This is a bit late, but I'm case some of you are planning to use your tax refund check to buy a printer, I want to clear up some conflicting advice from tech websites.
Here's what they leave out when discussing laser vs inkjet: the cost per page for inkjet printers is highly variable based on how frequently you print stuff.
Inkjets have tiny nozzles that squirt ink onto the page. They are small enough that there is a danger that ink will dry up in those nozzles and clog them, resulting in bad image quality. To prevent this, your inkjet has a little sponge inside. If you haven't printed anything in a while, your printer will park the print heads over the sponge and spray ink into the sponge.
So the less frequently you print the more of your ink ends up in the sponge instead of on paper. There is no upward boundary to how much this can increase the cost-per-page of your printer. Your printer could theoretically empty an entire ink cartridge into that sponge, resulting in an infinite cost-per-page.
Laser printers work by melting a dry powder into the page. The cost-per-page is not really affected appreciably by the frequency of printing.
If you print a lot every day, then the cost-per-page for color inkjet is about the same as color laser (at least for consumer-grade printers based on analysis of printers in an office I worked in a couple decades ago [this was in an environment where all printers were used very regularly and relatively little ink from the inkjets ended up in the sponge]). Monochrome laser printers have the lowest cost-per-page, particularly if you buy the more expensive office-grade laser printers.
If printing photos is important to you, inkjet printers produce better quality color photo images, particularly if you use the expensive glossy paper.
Hope that helps
Here's what they leave out when discussing laser vs inkjet: the cost per page for inkjet printers is highly variable based on how frequently you print stuff.
Inkjets have tiny nozzles that squirt ink onto the page. They are small enough that there is a danger that ink will dry up in those nozzles and clog them, resulting in bad image quality. To prevent this, your inkjet has a little sponge inside. If you haven't printed anything in a while, your printer will park the print heads over the sponge and spray ink into the sponge.
So the less frequently you print the more of your ink ends up in the sponge instead of on paper. There is no upward boundary to how much this can increase the cost-per-page of your printer. Your printer could theoretically empty an entire ink cartridge into that sponge, resulting in an infinite cost-per-page.
Laser printers work by melting a dry powder into the page. The cost-per-page is not really affected appreciably by the frequency of printing.
If you print a lot every day, then the cost-per-page for color inkjet is about the same as color laser (at least for consumer-grade printers based on analysis of printers in an office I worked in a couple decades ago [this was in an environment where all printers were used very regularly and relatively little ink from the inkjets ended up in the sponge]). Monochrome laser printers have the lowest cost-per-page, particularly if you buy the more expensive office-grade laser printers.
If printing photos is important to you, inkjet printers produce better quality color photo images, particularly if you use the expensive glossy paper.
Hope that helps
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