How Your Choice of Printer Affects Your Spending on Toner or Ink Cartridges
Business, multifunctional, and home printers all require either toner or ink cartridges to ensure top-quality prints. Without these, the printers are nothing other than space-filling devices. Since cartridges do get depleted over time, the one given you have as a printer owner is that you will need to replace the cartridges from time to time.
Knowing which cartridges to buy and how to get the most from these consumables will help you get the best value for money. Below are a few tips to help make the process easier, ensuring your decision helps you to save money, get the best-quality prints, and lower your environmental impact.
Understand the Range of Printers
If you already have a printer, you most probably already know in which category it falls and which cartridges to buy, unless you have not yet ordered consumables for the particular type or types of printers in your office. If you are still contemplating which printers to buy in order to save on the monthly cost of cartridges, you will want to learn more about the printer types.
Although other types of printers, such as LED and 3D also exist, we consider the ones you are most likely to use in the general office or home-office environment.
Let us start with the laser printer as it is also the most common type to be found in the office environment. Instead of using a jet nozzle system whereby the liquid is sprayed onto the print surface, this type uses laser for heating and fusing the toner powder with the print surface. It is a bit more complicated, but this explains the technology difference between the inkjet and the laser in the simplest terms. Laser printers use toner, which is a powder-like pigment substance. Due to the technology, these printers are fast and generally more economical than the inkjet types. If you are looking for a cost-saving print solution for large volume document printing, then the laser type is the answer. You will thus order toner instead of ink with this type.
Inkjet printers used in the business environment are generally robust in design to handle the high print volume. These units are capable of exceptional detail printing and are thus generally used for image print jobs. These types are generally more affordable than the laser types, but you most probably will have to replace ink cartridges more often than would be the case with toner required by laser printers. Because these printers are used for image, graph, and presentation printing, they require colour cartridges.
With many people now working from home, the home office printer has become an essential tool. With these types, one can choose between laser and inkjet, based on the types of prints to be completed. The cartridges for the inkjet types are cheaper than those for large-scale business printing because they contain less liquid and are smaller. These printers are generally not designed for speed but can provide exceptional detailed prints.
Multifunctional printers come in different sizes. You get the ones suitable for home-office use and then the rather sophisticated types suitable for complex tasks as required in the business environment. These units require larger cartridges and perform functions ranging from copying and printing to faxing and scanning.
The more complex types come with sorters, stapling ability, and several output formats. Some types come with wireless capability, enabling the user to send print jobs from their computer or mobile device. Businesses now buy or rent multifunctional printers to replace several machines in the office, thereby reducing their administration load in terms of consumable ordering. This also helps to reduce maintenance costs and electricity usage.
Where to Get the Best Deals?
If you operate outside a service agreement, you most probably have to buy ink and toner from time to time. You will be glad to know that we stock a comprehensive range and can deliver to your doorstep. You can save even more money by making use of our print management solutions and service agreements. We rent and sell a range of business and multifunctional printers as well. Get in touch for help in choosing cartridges and for maximum savings on print overheads with our print management solutions.