The laser printer is a more complex product and is focused for the business or professional world. We find them in any stationery or office because their printing speed is much higher, like the quality of it. On the other hand, its acquisition cost is high.

We can find monochrome or color laser printers, whose difference lies in being able to print in color or not. This type of printer works with toner, a kind of powder ink or dry ink that is printed on the paper by xerography. In most cases, monochrome ones are more expensive than colored ones, which require 4 CYMK toners.

It has always been said that toner is cheaper than ink cartridges because it consumes less and its purchase price is lower compared to the yield we get. It is true that, in most HP or Epson printers, the cartridges are small and we cannot print large runs without running out of ink.

How does it work?

The operation of laser printers is complex because elements or parts of the printer are involved that are not easy to explain or define.

In this case, the printer operates with a cylinder that is electrically charged and regulated with a grid called a charge crown. The cylinder will rotate at a speed similar to that of a laser beam and a motor will control its direction. This laser beam will make small discharges of parts of the cylinder, forming an electrostatic image of the document that we are going to print.

The cylinder is then dipped in a positively charged fine powder (toner), which is then repelled to form an image on the drum. This image is transferred to the paper through a negative charge produced by the transfer crown. Finally, the toner is attached to the paper using two rollers: one generates heat and the other presses the sheet to print.

Therefore, whenever we collect the printed sheet it is hot.

Ink or laser printer?

We dive right into the big question in the entry "Which printer is better?" Or "What printer do I buy?"

Below, we will analyze the most important aspects when buying a printer.

Acquisition cost

The first thing that a person values ​​when buying a peripheral is its price. Here we are going to find the first dilemma because inkjet printers are much cheaper than laser printers. Not to mention that color laser printers are even more expensive.

Here we have to focus on two things: what you are looking for and the cost of maintenance. As with cars, ink printers may be more accessible, but we can pay more over time.

Considering monochromatic laser printers come at a fabulous price, multi-function color laser printers soar beyond € 150, which is more than € 100 difference.

In short, if you are looking for a printer that is BBB (Good, Beautiful and Cheap), maybe the one with multifunction ink is the chosen one. On the other hand, if you only need to print in black, the laser may be your option.

Print quality

This section will vary depending on the models of the ink printers, since there are some better than others. That said, color printing by inkjet models is better than that provided by laser printers.

The reason for this is that the liquid in the ink allows an image to be reproduced more faithfully. If we are looking to print photos, laser printers are not our product because, although they do it well, a specific printer is required for printing photos.

However, laser printers dominate the print quality of documents or texts. Ink printers do this very well, but they cannot provide the same quality, shape, or strength of letter shapes that lasers achieve.

Printing cost

Every time we print we are spending money, even if we do not notice it in our pocket directly. In the case of ink, we are dealing with one of the most expensive liquids in the world.

It is true that it is a liquid that has required a lot of engineering behind and that works consistently, but… its main enemy is the big print runs. Coming in a small cartridge, the amount of ink is reduced, which means it runs out fast. This results in having to buy cartridges every two by three.

Bear in mind that each normal black ink cartridge has an average price of € 18 and the purchase price of a multifunction ink printer is between € 40 and € 70. If we print a lot of documents, we will go to one cartridge per month, even less. In 3 months we will have exceeded the cost of the printer.

However, in laser printers we did not run into this problem because a toner usually costs € 40 or € 50, but we will be able to print more than 1, 000 pages, which means a cost of 2.7 cents per page.

In conclusion, if you are going to print long runs, laser printer; If you are going to print in color and small quantity, ink printer.

Print speed

This factor usually matters more to companies than to those who have a printer at home. In an office, speed and quality are required in printing, which is guaranteed by lasers. The ink or laser printer differs in 10 seconds between printing black and white documents.

When it comes time to compare speeds in photo printing, the injection speed takes the jack to the water.

Size

Finally, it would be nice to assess not only the functions or performance of the ink or laser printer, but the size of the printer. Everyone does not have enough space to host such a product, so we will value the size as well.

Obviously, a normal printer is not the same as a multifunction printer, the latter being much larger. That said, laser MFPs are usually bigger and heavier than injection molding. This is for the components that the laser printer contains.

We recommend multifunction ink for small spaces because they are more compact and complete. If we do not have this problem, there is no problem to buy a laser printer.

That said, the best advice we can give you is to measure the space in which the printer will go and check the dimensions of the printer before buying it.

So far our guide on which ink or laser printer to choose. We hope it has been helpful and do not hesitate to comment on your impressions and questions below.