by Alexander Darracott

Created on: July 21, 2011

The battle between inkjets and lasers rages on relentlessly as they compete against each other to dominate the home and business environments.  It is becoming clear that the battle is not as clear cut as it was years ago when lasers were the printers who outperformed inkjets at every level, except for photographic printing.  Inkjets are becoming more comparable to lasers particularly the cheaper models.  Before considering an inkjet, it is important to understand why they are better than lasers in some respects.

Cheaper unit costs

Inkjets are cheaper than laser printers per unit costs.  They are therefore ideal for the general users on a general budget.  Those who are not on a general budget and need the most expensive printers can be assured that the performance of the latest inkjets is catching up if not already equal to the cheapest lasers.

Better at printing photos

Inkjets are far better at printing full coloured photos and managing colour gradients than lasers.  This is because inkjets come with an assortment of different coloured inks.  There are inkjets that come with variants of black and grey cartridges, therefore producing beautiful greyscale photos.  There are also inkjets that come with an assortment of colours and variants of these colours therefore handling gradient colours better than lasers.  The quality of photo prints further increaseif the inkjet is able to read the header files of a photo file.

Suitable for home networking

Inkjets are excellent as networking devices for users who have general printing requirements.  Users can also access printers directly using Bluetooth enabled devices or a digital camera through using PictBridge.  This is assuming that the printer has these connectivity features.   Because of the wireless networking capability, this will also save unit costs and running costs. 

Versatile printing types

Due to slower paper feed, inkjets can handle a range of paper styles from the cheap and recycled to the high quality paper and photographic paper.  Lasers have faster paper feed therefore paper jams can occur more frequently when using cheaper paper. Not only this, inkjets can print out envelopes, and CD and DVD labels.  Lasers are not able to print out CD or DVD labels.

Less maintenance

Inkjets require less cleaning than lasers, and they do not have paper jams as often.  Also, when an ink cartridge runs out all that needs replacing is the empty ink cartridge.  With a laser, both the toner cartridge and drum usually have to be replaced.  Maintenance of lasers can be higher particularly if cheaper or recycled paper is used as these can cause higher levels of paper jams.  Constant paper jams can degrade and even damage components of a laser printer.  Additionally, there are fairly strict rules and guidelines to remove paper jams from laser printers therefore the process is more complex than inkjets.  

Cheaper unit costs and the diversity of printer paper handling make inkjet printers ideal for the general home users with general printing requirements.  Inkjets are particularly cost effective if a group of home users have similar general requirements as they could print from the same printer.  More importantly, inkjets are much better at handling photo printing than lasers therefore are perfect for professional photographers.

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