Cost-effectiveness for Inkjet and Laser Toner reconsidered

One of the most important considerations when deciding whether to go for inkjet or laser printing is exactly what sort of printing is going to be done and how this is going to be used by employees or customers. Put simply, inkjet is more expensive but produces higher-quality graphics while laser toner is much cheaper, but is suitable for more frequent printing, especially if the pages are primarily black and white.

The reason this has truly become important is because, over the last few years, laser printers have been able to shrink to the point where they can be purchased and used by the average home or business without taking up an incredible amount of space. Early laser printers, in fact, were so massive that only larger businesses could realistically manage to fit them somewhere and get enough use out of them to make the cost worthwhile. This trend is actually very common when technology advances; like cell phones, early models are often larger and less capable than those that are developed later once the original idea has been proven.

With the lowered prices on printers reaching the point where consumers can actually afford either version, it’s important to have a good grasp of which products are truly the best value. Inkjet printers remain less expensive than laser printers, often several times over, making them a much easier investment for anyone who intends to do only a small amount of printing over time. In fact, even the higher cost of replacement cartridges (when not purchased from a discount ink supplier) doesn’t stop an inkjet printer from being more cost-effective for the casual user.

In contrast, while laser cartridges tend to be significantly more expensive than inkjet, they also tend to print much more; some may print as many as 3500 pages before running out (depending on various factors) while the average inkjet will only print about two hundred pages. This disparity is part of what helps laser printers be considerably more effective on a per-page basis, and the savings are greater the more printing is actually done.

Toner Cartridge (From SChermpeter42 on Flickr)

With the life cycles of printers being extended (among other things, better printing speeds mean that some businesses need fewer printers and are getting more use out of the ones they have), laser printing is an increasingly viable option for smaller businesses that may have previously hesitated when looking at the price tag. Of course, the development of technology can be unpredictable, but current trends suggest that laser is likely to remain the printing type of choice for businesses and anyone who prints a lot of text, while inkjet’s superior image quality is more likely to place it in the homes of those who just want to print out the occasional family picture.

Finally, keep in mind that most price comparisons are done with average store prices, not with the discounts that special retailers like TomatoInk are able to provide; with the available savings, both inkjet and laser printers can be extremely viable for just about anyone.

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