IT Printer Technology

Difference Between Laser Printer and Inkjet Printer

Laser Printer vs Inkjet Printer

Summary: Difference Between Laser Printer and Inkjet Printer is that Laser printer is a high-quality, high-speed type of non-impact printer. They use individual sheets of paper that are stored in one or more removable tray that slide in the printer case when they work with personal computers. While Ink-jet printer is a type of non-impact printer which sprays tiny drops of liquid ink onto a piece of paper to form graphics and characters.

Difference Between Laser Printer and Inkjet Printer

Laser Printer

Laser printer is a high-quality, high-speed type of non-impact printer. They use individual sheets of paper that are stored in one or more removable tray that slide in the printer case when they work with personal computers. They can print graphics and text easily in high-quality resolutions which ranges from 1200-2400 dpi. Laser printers are more costly than ink-jet printers but that are some models available at affordable prices for home user. They can print faster as compared to ink-jet printers. Manufacturers of printers state that laser printer for home and small business user typically prints black and white text at the speed of 15-62 ppm. Color laser printers print 8-40 ppm but laser printers for large businesses print more than 150 ppm.

For small office user and home user laser printer cost ranges from few hundred dollars to few thousand dollars but the cost depend on the quality, speed and type of laser printer. And laser printers for large businesses can cost several thousand dollars. Color laser printers can be slightly higher priced otherwise they costs equivalent to black-and-white laser printers. They operate similar to a copy machine, laser printer uses a laser beam and powdered link to create images. Laser beam and powdered ink called toner. B&W laser printers use one toner cartridge but color printers use multiple cartridges. One cartridge for black and one or more cartridges for colors, when toner runs out, you replace the toner.

Inkjet Printer

Ink-jet printer is a type of non-impact printer which sprays tiny drops of liquid ink onto a piece of paper to form graphics and characters. They become very popular in color printers for use in home. They produce graphics and text in both black-and-white and can produce color text and graphics on different variety of papers. Reasonable ink-jet printer costs less than $100.

The quality of an ink-jet printer can be determined by its resolution. Printer resolution can be measured by measuring the number of dots per inch (dpi) a printer can print. Most printers can print 1200-4800 dpi. And the speed of an ink-jet printer is measured by number of pages per minute (ppm) it can print. The speed of most ink-jet printers is from 12-36 ppm but they print graphics and colors at a slower rate.

Print head mechanism used in ink-jet printer contains ink-filled cartridges, in which each cartridge has fifty to hundreds of small ink holes or nozzles. The ink is released through any of the nozzles to form desired image or character on paper. When the cartridge is out of ink you, the cartridge is simply replaced by new cartridge. Most ink-printers have two or more ink cartridges: one cartridge contains only black ink and other cartridges contain colors. The number of ink cartridge a printer require and the cost of the cartridge are two things you need to consider when purchasing a printer. Some buyers reduce the expense of cartridges by purchasing refilled or empty cartridges refilled by a third party vendor.

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