Every office needs a printer. But when it’s time to buy a printer, which one is best? For some businesses, an inkjet printer is the way to go and for others, laser is the right choice. So how do you know which one is best for your office?
There are a number of factors to consider before you make your purchase. Most of the printers on the market today come with a variety of features and capacities that only get more wide-ranging and complicated as the price goes up. Not everyone in your office will appreciate or even utilize all of these perks and capabilities, so the purchase of the unit will have to depend on the basic needs of those who will be using the printer most often.
Those of you who are contemplating a variety of office printers in Richmond are likely eager to whittle down your potential choices before making your purchase.
Without further ado, here are the pros and cons to buying an inkjet or laser printer for your office. Once you see how each is broken down as to their ideal purpose and functionality, you can then make your selection.
Picking One over the Other
So which is it, inkjet or laser? The differences between the two lie mainly in the printing process that is used for putting text or images on paper. But even more pertinent in making your decision is the extent of use you can expect the unit to take.
One type is also better for photos and images than the other, which is better suited for printing out pages of text. Most high-end printers can handle both equally as well, yet one is certainly a better option if you happen to print more photos or more text.
Let’s take a look at the advantages that lie with each type of printer and then you can select the right printer for your office.
Inkjet Printers
As you may have surmised, ink is the primary element in the printing process of your documents or photos. The machine is built with high-powered jets that spray tiny dots of ink onto the paper you have loaded into it.
The ink is designed to dry quickly and cleanly and these machines can recreate a full spectrum of colors and hues. But one of the bigger disadvantages to inkjet printing is the slightly pixelated image that might be visible due to poorly blended dots. This is usually a difficult thing to see unless you are specifically looking for this kind of finishing.
You won’t find this problem with the expensive units but even the less expensive options typically don’t demonstrate extreme pixelization at first glance. Just be sure to let the ink dry completely before you start to touch or handle the paper you’ve used to print that text or image.
What makes these printers the better choice for your office? This type is perfect in an office setting that does not maintain a high print volume each and every day. The occasional print out, maybe a few photos once in awhile, these are the standards of use that make an inkjet printer the better, smarter choice for your office environment.
Laser Printers
The first thing you need to know about laser printers is that they do not use ink to reproduce text or images but use toner instead.
Toner is a form of powdered ink that the machine heats up and applies to the page. But once this ink hits the paper it is never wet and, therefore, won’t smear or smudge when you touch the page.
But with this form of ink comes some limitations, namely a restriction on your printer’s color palette output. Some consumers complain that the colors and shades themselves are somewhat dulled and lack the shiny luster of real ink in an inkjet printer. On the flip side, this form of ink is applied smooth and clean all but eliminating the pixelization you can sometimes detect with inkjet machines.
Yet even with the superior blending capabilities the reduced color palette of laser makes it the less ideal choice for printing photos. If you plan on doing more of that in your office, inkjet is your best bet. But if it’s primarily text documents produced under high print volumes and routine use by every member of your staff, then laser is the right choice.
So how much print volume does your office typically yield in a week, a month, a year? That can also be a helpful barometer for choosing one over the other.
