by Alexander Darracott

Created on: July 21, 2011   Last Updated: May 22, 2012

Comparing laser jets to inkjets has been a continuous topic for many years, and no doubt will be as inkjet printers’ performance continues to improve.   Over the past few years, they have caught up with the standard of cheaper laser models.   It is important to be introduced to the basic differences between the two, however, to begin to decide which printer might suit particular user requirements.

• Cost

Laser printers are generally more expensive than inkjet printers.  The least expensive inkjets start at around £40 whereas the cheapest laser printers start at around a hundred or a couple of hundred pounds.  The running costs, which include toner, ink cartridges and printing paper, is much lower with laser printing than inkjet printing on a per page basis.

High quality laser printers might offer lower running costs for professional photographers, but the quality would be much lower compared to a high quality photo printer.  Writers, researchers, community leaders and business owners would benefit more from a laser printer because of the lower running costs compared to an inkjet printer.

• Text output

Laser printers offer higher quality text output, even using cheaper laser models and cheap paper quality.  Lasers offer best quality for small text printing, due to the way in which the fusion technology works.  Inkjet printers are perfect for text printing jobs where quality is not of essential importance, as long as large volume of printing is not required.

• Photo output

Laser printers are ok for solid colour printing such as coloured text, charts, graphs and newsletters, but are not suitable for photography unless they are of the highest quality, and highly expensive, models.  Inkjet printers and, especially, photo printers, offer better quality photo output, due to the multiple different coloured inks and different gradients of inks.  The multiple ink cartridges and variants of inks provide accurate reproductions of colour gradients in photos.  Even better results can be obtained with photo printing paper.

• Printing quantity

Laser printers have been built to meet the needs of users who often need to print out large quantities of work.  Lasers are therefore ideal for business owners who print lots of brochures, newsletters and catalogues, and for students or writers who print out lots of literature, draft and professional copies of their work.

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