What are the differences between ink and laser printers?

Answer 1

well, I think that laser print is better because the printing comes out crisper and clearer Laser print lasts longer, looks better and won't smear if it gets wet. Laser printers are faster than inkjets, and toner has fewer noxious chemicals in it than ink does. The drawbacks all have dollar signs in front of them--the machine is more expensive, and the toner cartridges cost more money. (You come out ahead with the toner, tho, because a set of cartridges lasts longer than a set of inkjet cartridges.)

Answer 2

Lasers are alot more - Original Answer

My Answer:

Inkjet printers work with liquid ink. When you hit print, the print heads in the machine actually spray the ink through the print heads onto the paper. This is why sometimes, depending on what kind of paper you use, heavily colored or print outs with large sections of all black will come out of the printer and still be a little wet to the touch.

Laserjet printers work with powder toner in larger cartridges and uses a heat and magnet process to adhere the powder toner to the paper.

Yes, generally laserjets are more expensive, however the toner can last for a much longer period of time and usually have faster printing speeds than inkjets.

Most home users will not want to spend the kind of money for a laser, and if they don't do a lot of quantity printing at a time, their little inkjets work out OK for them.

Small to medium sized businesses will use lasers to cut on cost and time.

Answer 3

Chosing a printer depends on your needs. For the average casual home printer an inkjet printer is more than sufficient. You can print photo-qulaity images or just print off work for the office or school.

Answer 4

The quality comparison of inkjet to laser printers highly depends on what kind of outcome you are trying to achieve. Typically laser printers are used because of their speed and high quality, but with inkjet very good quality can be produced using the right quality paper and of course the right printer. Inkjets are more practical for more casual use if the printer will be getting constant use or use for professional grade projects a laser printer is definitely the more practical decision.

Answer 5

It all really depends what type of printing you are doing. For black and white printing, the laser jet printing is the best choice. For regular type of printing, there really isn't a difference between the two.

Answer 6

That is going to depend entirely on which printer you get, what sort of printing you want to do and how much printing you do.

A laser printers' toner (ink cartridges) are a lot more expensive than the individual ink cartridges of an ink jet, but lasts a lot longer. Also you don't have the issues of the ink drying out or clogged jets like you do with an ink jet. My ink jet would use a lot of ink just running the cleaning cycles in preparation to print, requiring me to replace them almost monthly. Perhaps if I printed more often this wouldn't have been an issue. With a laser printer, you turn it on and it's ready to go, no matter how long it's been inactive. Toner also doesn't run or bleed if it gets wet.

Usually the print quality of a high end ink jet is better, especially if you are looking for a photo printer, and the ink jets cartridges are usually less expensive, especially compared to the color lasers toner cartridges.

That said, I just purchased a color laser for under $200 and I find the print to be pretty high quality. To me it has already paid for itself in saving me the frustration of running cleaning cycles and print head alignments.

I haven't done enough printing with my color laser yet to get an idea of how many pages I can print with a set or toner carts.

Answer 7

A laser printer is better for big print jobs. Laser printers tend to be more expensive then inkjets, but do not use as much ink per page. You will use more ink per page with an inkjet printer, which means spending more for ink. If you tend to print color photos the inkjets will give you a nicer print.

Answer 8

It depends on what your are using it for. An inkjet is better for color photographs and a laserjet is better for black and white documents.

Answer 9

Laser printers have a higher resolution, but ink-jet printers are cheaper to re-fill.