Which Printer Cartridge is for You?
There is a vast range of different printers, from units capable of printing massive outdoor billboard graphics to those that print labels for marking electrical distribution boards. Almost all the print technologies on offer have some form of consumable material that is generically referred to as “ink”. The ink is used to produce an image or alpha-numeric print onto a substrate. Inks are often contained in specially designed enclosures that only fit into a specific machine or range of machines. An enclosure of this type is referred to as a printer cartridge.
Although printers use a variety of inks, from inks with a water-like consistency to solid blocks of pigmented wax, there are two print technologies that most people will commonly encounter. If you are looking for an office or home machine, chances are it will be either an inkjet or a laser printer.
Inkjet Versus Laser
What are the differences between inkjet and laser printer cartridges? Although there’s a degree of overlap in terms of the environments that the two technologies are aimed at, they produce prints in a fundamentally different manner. Inkjet printer cartridges are simple reservoirs of wet ink where the reservoir is designed to enable a precise mechanical fit with the machine for which it is intended. A laser printer cartridge is a far more complex unit containing a complete mechanism of gears, rollers, a receptacle for toner, a photosensitive drum, seals, and flaps. The toner (the laser equivalent of ink) in a laser printer cartridge is a dry, ultra-fine polymer (plastic) powder mixed with pigment.
Not only are the cartridges and ink different between the two technologies, but the manner in which the print is produced is totally divergent for inkjet and laser. Inkjet units spray microscopically small droplets of wet ink onto the print surface in an accurately controlled manner. The ink either soaks into the surface or dries on the surface depending on the nature of the substrate being used. This allows inkjet devices to produce subtle tonal variations and blend colours extremely accurately. Inkjet devices are capable of printing photorealistic graphics on a wide variety of paper types, including very high gloss papers.
Lasers produce prints by attracting the dry toner particles electrostatically onto a photosensitive drum which the laser has transferred the image to. The dry plastic powder is then melted onto the print surface with a combination of heat and pressure. Toner-based printing technology is best for higher-volume, lower-quality print applications. Where high-quality, graphic-intensive prints are required, inkjet machines will be superior.
Which Technology for You?
Laser and inkjet printers come in a vast range of sizes for an array of different applications. Some lasers can produce over 140 A4 black-and-white prints a minute but are four or five meters in length. There are large-format inkjet printers that are capable of producing prints two meters wide and meters in length. For most office applications, a comparison of desktop or small standalone versions of the technologies capable of printing A4- and possibly A3-size sheets will provide a more realistic comparison.
Toner-based consumables will typically be more expensive than ink-based consumables. This is, however, offset by the fact that toner-based printer cartridges are capable of printing far more prints per unit. The only sensible method of making a meaningful cost comparison is to reduce the cost of the ink or toner to a cost per print. Take the best cost per print and the type of print output required and make an informed decision.
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