Printer Battle: Inkjet Printer vs Laser Printer.

Printer Battle: Inkjet Printer vs Laser Printer. 

Since we all have so many ideas about what a printer does, what is a printer? We are not starting this article with the definition. It is not possible to meet all kinds of needs with a printer in case of a disaster. Someone just has to do a slide print, someone has a start photo, someone has a color document or someone has to do everything. That is why various types of printers are available in the market.

The two most common technologies are inkjet and laser

Also, a few more types like thermal, dot printer, etc will be out of today's discussion

The price of both inkjet and laser technologies is quite affordable and at the same time we have to suffer from extreme dilemma when buying a printer due to some advantages and disadvantages. So today's article will discuss the pulse stars of both as much as possible so that you can easily decide which one to buy.

Let's get to work. So let's start our main discussion.

How does it work?

Here is the distribution of some theoretical knowledge so that the front sections become a little more straightforward. Even if you don't like your theoretical twist, you can skip this part.

How does an inkjet printer work?

Cartridges are used to print inkjet printers. Well, if the cartridge is a small box so that there is ink. There are mainly two types of cartridges. One contains black ink and the other contains magenta, yellow, cyan ink or ink. Some companies use separate cartridges in their printers instead of combining the three types of ink in color cartridges.

This cartridge can move from one side to the other on a page. The cartridge has a printhead, a small hole in the diameter of the printhead that is smaller in diameter than our hair. Inside the cartridge is a heating element on the print head that can be heated by an electric signal. Now when heat is applied to the heating element, the ink boils and creates a bubble or photo-like bubble that comes out through the nozzle inside the print head. Usually 1 lakh bubbles are released every second during print.
I hope the matter will be clearer when you see the picture below.

Updated version of Inkjet Printer - Ink Tank

The main problem with Inkjet printers is that they have a very low ink capacity. Due to which the ink of the cartridge runs out after printing some pages. To overcome so many problems, extra tanks are provided with the printer where there is much more capacity than the cartridge. Ink from these tanks can flow continuously through the pipe to the cartridge. As a result, you can get rid of the hassle of frequent cartridge change.

Does laser printer work?

The operation of a laser printer is very complicated. This is the only thing that needs to be written separately to perfectly explain. So only basic ideas are given.

Laser printers are basically printed with toner. Toner does not contain ink or ink liquid but in powder form. What will be printed is mirrored by a laser light beam? That laser is reflected from the mirror and falls into the drum. ঐ Powder from toner is given to the drum so that a replica of what needs to be printed on the drum is made. Then when the paper is taken to the bottom of the drum the replica of the drum moves to the paper. This process is much faster.

Some Printer Terms You Don't Know -

This section will discuss some of the terms that apply to both inkjet/laser

Cost per page: To put it bluntly, how much does it cost to print each page? It is often given in the specification. Even if it is not given, you can easily take it out. The price of the cartridge/toner can be easily found by dividing the number of pages that can be printed.

Print per minute: How many pages can be printed per minute. It is measured in PPM unit.

Paper size: A4, Legal, Letter, there are many types of the page size. There are also different types of paper. When buying a printer it is important to see if it is supported according to your requirements.

Connectivity: Wired / Wireless supported.

Print Resolution: This is basically a resolution measurement unit. A calculation is done dpi means Dots Per Inch. The higher the dpi, the clearer and more vivid the print.

Moreover, it is important to consider the size of the printer, how many papers can be put together in the tray for printing, duty, bicycle, warranty and power consumption etc.

Which one for whom? Inkjet or laser

Let's start with the most important point. This is why we are most confused.
This section will discuss the advantages/disadvantages of both inkjet/ink tank and laser printers. It is hoped that this will help you reach a final decision.

Note: The price of color laser printers is several times higher than the price of monochrome (black and white) laser printers and due to low availability in our country's market, color laser printers have been left out of this discussion. The laser printer here means a monochrome laser printer.

Inkjet vs. Laser: Initially Purchase Price + Cartridge / Toner

The upfront cost of an inkjet printer is very low. According to the market price of our country, the price of the lowest inkjet printer is 3 thousand rupees. On the other hand, the upfront cost of laser printer is almost double, which is 6 thousand rupees.

But the main problem with inkjet printers is that after printing 100-150 pages, the ink of the cartridge runs out and then a new cartridge has to be installed. It is often seen that the price of a black + color cartridge is close to or equal to the price of a new printer. Laser printer toner, on the other hand, costs less than an inkjet printer if you calculate the cost per page.

Many of you know about ink tank system to overcome the problem of frequent cartridge change of inkjet printer. But the thing is that the price of the printer of Inktank system is again the lowest HP printer that can be obtained than the laser printer, the price is around 9 thousand rupees. According to the models of Epson, Canon & Brother, it is more about 13-14 thousand. The price of the original refill bottle is within reach because the cost per calculation is much lower than that of the ink tank printer.

Footnote: Third-party ink tanks can be installed by purchasing ink tank printers. But it will have a warranty and degrade the printing quality. This issue was not considered as it is officially supported.

Inkjet vs. Laser: Speed ​​(ppm) + Quality (dpi)

Straight talk is that the quality of inkjet/ink tank printer is good for a special image but the speed is low. On the other hand laser printer speed is high but the quality is not good. While speed is not a major issue for home users, it is an important factor in official work because official printers have a high load and a printer has to be used by many staff at the same time. Laser printers can print text base documents very sharply. For other color printing and gallery photo printing, you must lean towards inkjet/ink tank as an inkjet / ink tank printer gives good quality ink/color ink with color ink. Less.

Inkjet vs. Laser: Maintenance

Cleaning or troubleshooting of inkjet/ink tank printers has to be done more as the printhead of the cartridge is jammed, printhead alignment, air bubble in the pipes of the ink tank printer and ink drying if not used for some time have to be encountered. Less.

In addition, the size of the printer, the noise during printing, etc., are not largely dependent on inkjet and laser printing technology, but rather on the manufacturer and model.

In this article every effort has been made to bring together as many topics as possible in one place. However, there is a special request to inform if any point is missed. Another thing is that if you have given any wrong information in this article, you must report it. That will be corrected.